Just made reservations for three nights at Niagara Falls.
This is Going to Happen!
Eeeee!
Moving on now to Binghamton.
Local-to-Binghamton NY folks: Why is there no Carousel Tour? Why is there no Carousel Package offered by any of the local hotels? Golf packages — eh. You can take your golf packages and pitch ’em straight outta Broome County for all o’me. A carousel package, now? You got my interest.
And now with all that excitement out of the way. . .
Time to go to work.
So exciting! Hope you take lotsa pictures! Wait, if you want to, I mean. I’d enjoy seeing them.
I could hear your squee all the way down in Maryland. 🙂
I think carousel tours should be your Retirement Job.
Just please don’t retire yet, OK? I’m still salivating over your books yet unwritten.
Well, you could skip Binghamton and come to King Ferry and stay with us. We got involved with Liad when my son got your second book and the rest of us got hooked. At the time we were in Texas but it was too hot for us so we moved back to NY and chose this area because it was the closest we could get to Cornell U. and yet have some land with lake views. We do have two guest rooms and my wife is an excellent cook.
I went to Niagra last year. The Canada dside is best. Have fun!?
Our inn is on the US side. Still debating crossing over to Canada. Maybe for a day trip. The concern is that I will mouth off at a US border guard, because I process the whole border guard I’m-bigger-meaner-tougher-and-you’d-BETTER-say-yessir attitude as abuse, and it all goes downhill fast from there. We can’t apparently, shed all of our backstory, no matter how hard we try or how old we get.
The whole area is gorgeous; we’re through Oneonta, Albany, Saratoga Springs and such fairly often. I do thank you for the invite, but the carousels in Binghamton was Thing Two of a Two Thing vacation — the first being the Falls.
In Second Life where you can, literally, be ANYthing you want? I bought a park and ran a carousel.
Pictures, absolutely!
Don’t worry Sharon, you only have to deal with US border guards going home. Canadian border guards, despite all the modern day security nonsense, are much less intimidating. [Mind you, being middle-aged and Caucasian never hurts]. If you want to get into a fight with somebody, the Niagara district has some sort of business development/entertainment tax that they try to convince people is mandatory. If you are just day-tripping you may not encounter this, but it’s worth researching. I saw a piece on this on our national consumer TV show awhile back but am not current with how the conflict is playing out.
If I go to the Canada side at all, it will be a day-trip. I’ve only ever had “trouble” with the US border guards. The Canadian guards have always been polite and Just Doing Their Job. I wouldn’t mind if a run-in with US Border Patrol meant I could stay in Canada, so long as Steve and the cats could join me, eventually. Sadly, it wouldn’t be that easy.
I believe there is no Carousel “package” at this time because all of the carousels are free. Well, you may have to pick up a piece of litter, but otherwise they are free. Rod Serling, who was from Binghamton, based one of his episodes on one of them, I think the one in Rec Park (Recreation Park).
Let me know when you are going to be here. We were supposed to be traveling to Denver in August but brother broke his ankle so cannot share the driving. Hence, I should be around and can meet up with you. Please say it is NOT the first weekend because that is the Spiedie/Balloon Fest and the area will be a mess (plus the construction issues).
Well, I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense, in the if-the-hotel-doesn’t-get-a-kickback-it’s-not-worth-doing kind of way, though it doesn’t make me less grumpy.
No, the first weekend in August, we will be in Pittsburgh, GOHing our hearts out at Confluence, then running up to Niagara, then, eh — across? — to Binghamton.
Binghamton used to have a card I think, that you would pick up at one of the carousels, and get punched when you rode all the other ones. When you were done, you’d get… Well, I don’t remember because we never did it. The one summer we tried (as adults) I remember having trouble finding someone at the specified “first” carousel to give us the card and then finding someone to punch it at other various carousels. And this was probably 20 years ago or so.
You get a “pin”, as I read the info. There are only 5 carousels open this summer…the Herschell-Spillman in Highland Park is closed for repairs, but! If you get your ticket punched at the other five, you will have been judged worthy of a pin.
. . .I’m gonna go for it.