The Erie Canal: Chittenango Landing

I was fortunate enough to be asked to join my son's field trip to Chittenango Landing yesterday. This park/learning center is located on along the Erie Canal and part of American history. Over 100 years ago transporting from the East to the West was done by a man made canal system that spread from Albany to Buffalo. In Albany your canal boat could turn South and do straight shot down the Hudson river to NY City. All along the state there are reminders of the Erie Canal and it's significance to NY. Chittenango Landing was actually a stop along the canal that was particularly important to people who needed a boat fixed, or have a new one built. The entire location had been grown over at one point and volunteers had re-earth it and attempted to make the exact replica of what Chittenango may have once looked like.

What the canal looks like today and below what the canal looked like in the early 1800's. It has since been filled with dirt in many of the areas and roads developed though out the state. In Syracuse, Erie Blvd. stretch's the length from Dewitt through downtown Syracuse to Camillus, which was once the canal. In Dewitt there is also a park that host's canal remembrances,  as does Camillus. The whole length and where it exactly ran is unknown to me, but several town have small or large parks to show the existence and significance of the canal. My youngest and my eldest had a visit, years ago to one such park called Erie Village that has a replica of a town along the canal including an actual steam engine. I recall taking a field trip myself as a child to some similar park to learn about the canal as well. Throughout the CNY area there are ton's of Canal trails that people can hike and I have though out my days walked/biked on several of them. On one such walk my daughter who had to of been about three nearly fell into the remainder of the canal. I caught her by her clothing before she ended up a wet mess. One of the pictures we were shown showed a child tied to a canal boat, and were asked why this might be. Several of the kids guessed the small child wearing a dress although he was male, which made the kids think, was being punished. Of course the real answer was for safety, much like the car seats we use today, a young child may have been tied to the boat to prevent falling off the boat.

My son and I had to get on the school bus at 8am, to get to Chittenango by 9am and begin our structured class tour. I had an opportunity to get to know my son's teacher, whom I have had a sour taste about in the past,(a whole other story and one I would like to be still with) so it was nice to have a new opinion about her. I honestly do not know who was more excited, me or my son. I have always loved history and learning about what once was, so this was really exciting. Ironically I had been going over small trips to take this summer with my son and had come across this site as well as some of the other Erie canal locations. I had noted a possible day trip here when they do a big canal day festival next month. The bus trip there went fast and was uneventful. (the return ride was LOUD and crazy).
We arrived with no problems, were assigned to a volunteer and began our tour. The kids were given a numbered site and needed to find each site read the information and go on to yet another site. We were quizzed upon completion.

 Arriving and getting situated and below being educated on the sites.

My son and his friend Ryan took to their assignments and addressed each site. Some of the sites were things like the warehouse. (where we are sitting in the above picture). A sunken canal boat, that was actually as we were informed, simply left by the captain once the canal was no longer in use.

 You can see the slats sticking up through the water in this picture. Volunteers had placed sod around the structure. Apparently there are several boat like this one that had been abandoned along the canal or buried with the dirt as they became useless to the owner. Other site visits included the foundation of the owners home and the boarding house, the blacksmith shop, mule barn, and what was most significant about Chittenango Landing the Dry Docks.

 The mule barn.

 The boys attending to their assignment and below the Blacksmith shop.

Here is the dry docks from the canal side. They looked much different when they were functioning and the point at which this picture was taken would not have existed. I would have actually been standing in the canal. They have since built a bridge across it.

 

Pictured above the bridge and an up close view of the canal. The canal would actually not flow into this bay and I am sure there was a name for areas that jetted off the canal way.

Upon completion of our site search, we were given a tour of each sight with a more in depth narrative. Below is the blacksmith shop where we learned that the model canal boat was made much like the original boats of the time by volunteers. The blacksmith noted that he hand made several (although they ended up using modern nails as the process took much to long) of the nails used to built the boat. The importance of a blacksmith was for all metal items on the Landing. Nails, horseshoes (or mule shoes in this case), and any other metal pieces on the land.

