A lovely day

We just had a lovely day. Our original plan was to meet a New Jersey friend in Bear Mountain State Park. The weather forecast was not good, so we postponed that.

But we had promised our older daughter a trip to a park, so ...

We went to Thacher Park in the morning. Put the baby (is 16 months still a baby?) in a backpack carrier and walked the Indian Ladder Trail. The baby really seemed to like the backpack. Older daughter definitely enjoyed the walk also. If you've never done it, this is really a wonderful walk. Basically, you walk down steps at one end of the walk, and then walk under the cliff to the other side of the walk. Along the way you see rock formations, views of the area below and out some ways, streams, waterfalls, etc. Make sure you wear good hiking shoes because there are slippery spots, a lot of steps, and some slopes too. This trail is not wheelchair accessible, keep in mind. Thacher Park is also a good place for leaf-peeping in the fall.

The plan was to do the walk, have a picnic, and then drive up to Magic Forest (just south of Lake George). The baby would sleep on the drive, which is a lot better than her whining during the drive.

Foiled! She fell asleep in the backpack just before we got back for the picnic. I felt her forehead heavy on my shoulder. My wife thought she was just looking down. Right! So she napped on a blanket in the shade while we ate our picnic. Very cute. Older daughter flew her kite, but there really wasn't much wind.

Then it was into the car for the long drive to Northway Exit 21, and then another mile or so South on 9 to Magic Forest. This is a nice spot. It's intended for kids under 10 years old. Admission was $50 for the four of us, and all the rides and shows were included. There's not a whole lot there. Hoffmans Playland has more rides. One nice thing about Magic Forest is that it's in a forest (I guess that explains the name) so there's a lot of shade and it feels cooler than other places you might go. The parking lot, however, is not shady so your car might be pretty hot when you get back to it.

So older daughter did a bunch of kiddie rides. I took the baby on one little ride. I think my back will recover (I've been dealing with spasms in my lower back, but that has been improving). When we first got there the baby found a patch of sand near one ride, and she played in the sand for maybe 20 minutes.

Towards the end of our time there we caught the magic show and the diving horse. Yes, they have a horse that dives into a pool. Not sure what PETA would say about it, but I thought it was pretty cool. It's gotta be a 10 foot drop. You don't see that every day.

Met the in-laws for dinner on the way home, stopped over at their house to put the baby in her PJs, and then drove home. Sure enough, the baby fell asleep on the way home.

A pretty nice summer day in Albany.