Last night I dreamed that I had to go to Tokyo for work. It was a very odd dream and one of those ones that you keep waking up from and when you fall asleep you go back to. I was up often enough during the night that when I finally got out of bed I figured that it was after eleven but it was really just a quarter after eight. Very odd. Our room got very cold last night. It was in the low fifties outside and Dominica had the fan going so we were quite cold since we only had one fleece blanket and noting else.
Dominica was up before me so got a jump on the shower. The girls were fast asleep having really worn themselves out yesterday. They slept in until after ten.
We had hoped to be up and out the door by nine thirtyish this morning. Not happening. The plan had been to go get a late breakfast at the Westchester Diner before embarking to Rockland County and the Bear Mountain State Park Zoo for a day with the girls. As it was we got to the diner just after eleven.
Lunch was very good. Liesl opted not to eat, Luciana got pancakes as is her standard. She almost always gets pancakes. Dominica got breakfast and dad and I both got the fisherman’s platter which I had told him was really excellent there. He agreed that it was really exceptionally good.
From the diner we went straight north out of town and over the Bear Mountain Bridge and south to the park. It is really quite close to us in Peekskill. Very little effort.
Bear Mountain State Park, to which we have never been before, was packed with people. The weather was really nice today. Warm but not hot and overcast. No rain though. There were so many people that they had us park out in the grass.
The girls were really excited that there was going to be a carousel at the park today. They both love carousels. We were parked right next to it so we went there first. Neither dad nor Dominica likes being on a carousel so that job of taking care of the girls on the carousel always falls to me. The girls wanted to ride in the “swan boat” so the three of us rode in that. The carousel there is really nice. Although at one dollar per ride, it is not super cheap.
After the carousel we went for a walk. A long walk along Hessian Lake on the 1777 trail took us to the zoo. The zoo there is very small and features animals from the local area. We saw a pair of red foxes, a porcupine, an Eastern Coyote, bald eagle, white tailed deer and tons of other birds. They have a number of “trailside museum buildings” along the trail too which were very nice. One was an fish and amphibian house that Liesl really liked. There were several neat exhibits. The park is excellent as a park, a local wildlife zoo, some neat historical points of interest mostly related to the American Revolution and some miscellaneous natural history museums. The park was partially created by the American Museum of Natural History which helps to explain the focus. And there are tons of really neat trails through the park too.
It was a great day. Exercise, something different and lots of good education for the girls too. On the way back to the car we hit the carousel again, of course. Two more times around.
This evening we crashed at the house and relaxed. We watched Romancing the Stone which none of us have seen in a very many years. What a great movie!