 The sawmill, which I forgot to mention was also an important part of the Landing, and below speaking with the Blacksmith. He has been a volunteer for 11 years.

 Check out some of the metal pieces. I don't know if I could eat off that spoon. The kids agreed.

Some of the children in the mule barn. Next we all went on an archeological dig. In groups of 5 we were assigned a section on the grid to dig and excavate. The kids had fun shifting through the dirt, and finding a host of objects. One group actually found a candle holder.

Here is our groups finds. Several pieces of glass, a metal latch, coal and ceramics. It was cool to actually dig and find things. I think the kids enjoyed this part the most.  I observed mostly as I really did not want to get down in the dirt. Our findings were discussed and exploration about why these things might have been here and it was time for lunch. Lunch was held in the visitor center and this was a National historical area identified with the National Passport, so I tried to get a stamp, but they couldn't find it. Opps! One stamp we cannot put in our Passport book. Lunch was fun, I enjoyed eating my P.B and J with my son and his friends, before we were back on our Canal lesson and learning some new things. This time we explored the Museum. There were several hands on exhibits, as well as DON NOT TOUCH areas. The kids got to dress dolls in period clothing and identified what objects were used for. Really cool were the canal village replica donated to the park. Riddle or should I say question....HOW would the canal boats pass each other on the canal? This was the question posed to the group. Some thought they would lift the thick rope over the mule and its guide. For sake of those who might  not know..the canal boats were pulled with a rope and a mule/team of mules on the tow path lead by a hoggie. The hoggie would take the mules off the boat, walk the tow path in whatever weather for six hours a day, return the team of mules, feed water etc the team. Sleep eat and do it all over again six hours later, to switch with the second hoggie shift. All life on the canal boats was a big job, and all members were expected to do their share of the work.  It was a life I personally would have no desire to live. The answer is the boat traveling towards Albany had the right of way. The Buffalo bound boat would then stop their boat allow the pull of the rope to submerge into the canal, the Albany bound boat would then pass allowing the mule team to walk over the rope and pass. It seemed that the whole process was well thought out and apparently worked well.

 Exploring the what do these items do area. And below playing dress up. My son was extremely tolerant to the doll dress up and wore her hat, he also danced with her.

 Here is one of the replicas.

I wish I took more pictures of the replicas they were really cool and intercut.

Playing checkers.

After we "played" in the museum, we headed to the replica canal boat. This boat was actually hand built just as they would have been made in the period, by volunteers. It was purposely cut and not finished to show the detail of the boats.

Here is the backside of the boat with the rudder to help steer. I never got a picture of the whole boat, but it was here that we met "Granny" who with her family was waiting at Chittenango Landing as her family boat was being built. She informed the group that as the boat was being assembled the family resided in the area that was completed. We were told about the boats construction and shown just how many boards were used and how they insulted in between the slats. The kids each got a turn insulating.  Here is Gavin putting this into the walls. It took 50 workers to complete a boat.

 Gavin putting insulation into the boat. Below is Granny and the home area of the boat, where the family was housed while on the canal. It was very tight quarters and there were lots of jobs that needed to be attended to. The beds hung to the walls and tucked away during the day. These beds were made of wood and rope and often needed to be tightened. We were told the saying "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" originated from such beds. Granny informed the children of the job duties on the boats, and the responsibilities of each family member. She asked the kids if they would have like to live on a canal boat. Most raised their hands. NOT me. It looked like a lot of work and I would go crazy in those cramped quarters.

We ended the day with a class photo and an hour drive back to Liverpool. The bus ride home was somehow much louder and I was pretty pooped. We all enjoyed the trip. Gavin claimed he liked the digging and the blacksmith shop the best, and they all became much more knowledgeable. I was glad to be a part of my son's field trip, I learned some things, and got a new perspective on life in the day as well as my son's teacher who plans to retire this year. It was great fun and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to join in on this field trip. Now its on to another busy day. I am attending the Vera House recognition luncheon at noon, then tonight I will be having my very first Pure Romance party at Cathy's house. The weekend is full to the rim with stuff too, so I better prepare.

