August 19, 2004
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2004 USA Trip 8/2004
(There must be more pictures of this trip. I can't locate them in my outer hard drives, so maybe they are on a CD rom someplace. Yep, I found the CD rom, so I will probably be adding to this.)
I made a brief trip back to Schenectady from August 19-27, an all too brief visit. It was the first time for me to leave the immediate family all alone, and they decided that a week was as long as they could stand to be without regular service.
The first picture is of an airplane sunset, to be followed a few hours later by a hasty sunrise.
8/22
Upon arrival I was whisked off to the Hall of Springs in Saratoga for a buffet meal and a concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It was dark inside the hall so I did not get any good pictures, but the ladies' washroom struck me as charming, so I will share a picture that one half of the population would never get to see!
This is Mr. Brandt from church, who taught both me and my kids to shoot. He was also my Sunday School teacher for awhile. I was glad to see him and his family well!
8/24
After church, it's back to Saratoga for lunch at the Gideon Putnam, another delicious buffet in a vintage building! All those in the pictures, you know who you are. Dale's oldest son was my boy friend of sorts way back when we were in junior high school, and I knew "Mr. Pennings" as a tall, quiet, hardworking, serious gentleman. He is still tall, hardworking and serious, but it was very nice to rediscover him as not entirely quiet and as a serious collector of four wheeled vehicles. Dale took us to one of his favorite hangouts later in the trip.
The last picture was taken just outside the Gideon Putnam.
8/23
My Dad has a job delivering cars, and this day he had to deliver a car to an amusement park on Lake George called The Great Escape. The occasion was a buffet dinner (aren't the tables pretty?) and silent auction for a variety of items to benefit a camp for sick children, and a year's lease for this Toyota Lexus was one of the items on the auction block.
Dad was very careful to check the car out to make sure that it had been delivered in pristine condition which was no easy task considering the fact that he had to drive it though a few mud holes on the way to the auction site. Another item up for auction was a book by a certain NY senator....
I was glad to have been able to get into the amusement park as I had secretly been wanting to take pictures of the merry-go-round there, and never imagined that I would actually get to do it.
Having gotten into the Great Escape grounds free, I was able to wander around and take some pictures Here are the pictures of the merry-go-round at the Great Escape, perhaps not the most exciting topic for some. I love taking pictures of carousels, though, and am glad to be able to add these to the collection. The bunny was my favorite vehicle on the ride.
There was a miniature of this rabbit in a souvenir shop, but it was not as nice as the real thing and a bit heavy, so according to the "u-buy-it, u-haul-it" rule I just brought a few of these home digitally.
8/26
These are pictures of a visit to Tina's house, which was a very pleasant stop. I also got to meet all of the local critters and Ashley's BF, a very nice fellow! The cat was not so happy to see me, so I took its picture under the bed. Ashley's rat is really very nice, and the most polite and friendly rat that I have ever met. Shayne's gerbil looked sleepy, so we left it where it was.
Skylar was definitely not interested in meeting me and was happy to remain under the bed spitting. Skylar would live until Jan. 2014, another 10 healthy, happy years.
