Sylvan Beach NY

It has been a busy few days.

Thursday
Thursday , the boys cashed in their two FREE passes to see the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. I paid my $8.50, and was asked to sit away from them.(just when did movies become so crazy priced? Thinking I will stick to my $1.50 discount theater or wait til the movie comes out in disk AND REALLY NOW....I am so tired of this independence thing with my son). Despite the pirce and my son's snub.....

I LOVED it! Yes there was a freaky talking raccoon, a green women, a big alien skinned fellow and a walking Tree...along with tons of other intergalactic creatures...but it was so much fun. I am, after all a child of the Star War's generation and these Alien creatures could stand up to the Star Wars bar scene any day. Plot wasn't so original..bad guy wants to destroy the galaxy, Hans Solo type Human hybrid bad boy turns good and hooks up with this band of misfits to take it all on. I loved the action and the effects. The only reason why seeing a movie in a theater is worth the $8.50 is the effects. It apparently can be viewed in 3D as well. We skipped the 3D and enjoyed it just the same.
Friday
On Friday, I got the boys up early to head to the Beach! Sylvan Beach.

This beach has history and an amusement park. Sylvan Beach is on the shore of Oneida Lake, and was once a prominent tourist area for guests of the 1800's.   "Sylvan Beach saw its initial growth in the 1870′s. Referred to as the “Coney Island of Central New York”, Verona and Sylvan Beaches transformed in the 1880′s through the 1890′s. The sprouting of hotels, and two amusement parks brought in thousands of vacationers." (Taken from the internet).

I always love getting the history of places like this. In one internet article I read that people like Frank Santra performed here.
Today it is still a popular tourist place, but on a much much much smaller scale. It is so much much..that I am surprised the place has not closed down as a result. Regardless, I am glad it has not,  as we enjoyed it immensely.
We started with beach fun.

My boys never even got wet. Mary's kids were like fish....

Once we were done with water...we were all entertained by the sea gulls. Cheeto's are a gulls favorite, but as we found out, they will try and eat most anything. While, Gavin, Alex and Mary tried to hand feed these guys, Will tried sand. They still went after those little grains of sand regardless.

 Gavin almost got this guy to eat out of his hand, but he got scared (Gavin) and pulled away. I tried this over my head tactic too, and I will admit, it is a but terrifying. Ever saw the movie The Birds?? SCARY!

 We found that it was best if we just laid the cheeto within an arms length, one brave bird would run at it squawking at the others "it is MINE!" We had quite a few gull friends surrounding us, until the young beach comers found fun in chasing them down the beach. Oh well...bye bye birdie!!

Watch out for falling Poop! Thank you none of us were baptisted by the birds that morning. However, Alex did bless his older brother with wet sand on top of his head. He was covered. (Missed a picture). I did make a promise to Mary as we were enjoying the sun, the sand and this beautiful day....I promised that I would climb all 63 peeks of the Adirondack Mountains over the next ten years. She is much more athletic then I am, she has done the Iron girl for example, runs, swims and reported she biked around the very lake I was looking at....She has reported over the years a longing to have someone to go and do these amazing things like kayak the complete Erie Canal, or bike some long distance, but she had also mentioned the mountain climbing...and I figured I would start there. I have 9 months to get my butt in shape so that by April 1 of next year I can be ready for mountain #1. I have lots of work to do.
One promise I can fulfill for this beautiful day is to give the boys money for tickets to ride the rides at the Sylvan Beach amusement park..I met that one. Just beyond the beach is old fashion fun and we were ready  for it.

Some of these rides are older then I am.  That's pretty old!
The choices in rides were decided long before we made our way to the ticket booth. The roller coaster, the bumper cars and the bumper boats. You can purchase tickets or pay a dollar amount to ride all day if you like. We opted for the single tickets, and the bumper boats are a different fee.
First up, we had to stop at Zoltar the fortune teller. While in Watkins Glen, Gavin had begged me to do Zoltar, but I was cashless. When we saw him at Sylvan, I had to let him get his fortune read.....

well...not all that  exciting... at least NOW we can say we did it just like Tom Hanks in BIG!
Perhaps you already know this, but I am a BIG Ghost Hunter fan. Mary is too. We have met several of the team member at the annual Scare-a-con and knew right away that this playland was once featured as one of their ghost haunts....and guess what....for $10- we can get a Ghost tour.

Mary reported that she will ONLY go on a Ghost tour with me, simply because she knows I WILL FREAK OUT!!! Thanks for the show of support Mary!
Up next is a ride on the roller coaster...

Mary, Ben and Alex take this old beauty for a spin. The rest of us stay safety on the ground. Whoosh!!!
After the roller coaster the boys all run off to the bumper cars.

They were the only riders and this made the bumping all the more fun! They even got a second ride FREE of charge.
Up next was the bumper boats...if you thought bumper cars was fun, then apparently you will LOVE bumper boats. This had to be the boys highlight of the whole day.

The boys were definitely thrilled by this thrill ride.
My boys LOVE arcade games and this park has them EVERY Where...but they know I am CHEEP so they didn't even ask. We did wander into one of the old arcade buildings and the history of the place actually hit us in the face. It was like walking back in time.

The joy on their faces was great! They finished up on the boats and headed towards the local park, where the boys played while Mary and I strolled the "flea market" that was set up under the tree's.

We wrapped up the day back on the beach. Mary and her boys had walking taco's (They actually sell them at the amusement park...taco's in a Doreito bag.) and my boys waited to have dunch (as Gavin call's it) Dinner and Lunch...on our way home.
We parted our ways having enjoyed a fun filled day of the beach with a little extra. Mary off to other activities and us, we were off to find a place to eat.
Along route 31,  is an assortment of stop and shops, bait shops, and even a place called Yankee Doodle that has several wood carved figures to purchase when you come upon.. Flo's diner home of the 10 cent coffee. We decided this was a good enough place as any for dunch and Flo's kind of reminds me of that old show on tv Alice. I think it was Flo who was always saying Mel, kiss my grits.

Ben had the big breakfast of eggs pancakes and potatoes, Gavin had his usual bacon cheese burger and cheese fries, we also had some appetizers and I ate the left overs..and that was more then enough. Good diner food at that good old diner price. I just love that. 

The day was great, we got home and spent the rest of the evening relaxing with movies and video games. Mark and I watched the movies, while the boys played the video games. 

Thanks for reading. 

Years ago I entered my trip to Sylvan Beach in the TravBuddy website, here is my original Sylvan Beach posting. www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/.../sandy-fun-fathers-day-2012-5