Onondaga Lake, Salt Museum & Other Offbeat Attractions

Today, Mike cooked for us. This was the main course.

Next we headed over to the must-see museum of Liverpool, New York-The Salt Museum!

The salt drilling rig drops a heavy bit into the ground about 20 times a minute, creating a hole six inches in diameter. The drilling rigs drill to about 400 feet searching for brine.

These kettles were used by salt boilers to boil brine. This was a dangerous job as injury or death could result from a scalding splash of brine or a fall into a kettle of boiling brine.

Lisa is grateful she doesn't work as a salt boiler. She would not want to die falling into a kettle.

The Salt Museum is located within Onondaga Lake State Park.

In the park, you can take a free, relaxing tram tour.

You can also pay to rent one of these and take your own tour.

Which do you think we did? Watch the video below.
The other mode of transport DOES look fun, though.

Next we headed to Syracuse to find some of the offbeat roadside attractions we had found in our internet research.

This house is built on the roof of the now-abandoned Penfield Manufacturing Company.

Do you see anything wrong with this stop light?

At least yellow is still in the middle.

New York's version of Mickey Mouse is Tully Turtle. As the owner of Tully's, Tully promises great food and good times...not good food and great times.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/june/our-final-day-with-/ .

To be continued...

Fort Ontario State Historic Site

Today we visited the Fort Ontario State Historic Site with Mike.

Built between 1842 and 1844, this was one of two houses which served as Officers' Quarters at Fort Ontario.

The furnishings of the buildings recreate the lives of the officers, enlisted men and civilians who lived here around 1868.

Apparently, mosquito netting was a must at bedtime.

The vertical openings in the wall of the powder magazine provide ventilation to the storage chamber and an air space under the wooden floor.

Mike demonstrates his fort defense methods.

If not covered properly, the openings in these underground casements built during the Civil War era provide easy access to small critters.

While down in one of the casements, Doug ran into Mickey Mouse's friends, Goofy and Goofier.

Fort Ontario is named such because it borders Lake Ontario.

While walking around the fort, we ran into this scary dude.

Marlon threw his back out trying to do a little manual labor.

Is that a beaver? And did he really build that dam?

Nuclear power plants are always a beautiful sight.

While Lisa slaved away at work, Mike introduced us to one of his favorite Italian restaurants, Avicolli's.

On the way home tonight, we came across this dazzling display.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/june/spending-the-day-wi/ .

To be continued...

Michael & Lisa Come to Visit

Today Marlon's brother, Mike, came to visit with his wife, Lisa.

He showed us his new souped-up Caddie.

Mike was stationed aboard the USS Alexandria. He received this certificate upon completing the transit of the Suez Canal.

Did you know SSN are the initials given to nuclear-powered attack submarines?

Here is just a fraction of his naval memorabilia.

Mike currently works at a power plant in nearby Syracuse.

One of Mike's most-prized possessions is his Jaegermeister Tap Machine.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/june/visiting-micheal-an/ .

To be continued...

Bass Lake Resort, Parish, New York

Today we left New York City behind and headed to upstate New York to visit Marlon's brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Lisa.

We stayed at Bass Lake Resort, part of the Coast to Coast network.

Bass Lake Resort was off-the-beaten-path, about 30 miles north of Syracuse.

This was the first park where our water and electric hookups were on the opposite side of the motorhome.

The park had pretty new facilities including a family and adult swimming pool, laundry room, and nicely supplied camping store.

The adult lounge provided a great place to read, surf the internet or watch a movie on a flat-screen television.

Anyone for B-I-N-G-O?

The resort DOES indeed have a lake...could it be BASS LAKE?

The resort provides guests with canoes or paddle boats free of charge.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/june/bass-lake-resort-pa/ .

To be continued...

New York City Day 4

On our final day in New York City, we continued our search for interesting things.

As we entered the PATH station, this escalator was kind of interesting.

We found the Wall Street Bull on Wall Street...wonder where the Bear is?

Marlon got a different, more interesting perspective on the Bull.

"The Sphere" is a sculpture which stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center for three decades before being damaged on 9/11. It still endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country.

The Brooklyn Bridge is not open to commercial traffic, thus the Manhattan Bridge is often used when sightseeing from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

Manhattan from the Manhattan Bridge.

The Manhattan Bridge is a multi-level bridge with the subway running on one level.

Yet another allusion to Walt Disney World can be found right here on this building. The Dumbo mentioned here, however, refers to a New York City information website...dumbo.newyork.com.

When riding on top of a double-decker bus, always watch out for low tree branches...even in New York City!

The Civil War Memorial Arch, also known as the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument, was the winner of an architectural contest at the end of the 19th century. The Monument can be found in Brooklyn.

We passed the type of grocery often seen in movies and on television with the fresh fruit outside.

Movie watchers may remember this restaurant as a setting used in the movie The Devil Wears Prada.

Good or bad, the last day of Bush's presidency will soon be upon us.

Lawn Jockeys adorn the exterior of the infamous prohibition-era speakeasy, The 21 Club.

Marlon gets ready to say "Goodbye, Big Apple".

For our final New York City video, click below.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/june/new-york-city-day-4-/ .

To be continued...