Class picture! What a great trip and good group!

A day in Liverpool

I have been off on my blogging of late (sorry I missed flashback Friday) and I cannot even claim that it was because I was to busy. I have mostly been being LAZY. I have been enjoying myself, simply taking care of things around the house and doing a whole lot of nothing. This week however has been pretty busy, and today will be the only day (although I may still go to Ithaca for the monthly Pure Romance meeting, I have not decided yet if I am going), that I am not scheduled for something. I did get a chance to take a small trip to the village of Liverpool on Sunday with my youngest and had a nice dinner at Destiny Mall on Saturday with my family. My husband has purchased boxing gloves for my son and they have started boxing as a means of exercise. I think it is a great idea and it is something my youngest enjoys. We had a nice dinner at TGI Fridays at the insistence of my 10 year old, and I enjoyed the pecan crusted salad. (NO I skipped the burger). After dinner and the mall we stayed home and watched some movies. Nothing to exciting, but enjoyable.
Sunday was earmarked to get on board with the outdoors exercise thing, so my son and I took a walk with the dog around the neighborhood and deciding that we really couldn't starve ourselves headed to the village of Liverpool to have cheese fries and a dog at Heid's of Liverpool.

Heid's is actually pretty infamous around the area and even the guy from the travel channel has made a visit to Heids for a hot dog and Cooney. The business has been around since sometime in the 30's and is right across the street from Onondaga Lake Park.  The dogs are pretty good, but my son loves the cheese fries the best. These were slathered in cheese, so I was not as excited to eat them as I may usually be. Good thing for me, my families means to loose some weight and exercise has been an inspiration and I am taking this to heart to work on getting healthy myself.

 

 

 After lunch my son and I took a trip to Onondaga Lake Park. This park is actually a pretty neat little part of the community and hosts a multitude of events throughout the year. There have been several marathons, a ton of healthy Saturday mornings of Zumba on the grass, volleyball games, baseball, rollerblading, walks, biking and in the summers they open the road up for even more miles of movement. It is also host to the yearly lights on the lake event, summer concerts, a yacht club, boating, some fishing, archery, team events, picnics, playgrounds, a tram, dog walking trails, a skate park, bike rentals, but NO swimming.The lake itself has been considered as one of the most polluted lakes in the country. Central NY has been making big strides at cleaning the lake and making it more accessible for the community. I am not sure if it will ever be clean enough to swim in, but it is a pretty lake just the same. Years ago the park was home to an amusement park(Long Branch Amusement Park) and boosted a multitude of tourist attractions that attracted people as far away as NY city. The invention of the automobile as well as pollution of the lake decreased the popularity and the park fell to ruins.The actually carousal from the once popular amusement park has been restored an now  delights children and adults alike at Destiny Mall. (Once called Carousal Mall). I just love history around these old parks and took a little bing trip to some of the parks located in the CNY area of the past. I knew there was also a park called Suburban Park. It was located in Manillus NY and long gone. I never had the opportunity to view either Suburban or Long Branch Park as they were just a memory when I came around, but when I was a child I do remember going to Roseland Amusement park very vividly. It was closed for many years and no longer is an amusement park, but is home to a waterpark. So where was I, apparently I took a long side bar. Anyways, I have always loved to learn about the history of these things and I think it is pretty neat. It would be pretty cool to have them around today. The large playground has been our most favorite part of the park, and my youngest was not going to let the opportunity pass him by.

He did the slide!

 

The new fangled teeter-totter.

He climbed into the "green sausage shaped prison". His words not mine.

Did some swinging on the tires.

He rounded out playtime with a little swinging on the actual swings and did some climbing before we decided to make some tracks and walk around the park. Below is a picture of the Lake.

