One of the nice things about Mom’s house is just hanging around. We go on little excursions, exercise the dogs in the pool, hang around with friends and family, and just plain relax in comfort. Compared to cruising this life is easy. The first day after Rice Lake we had a photo shoot at a local park with my brother and his family.
Mom had fun dressing us all up in jewelry and bling for the photos. The girls colored their hair and put on make up. The house has one bathroom and everyone was fighting for the mirror.
Another favorite outing is Burchfield Park and the Buffalo Creek. The shallow water flows over large flat slabs of shale. The kids can submerge themselves in the occasional holes, and flip over rocks looking for crawfish.
The shoreline has plenty of shade trees and flat shale to sit on.
Under the Union Rd. bridge there is a fairly deep fishing hole for Roy.
The creek is always a fun day, we just never have enough time to spend the entire day.
Those crazy sisters team up with their pals and get into mischief. The dogs never make out very well when they are the girl’s target. Poor JJ often gets dressed up.
Martin’s Fantasy Island on Grand Island is a great little amusement park. We went with Kelly, my pal since we were 13, her girls and Maria, whose mom I’ve known since 4th grade. I love this park because the tickets are reasonably priced, it’s small enough to get on all the rides, the lines are short, you can bring a cooler with your own lunch, and they have a great water park.
My Mom’s street ends at a wooded area between us and the freeway. At the end of the street we regularly see animals like deer and Turkey roaming around. When I was a kid there was also a fairly large pond that we would ice skate on all winter.
On the weekend when Eric isn’t slaving away at the computer and the rest of us aren’t struggling to get a minimum amount of book education into those kids, we get to go on field trips.
Buffalo is at the south end of the 35 mile long Niagara River. Half way up the river is Grand Island and Niagara Falls, and then the water flows 325 feet lower the rest of the way to Lake Ontario. This is a perfect situation to use the Falls’ awesome power to create electricity. The visitor center does a great job explaining how water is diverted upstream of Niagara Falls through a 4 mile pipeline to the power plant where it flows through turbines which light up the grid.
The visitor center also had great displays explaining how electricity works. No matter how many times it’s explained to me and how many displays I read, the whole idea of amps, watts, and Ohms just escapes me. It’s a good thing Eric is an Electrical Engineer, he can teach that course when the time comes.
I love this picture of Father Hennepin at Niagara Falls in 1678.
After the New York Power Authority Visitor Center tour we headed up the road to the other end of the Niagara River and Old Fort Niagara. This fort has guarded the north entrance to the Niagara River since 1826 and has been occupied by the French, British and Americans. It also played a role in the lives of nearby Canadians and the Iroquois Nation.
We always get to enjoy at least one evening and Jim and Ania’s house. They set up a very civilized camp fire in their back yard with comfortable furniture, tasty snacks and cocktails. This evening after a great dinner and game of Apples to Apples, we told scary stories by the fire.
We also enjoy evenings at Kelly and Bernie’s house. Kelly and I have been pals since we were 13 years old. They have a fun backyard. A swing set, adult sized tree house in an old elm tree, a trampoline, garden, pool, pool table, and Bernie’s bar. We sit around the bar, on cold nights he builds a cozy fire, have tasty dinners, and watch the kids play. A new activity in their yard is sprinkling hose and soap on the trampoline. Everyone got all bubbly, rinsed off and went for a swim. That’s the cleanest the girls have been all summer.
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At my Mom’s house the usual bunch of girlies look for mischief. I can never keep up with them. They go from one activity to the next.
First there is hose jump roping in the front yard, then spa treatments in the back yard.
Finally after an exhausted day of cleaning up after girls, we headed off to Maria’s Mom’s house near Lake Erie. This is where Eighteen Mile Creek meets Lake Erie. They get in a little raft to paddle across the creek to the beach on the other side.
Visiting Kelly’s Dad is great fun. He has several acres near farmlands. The girls get a ride down the path to the creek and around the pond.
Roy gets quiet time to fish in Dick’s stocked pond.
Catch and Release is the name of the game here. Since this pond was stocked several years ago the fish have been growing. They are easily caught and all a nice size which brings satisfaction to the fishermen.
After fishing in a stocked pond, Jim took Roy to his secret spot on the Genessee River. This river runs 157 miles from the northern edge of Pennsylvania through Rochester and into Lake Ontario. My Father learned about this location from his uncle, it was then passed to my brother and now Roy gets to fish there as well.
Roy’s fishing hobby has given him a chance to explore the great outdoors.
In around 1970 the Jakubowski family lived with their Grandmother next to the apartment we lived in. Since then we had many family picnics as children, my Mom spent the last several winters in Florida with Paulette and Joe, and we have great summer picnics at their property in East Otto.
Our favorite BBQ is a trash can turkey. The bird is mounted on a post with coals around it and on top of the can. After about two hours the bird is crispy, smokey and moist.
The kids enjoy riding ATVs around the paths on their property.
Roy got to fish in the pond and the dogs swam and swam and swam.
Plenty of critters can be found. Everything from snakes and hornets to toads and salamanders.
The girls start thinking about their Halloween costumes on November 1st. By the time Halloween rolls around they’ve changed their minds a dozen times and sometime in September I lock in the decision by sewing them up.
Now our vacation is ending. Eric left to do boat projects in peace without us trampling on his tools. Soon we’ll join him and get going on sewing projects. We have several adventures planned for September as well. We’ll visit places like Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Kitty Hawk, Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Corning, and any other interesting place in our path. Then back to Buffalo to retrieve Topaz who will be staying with Mom while we tour museums. Eric is posting photos of some of his projects, so look for repair and replace posts.