Part Nine, Fort Plain

The next day we went to Fort Plain to visit the cemetery where my grandmother and great grandparents and alot of other family are buried. As I am working on my family tree, we spent alot of time there taking photos and writing down inscriptions. It rained, downpoured actually on our way there and by the time we arrived, it had stopped and started to become nice. Sadly though, I had wanted to take the boys to the Fort Plain Bakery that my grandmother took me to when I was a kid... it was closed with a sign in the window that read (sic) "The Ft. Plain Bakery stood at this location for better than 50 years. It served countless cookies to children. Countless birthday cakes went out of this door. Now it is closed. What will inhabit this location next?" I remember fondly the sugar cookies with spirals of raspberry in them, cinnamon buns and sticky rolls... I had wanted to pass this onto our kids, but now cannot... :(



My grandma.



What is it about the boys and cemeteries? They LOVE running through them.



John Lasher, my great, great, great grandfather. Bizarre to think of my great grandfather's grandfather. Civil War veteran, 115th NY Volunteers, wounded and sent to Andersonville Prison Camp where he had to dig the bullet out of his leg to prevent gangrene. He made the bullet into a watch fob with a band of gold around it with his name and info inscribed on it and passed it onto Clifford Pickard, my great-grandfather. Now, it is a family heirloom that I have.



My great grandparents, Clifford and Helen.



More fields outside of Stone Arabia, stone and brick 18th century houses and nearby more distant family, the Klocks, early Dutch settlers are interred.









Something that I buy almost every time that I get back to NY, a Win For Life scratch off. I won- twice! $10, the ice cream was on me!

Part Eight, South to Fulton County

On our way back from the North Country we traveled down the farm heartland of upper New York. It was a route that I traveled many times with my grandmother on our way to and from Watertown.


Who could forget Lowville and Lloyd's of Lowville?


Outside of Port Leyden there is a preserved section of the Erie Canal alongside a pull-off. It was something that I always had to see while traveling as a teen. And so, the boys and Melissa and I stopped and ran around for awhile.
















The Canada Creek.


These photos just fondly remind me of Upstate NY, coming through Herkimer County and coming eventually into Dolgeville. From there, of course, it was a jump down Route 29 past my high school, Oppenheim-Ephratah Central and onto Gloversville and my mom's.

Part Seven, Gouverneur and the North Country

On our way out of Syracuse, we traveled up to Gouverneur, north of Watertown by about a half hour. It was going to be a long trip in any case, but made a bit longer as I was driving. Getting off from I81, I remembered that I was to take Rte 11 North that would take me directly to Gouverneur. Getting off the exit I saw a sign for Rte 12. As I saw the sign I couldn't quite remember if it was 11 or 12 that I was looking for. Melissa was alseep and so I decided to take 12 figuring that I must have been mistaken about 11. Well, needless to say about 30 minutes later we found ourselves heading northwest towards the Thousand Islands. By the time we got to Alexandria Bay we got back towards Gouverneur.
My grandmother and grandfather lived in Gouverneur once upon a time a long time ago. I went up to Gouverneur to see a house where they lived when I was a teenager. While I also had family in the Watertown/Black River area, we've all fallen out touch. Despite it all, it was nice to be back in that area. But the main reason why went to Gouverneur was to look up my great-grandparents cemetery just outside of Gouverneur at the New St. James Cemetery. I had never been there and had never even met them, but since I am going through my family tree it was an important thing to see.

















Though M thought that all of the photos in the cemetery were sort of macabre, I like them. The boys were happy to run around and Byron communed with his great-great grandparents, Frank and Isabelle, though he was really more interested in the lichen growing on the stone.



And then the boys had to play airplane.











Leaving Gouverneur it was a scenic drive through little out of the way Northern New York towns. We stopped at a Stewarts for ice cream somewhere on Rtes 58/812 (somewhere around Croghan?).











A Jeep in someone's driveway!



Burke's! I wish that we had stopped for some.

A Trip To The Zoo, Part Six

While we were in Syracuse we decided to go to the zoo with M's sister, Jen. Walter loves his aunt and spent most of the day in her company.





While we were there, we saw iguanas,



Alligators,



Turtles,



Birds,



While Walter was fascinated by the dark nocturnal creature exhibits,



It nearly put Byron asleep.



Though he wasn't the only one.



One of Walter's must sees were the bats.



Walter spent some time taking pictures too.







And then there were lions.



Meercats...





Surly looking monkeys.



Leapin' lemurs,



Lawn decorations...



Actually, some pretty hardy flamingoes.



I mean, these tropical birds have gotten used to Syracuse winters... (or is this spring?)



Walter and Jennifer looking at the bird lady...



The bird lady with a barn owl.



Walter and Jennifer!



And there were goats!



I'm not sure if this sign applied to the goats...



...or the donkeys.



There was an elephant.



Lions...





...and penguins!







Some were larger than others...





And even the occasional woodchuck.







Walter got to ride a Siberian Tiger.







Somehow we were transported to Siberia...



But even the tigers thought that we were in Syracuse on a HOT early spring day.