Festival of Sail, Port of Oswego

Saturday night we went to the Festival of Sail at the Port of Oswego.  The sky was overcast so there weren’t very many people there, but I enjoyed it – it was the perfect temperature!

The Lynx was sitting beyond the break wall for a while.

Here’s the Pride of Baltimore II:

And the Tallship Unicorn:

The Syracuse of Syracuse, NY:

And the LT-5 Tug Major Elisha K. Henson:

A derrick on land:

The Lynx heading back, motoring because there wasn’t much wind.  I was disappointed because I wanted to see the sails!

We had sweet potato fries – these seem to be becoming more popular!  Then we went swimming in Lake Ontario – well, I hung my feet in the lake, because the lake kind of grosses me out – while others went swimming.

And then we went to Rudy’s Lakeside Drive-In – I was so hungry I forgot to take pics!  But we sat next to Lake Ontario eating our fish sandwich, mmmm.

We then walked around Oswego, but it was too dark to take any more photos, but we’ll be going back!

Samuel Forman’s 1812 Home

This is one cool old home, built in 1812 by Samuel Forman, located on Seneca Turnpike in Syracuse:

It is across the street from Bill’s Inn Fish Fry, where my Dad used to buy fish for us when we were kids, because it was his favorite fish fry. I’ll talk about Bill’s Inn another day. But for now I’ll say, on Saturday night after work, we go there and eat, and I sit facing the old Samuel Forman home across the street. Just because it is one cool, old home:

Hmmm, I wonder if we could take a field trip to this home. I’m going to have to find out. Because the floor plans at the Library of Congress website sure make it look very interesting on the inside.  And I’d like to see what’s behind that oval window.

Fishing

Ruth at Body, Soul and Spirit just did a post on fishing wherein she quoted “there are two types of fisherman – those who fish for sport and those who fish for fish.” I’m actually the former, I fish for the sport of it, to hang out with my friends, or I used to do it to hang out with my Dad.

So one time we were at a family reunion in Manistee on Lake Michigan, and my male cousins, uncles and Dad wanted to go fishing and my Dad wanted me to come along. Yay! I was all for that! So we rented a man with his fishing boat for a day and headed for a deep part of the lake. I was intrigued with the equipment this guy had wherein he could see where the fish were – kind of cheating, right?

We took turns whenever a fish was hooked on a pole. My cousins and my uncle all went first. My one cousin got a trout, and the other guys lost their fish. My Dad, being the gentleman he was, let me go before him. A pole indicated a fish on the line and I got all nervous on the inside, but I got up there and followed fish man’s instructions and my Dad’s instructions and didn’t listen to all of the other advice everyone else was trying to give me. I had a big, heavy fighter on the line. And it had to be tough and circle underneath the boat to the other side. So here I am slowly, carefully, taking what seemed like forever, reeling in this big, heavy, fighting fish:

As soon as you can stop laughing at the big hat (I borrowed it), the big sunglasses and the big shoulder pads, and whatever other icky style thing I had going on, I’ll continue my story. . . hey, all of that stuff was “in style” at one time!

The fish put up a big fight, but I continued to be very slow and methodical even though I was getting very tired (and everyone was offering to take over for me – uh huh, I don’t think so!) and I eventually, after what seemed like forever, WON!! And here’s part of the big salmon I reeled in, along with the fish man (not my Dad) taking the hook out of it’s mouth:

Unfortunately my Dad didn’t capture the whole fish on film, but it was about 36″ long. Fortunately, fish man also gutted it for me (blech!!!!). All I had to do is cut it all up, which took f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

It fed us all for dinner that night (hmmm, probably about 30 of us), and my parents and I both took it home and put it in our respective freezers and had it all winter long. Oh, and all of my male relatives were so pissed off at me they wouldn’t talk to me, but my Dad was very proud and said “that’s my girl!” even when it was brought up years later.

This is my big life-time fishing story. Thanks Ruth, for reminding me of this wonderful day I had with my Dad!

I really do just do it for the sport of it. Which reminds me, I need to get a new license. So I can just hang out by the lake or wherever I want to go and hopefully not lose any lures to the lake.

Speaking of Fish. . .

Well, I wrote of the Salmon I caught, and that I like to fish. I also like to watch the fish in the big tank at the Bass Pro Shops.

Must be the flash came on when I took a photo of this guy:

I guess this next one is a rainbow trout – but I don’t know my fish that well:

I love this guy’s spots:

And this guy looks like he’s sad:

I like this guy’s long mouth area:

And this guy’s stripes and long mouth area:

And this guy’s color is beautiful:

And whatever these fish are, they’re interesting, too!

I think fish are so much fun to look at, do you?