We hopped the tram and rode through the park. The only place the tram does not run through is Long Branch and the Good Dog Park. Below is the old bridge. This part of the lake is were several of the SU crew team (and other schools) get in their practices. It's really neat to see these teams glide across the water. Row row row. One time Mary and I actually took the kayaks out on the lake and listened to a concert held on the shore. I got grossed out when we saw what looked like poop on the surface of the lake. Still not sure what that was. Historically jumping off this bridge is a right of passage...what passage I am not sure.

Caught some Geese and their young as we rode by. There was a guy and his SO on the ride with us, that were truly making me and my son a little CRAZY. He talked the entire ride and kept saying...why don't you get a picture of that, and calling his SO grumpy. I kept kind, but had to laugh when he suggested that the kids behind him encourage their father to take them for ice cream. I thought for sure the dad was gonna knock the guy out. The Geese picture is for the oddball guy and his girlfriend on the tram that insisted that I get a shot of these guys marching into the lake.

Riding the tram. It's an enjoyable ride and if you have had your share of walking or skating, it's a nice relief to see him coming. In total down and back with a 10 minute stop in between, and a few drop off/pick up points, it was about a 45 minute ride. The breeze was perfect coming off the lake.

Located within the park is a museum holding tribute to the regions best know resource. SALT!  I attempted to encourage my son to take a quick peek in the museum, but he was ready to end the trip and head to our next Liverpool destination. Syracuse is know as the Salt City due to this resource. For a while last summer when the head shops were stocked with the "legal" drug called bath salts, our lovely city of Syracuse became the Bath Salt city. What an awful mess that was.  

We discussed the idea of sometime coming back and renting a family bike and riding down the parkway. They have this really cool bike called a quadricycle that seats four or a conference bike that seats 7 and is circular. It's really neat. I have plans to return to the Salt Museum myself.

After leaving the park we headed just up a block or two to the Liverpool Library. I just love this library and my son checked out the movie Shiloh as he had just finished reading the book in school. We lucked out and both the first and the second movie were available. Ready to end the day we headed home, watched Shiloh and had a nice low fat dinner.

 The Liverpool library has a GREAT children's room. I love the trains that hover over your head and Gavin has always had a good time with the train cars you can actually play with.

The Liverpool fun does not stop here. Yesterday I worked at Vera House and as it so happens I met yet another employee. Her name is Rosanne. She just graduated with a Masters degree in Leadership counseling and has her own private practice. She endured my life story and where I am in my life right now and showed some great support. She invited me to attend her place called Metamorphosis and suggested that I might be interested in attending a meditation ceremony that was being held that evening. I am a FAILURE at meditation, but was intrigued, especially when she reported that the price is FREE, that the monthly telecast speaker would actually be present for the meditation that evening and it was located right in Liverpool. The center for this special medication series is called The  Liverpool Art Center and I had never heard of it. It is an art studio where one can take classes, but it also offers meditation classes, therapeutic art and drum sessions. (Not sure what the drumming is all about.) The whole thing sounded cool, and different, so I thanked Rosanne, took her business card and figured if my hubby didn't work I might check it out. Well I decided to go, and I had an enjoyable time. Below are pictures of the art center building. I wished I had gotten a picture of the Buddhist Monk who lead the meditation, but I felt funny asking. Maybe there is some weird thing about pictures like the Amish, what do I know.  I met the art center's owner and she reported that she is getting married on Sunday and the presenter was doing the ceremony. The presenter's name is John Bruna and he is the director of Way of Compassion Foundation. (going to google/bing it) WOW way cool. He has another workshop tomorrow. Very stoked! Also very cool and why some of what he might have said resonated with me is he is in recovery. How very awesome. He held a weekend retreat last weekend, would have like to have attended. PS. He apparently is okay with pictures as there is one on his website. Google The way of compassion foundation and it should take you there.

