Irondequoit- Saturday, August 17, 2024

     Because Julie and Abby had both fallen asleep shortly after 7:00 last night, they were both wide awake at 4:30 this morning and ready to get going.  There was no where that they could go, so Abby had to wait impatiently until 7:00 when breakfast opened.  Then, after eating, Scott and Abby went into the pool while Mom looked on.

      After packing up the car and picking up some drinks, our first stop was at the Irondequoit Bay State Marine Park, near the Seabreeze Amusement Park.  We had been to this park and its marine-themed playground last year and knew Abby would like running around here.  The temperature was in the mid-80s and Abby was quickly overheating.  She had a few meltdowns, and we decided it was time to move to the next stop.

      We drove on to Ontario Beach Park, which we had also visited last year.  As we arrived, Abby asked excitedly, "Is this the perfect beach?"  Dad said he didn't know if it was "perfect," but it was a nice park.  Abby started on the playground there, but soon saw the elaborate splash pad area and wanted to go there.  It was a great place for her to play today because she was able to keep cool as she made friends and ran around.  She played for the better part of an hour there.  She even tried the little waterslide, which she didn't like in Erie, but enjoyed here. 

      As noon approached, we used Dad's extra t-shirt as a towel to dry her off and changed her into a dry set of clothes.  The carousel was opening, and we knew she'd like riding that. The woman selling tickets gave us a little bit of a hard time, partly because we didn't have anything smaller than a $20 to pay with and partly because she didn't like the looks of Abby's wet hair.  You aren't supposed to ride the antique carousel in wet clothes, understandably, but Julie assured her that we had just changed her into dry clothes.   Abby ended up riding twice, and we've got spots left on the punch card that we had to buy if we decide to go back sometime.   

     The clouds were getting darker. and even though we hadn't actually gotten to the sand and the water, we decided to leave the beach area for lunch.  We drove to Tom Wahl's in Avon for lunch.  By the time we got there, Abby had fallen asleep.  We went in anyway, and she slept for the first half of lunch in the booth, but did wake up in time for some french fries and ice cream.

      We drove home after that, with a quick stop at the West Seneca library for some books for Abby and got there just before they closed at 4:00.

      Yesterday, after the train ride and as we arrived at the zoo, Abby declared that Mom was a "good picker."  She liked the things that mom had chosen for us to do.  We repeated that line several times this weekend.  We had a good time for not much money, and came home tired and satisfied.