Adirondack Extreme!

Greatest. Father's Day. Experience. Ever. We'll be travelling on Father's Day proper so we celebrated a week early...
So, I loaded the boys and the husband into the car (husband had absolutely NO idea what we were doing thanks to massive amounts of misdirection and subterfuge) and we drove up to Adirondack Extreme in the pouring rain.  It's a tree-top, zip-line adventure course just off of exit 24 on the Northway - about an hour and a half north of the Capital Region. 


They're open pouring rain or shine.
Reservations are highly recommended.
Departures are every 1/2 hour. 
Arrive at least 1/2 hour before your departure.
They rent climbing gloves for $3.  Get them.
Bring food.  There is NOTHING nearby.
Bugspray.

Adirondack Extreme
518.494.7200

The Crossings

This has become my go-to playground as of late.  Especially since my older son has started riding a bike. (a bike!)

Great playground with a huge sandbox, bathrooms, lockers, picnic tables, a pond with ducks, geese and koi, a small hedge maze, nice smooth paved trails for walking or biking and a few terrible snack & drink machines if you're in a pinch.  If you're lucky, the cows on the bordering farm might be out...

The Crossings

Troy's Flag Day Parade 2010

The parade steps off at 1 PM on Sunday, June 13, 2010.
The 2 mile route runs along 4th Street beginning in South Troy at 4th & Main Street and ends at 4th & Federal Street.

Let the picking begin!

Apparently, strawberries are coming in pretty early on some farms... up to three weeks early!
Usually, we go to Samascott down in Kinderhook because they have soooooo many different things available to pick - peas, cukes, squash, cherries, peaches, onions, blueberries, strawberries, and on, and on, and on. Plus, they have something called a Razzle - soft serve whipped with either fresh strawberries or raspberries from their farm - Oh. My. Gosh. The best thing ever! Yesterday, we went to Altamont Orchards. We easily picked 13 pounds of strawberries. Nice place, but much smaller... kinda just a shack by some strawberry fields and apple orchards. No bathrooms. No Razzles. They did have a fun Bounce Castle.
The three year old has been pretty fascinated lately about farms, how things grow and where our food comes from. I use pickyourown.org to find places to pick our own fruits, veggies and christmas trees.

Memorial Day Parade 2010

Albany's 2010 Memorial Day Parade steps off at 10:00 AM from Quail Street.

Ashville Game Farm and Exotic Zoo

What a fun day! We took a 40 minute trip North and went to this, um, unique place.
While most petting zoos might have area where you can closely interact with goats, sheep and the like, we found ourselves face to giant face with an enormous, friendly camel and having our shoelaces pecked by emus! I can't believe how up-close and personal the animals are. The place was littered with peacocks and my younger boy was a little threatened by one of these. The A word to the wise: the monkeys are a little scary-finger-grabby. I wanted so badly to have a 'moment,' but, no. Well, not the moment I was hoping for... Don't get me wrong, though, the more dangerous animals are kept inaccessible and at a safe distance.
They do have a small shop that has drinks, frozen treats and snacks, disposable cameras, souveneirs and the use of strollers. Various bags of animal feed are available for $1 each. And I am a sucker for places that you can bring your own food, so I was well pleased to be able to enjoy our snack at one of the tent covered picnic tables.

Ashville Game Farm and Exotic Zoo
468 Lick Spring Road
Greenwich, NY 12834
1-800-676-5309 / 518-695-4337

Salamanders

On the very first few cold, rainy nights after winter, you can find tons of different kinds of salamanders and spring peepers migrating from ponds and creeks. There are some places where they have to cross roads. We like to find them and help them across the roads...

Syracuse - Beaver Lake Nature Center

We went on a little snow hike through the sugarbush at Beaver Lake Nature Center. They had 5-6 stations set up along the trail of maple trees where volunteers explained the different stages and aspects of making maple syrup. Beeeeuuuutiiiiful day!! Snowshoe rentals (even really little ones) were available.

Inside, we warmed back up, browsing through the books in the giftshop, checking out the dioramas of local animals and watching for various bird species at the observation area. Unfortunately, we skipped the pancake breakfast that was going on, but we did get to watch them flipping and stacking the hot, bubbling cakes in their BBQ-style outdoor kitchen!

Beaver Lake Nature Center

2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade

Albany's 2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade steps off tomorrow from Quail Street at 2:00 PM. We've got our lawn chairs, umbrellas, snacks, blankets and silly green "flair" ready to go!!

Winter at Frear Park

We've spent a lot of time looking for good places to go sledding in the Capital Region...  Haven't found anything yet better than Frear Park in Troy. There are a few hills with varying "speeds" and a really large flat area for just playing in the snow. There's a parking lot just across the street.  Wish there was bathroom access, though.

Cut your own Christmas Tree

We've been cutting our own trees for a few years now, but this is the first year that we've brought the kids on the trek. They did surprisingly well in light of 1. that we went in the evening and 2. the wandering, pausing element involved in selecting a tree.
Most places, in the very least, provide sturdy tree saws.  You can look for a few other perks, though - hay/wagon rides, ponys, reindeer, petting zoos, bonfires, wreaths, giftshops, snack shops, hot chocolate, tree shaking and tree wrapping.  Note that different farms have different tree varieties. You can also find places that let you choose and tag a tree earlier in the year and then come cut it later.
For the last two or three years we've gone to Van Etten Christmas Tree Farm just outside of Altamont.  They have a little petting zoo and pony rides available, hay rides to the various fields, port-a-pottys, bonfires and a very small snack-shack. It's not really so much a farm though - it's a little more foresty than farmy and they don't seem to groom the trees during the year so they tend to be a little unruly.
Next year we're probably going to go to either Ellms' or Bob's Trees up in Saratoga County.
Find a farm near you.

Apple Picking - Riverview Orchards

It's that time of year!! Time to enjoy the crisp air and bounty of the Northeast! Whoo Hoo!!

Riverview Orchards up in Rexford (Clifton Park) is our hands-down favorite. We've even had birthday parties (complete with ponies) there. So much to do...

* Free Hayrides to the
different variety areas
* Petting Zoo
* Pumpkins & Gourds
* Haymaze for the little ones
* Honey House
(learn how honey is made)
* Observation Bee Hive
* Apple Cider Donut Robot
(cool AND delicious)
* Country Store
* Hot and Cold Apple Cider

We haven't gone for their 'Night-Owl Hayrides,' but apparently, you can call and make reservations for an evening hayride complete with free cider, donuts and a bonfire! Roast some hotdogs, marshmallows and s'mores... what could be better? Can't wait for the boys to get a little older...

Riverview Orchards
660 Riverview Road
Rexford, NY 12148
518.371.2174

Tubing at Willard Mountain

Yeah... um... the tubing runs were just a bit too fast for the little guy. He did want to go on the tow lift again. Granted it was both busy and warmish today so that meant really packed snow and ice on the runs. So, if it's either warmer weather or actually snowing, you'd go slower.

We went down once (with my foot mashed firmly into the ground in a futile effort to slow us to under what felt like 30 mile per hour), turned in our lift tickets for a full refund($14 each) and went inside for hot chocolate. There was also a large fire pit and free marshmallows for roasting. Overall, worth a return trip (30 minutes from Albany) in better conditions.

I believe that we've been to another mountain (further away, though) that had a kid's run...

Willard Mountain