Oswego Harborfest, Day 3

Harborfest Fireworks

Saturday usually has the largest crowd, with parking difficult or far away. I was lucky & found a spot just outside the park. Of course the closer you park, the longer it takes to leave since you have more people & cars filling up the roads. It took the usual 45 minutes to drive the 2 miles to home.

I wandered around taking photos. I managed to find where the helicopter rides were located. $20.00 for a 2 minute buzz over the festival. Long lines throughout the day. I looked for a location for shooting the fireworks, and was able to combine the location for fireworks photos and the water ski show, right on the edge of the water.  More Saturday photos or go directly to the fireworks pages.

My Escape 21 is Born!

Escape pretty much custom builds trailers, allowing customers to choose many factory options as well as customer supplied options.  This includes floor covering, countertops, fabric for cushions, and in my case, a number of antennas for my electronics.  I'm also getting two solar panels since I do a fair amount of dry camping.

Being a small company with a popular product, it takes many months between your order & the start of the trailer.  In my case, 314 days until the start of the build!

During the build they take photos & email them to the customer so here are the first six:

The Shell

The Shell the Next Day

Looking Aft

Looking Forward

Looking Aft, Day 2

Looking Forward, Day 2

Oswego Harborfest, Day 2

East Park Entertainment

Friday was a beautiful day with temperatures in the mid 70's, and a few clouds. I wandered around the different parks, taking photos of some of the activities.  Photos at Harborfest, Day 2.

I have a second post today - the first photos from Escape Trailer Industries of the construction of my new trailer arrived.

Until Tomorrow

Oswego Harborfest 2017, Day 1

Breitbeck Park is Pretty Empty

I've been away from Oswego for all the Harborfests since 2013, with A Cross Country Trip in 2014,  a 2015 trip to Alaska & a 2016 trip to New England. This summer I will be in Oswego for the festival so I hope to photograph it. I'll add a photo or two per day here, and a link each day to a page with more.

The Oswego Harborfest is an annual event that draws well over 100,000 people to the Lake Ontario waterfront community for 4 day festival. There are entertainment stages located throughout the city, as well as many other programs & presentations, food booths, a midway with rides, and a 23 minute "Fireworks by Grucci" show on Saturday night presented by Entergy.

More Thursday, July 27 Photographs:

Thursday was the official opening of Harborfest. Not too crowded - that might have something to do with the fact that it rained all morning and well into the early afternoon, Around 3:00 the sun came out and the booths started up and a small crowd moved into the park.

I wandered around taking photos of the set ups, had an early dinner at the Greek Gyro booth, and checked out the hillside facing the fireworks. The rules are that you are not allowed to put tarps or blankets down until Saturday morning, however at 3:30 there were two set up under the sign saying not to. Since I like to follow the rules, I hope I can squeeze in a space to shoot. They are usually some of the best fireworks I've seen.

More tomorrow!

The Nina & the Pinta Visit the Oswego Maritime Museum

The Nina and the Pinta

During the weekend of July 21st, 2017 the replicas of the Nina and the Pinta paid a visit to the Oswego Maritime Museum. Both replicas were open for tours, with volunteer staff answering questions. A large crowd was present on Friday.

Some photos of the boats, the crowd, and the LT-5 Ocean Tug, one of the Maritime Museum's exhibits are at my LakeshoreImages site.

Admission is $10.00 for adults, $9.00 for seniors, teens & military, and $6.00 for children 5 - 12. The ships are docked at the West First street Pier (at the Maritime Museum), will be open from 10:00AM to 6PM July 21, 22, and 23.

Mexico Point Fireworks

Fireworks

Mexico Point Park is a pretty town park in Texas, NY. Among the attractions is Casey's Cottage, an interesting building I toured a few years ago. This evening I attended their fireworks and concert program with some friends. Many more photographs at LakeshoreImages.

Until Next Time -

The Albany Symphony & the Syracuse Pops Chorus

The Albany Symphony & the Syracuse Pops Chorus

I'm slowly putting things together for the trip to Chilliwack to pick up my new Escape 21. I was kidding myself that everything would fit in the back of the truck - I rented a 4'X8' U Haul trailer. There is a U Haul dealer in Sumas, WA, just this side of the border and they will let me leave the trailer in their lot while I make the overnight trip to Escape.

So, as a break from packing, having the driveway widened to fit the new trailer, and various doctor & dentist visits, I went with friends to see the Albany Symphony at one of their stops on the Bicentennial Celebration of the building of the Erie Canal. For those that are not familiar with the canal, it is an uphill ditch running from the Hudson River to Lake Ontario & Lake Erie. Called Clinton's Big Ditch", it provided an important access to the West, and a valuable "road" for the movement of people & freight.

On the 200th anniversary of the start of the construction, the Albany Symphony put together a trip along the canal, stopping at many of the towns birthed by the canal. At each, a local composer wrote music for the visit. While originally planned to barge along the canal, the 7 MPH speed limit made that impractical, so it became a bus & truck tour.

I saw the July 6th stop in Baldwinsville, NY at the Paper Mill Island Amphitheater. Music included selections from Handel's Water Music, "The Current Home" by Ryan Chase, and American classics.

The evening was finished with a fireworks display. Unfortunately, I didn't have a tripod or a wide angle lens, so no fireworks photos, although I hope to add some from our Harborfest Festival at the end of July. I did manage to put together a panorama that really messed up Lightroom. A young man was walking across the pan in the direction I panned, duplicating him around 5 times. I attempted to clean it up in Photoshop, but if you look closely (well, not even that closely!) you will see many artifacts.  The panoramas &  few more photos at LakeshoreImages.

Anyhow, a pleasant way to spend a warm July evening. The orchestra is continuing west, ending the tour at Lockport, NY on the 8th.

Until Next Time -