 Anyways, I totally suck at meditation. The entire 25 minutes or so of meditating I was thinking about chocking because I couldn't seem to swallow and when I did it was so loud, then I was thinking I might cough really loud as a result. Once I got past that I found myself peeking, drumming my hands, or thinking about everything else in the world except for what I was suppose to be doing. I finally resorted to saying over and over inside my head. "focus on your breathing" .  I thought that was what is called a mantra. I guess it isn't, but it did keep me somewhat focused and I did not chock. When the mediation was done and everyone else was all relaxed, I was still unsettled, but ready to listen. He explained several Buddhist beliefs such as the steps towards relationships. Consider a few things; step one is actually step zero. (I will not try to explain). But this step has to do with acceptance, he had another word but I can't remember. The basic premise is the people in our lives are either friends or foes. In otherwords people we like, and the people we don't like. Of course there are people we don't know so we have no value or opinion placed upon them. We naturally judge people based upon our world views and perception. Biases if you will. After recognition of this within ourselves, we can start to change these perceptions by identify that all people are people. The Buddhist believe expands into thoughts around re-incarnation and that we have all been each  others mother at some time in our past lives and we should treat all people as such. To make it simpler, all people are a friend/mother/child/brother to someone who loves them, so there must be some redeeming qualities of that person and we should seek these traits out. I know I am probably messing it all up, but it was all very interesting and what I enjoyed the most was how these beliefs play into not only my own life, but in counseling. It was totally cool. I might even check out tomorrow's lecture.
WOW. Long blog and I need to examine other parts of my life so I guess I will leave it with that.

Jellstone Park Part IV:

After our crowded day at Niagara Falls, we headed back to camp, and still had part of the afternoon to enjoy ourselves at Yogi's place.

Tami's daughter Allie wanted to take a dip, so I went with her and her mother up to the Water park. She was the only kid in our party of 7 children who was willing to take a chance in this ice cold water. She later went into the pool, and we caught up with Mary, Ben and Adler playing putt putt golf. We also got a chance to watch the kids play another game of laser tag, before we ran into my hubby and decided we should get some things together for the concert in the pavilion.

A little putt putt. There was really a ton of activities to do, I wish it had been as warm as this weekend as I type it's in the 80's and yesterday was in the 90's. Oh well, food for thought in the future.

Tami and Mary went back to their site's and we all met up at the pavilion to watch/listen to Blind Vision. (Tami and I filled cups of adult beverages). The boys had decided that they "suck" even before they started playing, so it was mostly the adults enjoying this band that actually played some music that we really liked. 80's style. They really were not well suited for the several children who were playing on the grass and who later were dancing with Yogi, but I enjoyed singing along to Ratt, Bon Jovi, Boston,  and other 80's metal, as well as some of the 80's classics like Elton John, Bowie, Styx and 867-5309 Jenny! Tami and I sure had a good time and by the time the came on for the second act, and most of the little kids had left, we had had a great deal of etho in our systems and went a little wild. It was all great fun!

 After the Blind Vision concert we hung around the camp fire ate some dinner, it became a communal meal, and relaxed off the long day. The boys (husbands included) left early so Mary, Tami and I were left to put out the fire then it was off to bed. Tami, Allie and Adler ended up sleeping in the cabin with us to help keep warm. Monday was the warmest of the three days, go figure. We spent the early hours packing up the cabin, breakfast and getting ready to head home. Tami and her family left first, then Mary and my boys had convinced us to stay just long enough to play one more game of Candybar Bingo. For redemption they called it. This time Ben and I won. We won based on the worst game board, and got to split a stash with three people. Well what can you say, we won once this weekend. Fun was had. In retrospect, I would have changed only a few things; I would have skipped Niagara Falls and maybe went to another less popular state park (Letchworth), I would have worn warmer clothing and it would have been much nicer if we didn't have the cold weather. Oh well, next time I guess. The best parts of the trip were my family and my friends. I'm already searching for our next camping trip for later in the summer months. I have to admit I do so love the Jellystone parks and have already began investigating another adventure to one farther away. There are three more in NY State that we have not visited, one that is less than an hour away from us. I have heard it is not as nice as some of the others, but it is close so maybe I will just go up with the boys myself. Anyhoot, it was lots of fun and I am sure we will be returning soon to some such park. There is a great one outside of Williamsburg VA, perhaps next spring we will make a trip.