Tuesday, July 6- Sackets Harbor

There’s an enormous amount of remodeling being done at our hotel, the likes of which we haven’t seen since that one in Nashville. The whole first floor seems torn up, and there were cranes along the outside this morning. Our room itself is nice enough, though. It seems that all the work is being done because of a change in affiliation. When we booked the room it was under one chain’s name and now it is another one. We normally don’t like to name the names of hotels in this blog, but lets just say that it went from one that you could spend many “Days In” to one that you could expect more “Comfort In.” Anyway, we chose it in part because there was a pool, but the pool we have to use is now in the hotel across the street.

We got up early and went into Sackets Harbor. We knew that the museums we wanted to see were not going to be open until ten, but we also knew that the temperature was expected to be in the 90s. We figured we could use that time to walk around the battlefield and explore 1812 history there before it got too unbearable. Emma would probably say that our plan didn’t work. She certainly didn’t enjoy the walk, and later said there was “Nothing! Just two cannons!” Still, we did what we could to enjoy exploring in spite of the heat. It helped that, in addition to interpretive signs, there was a cell-phone tour. You called a certain number on your cell phone, and when you got to certain points on the battlefield, the signs would tell you to enter a certain number. The recorded message would then tell you about what you were near. The novelty was nice, though the voices often sounded like they were on tapes that were wearing out.

Somewhere after 10:00, the museums were open, so we started to explore them. We began with the battlefield’s visitor center. Dad was excited to buy a CD of New York State Folk songs there that used the same lyrics to the song, “The Mermaid” that Rush the Growler uses. There might be hundreds of different versions of this song, but this one comes from Arcade, NY, from the 1840s.

Our next stop was the regular visitor’s center for Sackets Harbor. It is in the 1803 home of Augustus Sacket, which must have been there during the battle. We watched a short but enjoyable video of the history of the town. Then we went to the nearby Discovery Center for the Seaway Trail. This museum is essentially the visitor’s center for the whole of the fresh water coast of New York State. It had a number of exhibits that invited the girls to play, plus its exhibits highlighted many places we’ve been before (like Fort Niagara and the Strong Museum), and places that we’d like to visit soon.

We went out into the heat again, but made our way towards Southwick Beach, about 12 miles from Sackets Harbor. There, we had a picnic lunch of the food that Julie had packed, and we enjoyed the shade with a cooling breeze coming in from off of Lake Ontario. Naturally, after eating, the girls waded into the lake to cool down. The water itself was surprisingly warm, and felt wonderful as the gentle waves curled in over the rippled sand. Anna enjoyed digging in the mud and sand at the edge of the water, but was surprised to find that the sand was wearing off the polish from the nails that she had recently had done for Uncle John’s wedding.

After the beach, we headed back to Sackets Harbor, and stopped at Alexander Corners General Store for ice cream. Next to it was a rather unusual memorial garden for veterans which included a rather modern looking tank and helicopter. We suppose that they came from nearby Fort Drum. Back at Sackets Harbor itself, we visited the military cemetery and the Madison Barracks which are now apparently modern private apartments.

Scott was excited to go to the Sackets Harbor Brewing Company pub, which is home to the War of 1812 Ale he recently discovered. Unfortunately, the kitchen was closed for an hour as they switched to the dinner menu, and we had to kill time in the town waiting for a chance to eat. We looked at the boats in the quiet harbor, and visited the few stores that there were. When we finally did eat, Scott not only had a pint of the 1812 Ale, but Julie also talked him into ordering a sampler of each of the seven brews that they had on tap. Meanwhile, we all had dinner and shared “highs and lows” of the day.

We’re now back in Watertown, where we will be spending the night in the same hotel we did last night. We stopped at the Borders bookstore in the mall across the street to get some things to keep us all entertained in the car. Then we went across the street to the pool, where the girls cooled down again.