Old Fort Niagara

August 18, 2017 | Stacy

We are the kind of people who arrive at WDW parks an hour before they open. It should have surprised me, then, when we arrived at Old Fort Niagara moments before it opened. (Why don’t we mobilize more quickly on a regular basis???)

I found the campsite at Four Mile Creek to tie in to a visit at Old Fort Niagara. It didn’t register high on any of the kids’ interest scales when mentioned by name, but I showed them a quick peek online the day before we went and it piqued their interests a little. Once we arrived – the gloves were off and we were engaged.

We timed it perfectly to catch the first introductory film of the day.

Unless you know a lot about the history of this fort, I encourage you to take in the short film. (Even if you do know a lot, the film was excellent!)

No sooner had the credits rolled when a gentleman came in and invited anyone who was interested to join him for a free guided tour. For the next 40-50 minutes he narrated and we absorbed. It was outstanding. (He did act a little horrified when we didn’t have great recall on somewhat lesser known American History details: names of ships; the names of the five tribes of Native people in the region, etc. If he chided us more deeply, or suggest I question my children’s teachers, etc., I was prepared to assure him that we knew the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Judges of Israel.)

The fort was awesome, in the fullest sense of that word. I have lived my whole life in Rochester and I have somehow failed to ever visit Old Fort Niagara. We were absolutely BLOWN AWAY by this national treasure.

After we were in the fort itself he said goodbye and we started visiting the interior areas, most with live reenactors. Almost without exception these reenactors were fabulously engaging.

We got to go up into both the Redoubts.

Here’s what really blew us away… while nearby Genesee Country Village and Museum is another wonderful living history museum that we highly recommend, this place? is REAL. REAL battles took place. Real training. A real siege. And we are not only allowed to visit, we are allowed inside building. We could touch things. Sit on things. The overwhelming majority of accessible areas invited investigation. How cool is that?

This building – the Castle – is what the fort originally started with. It was set up with the plan of trading (the lower right hand door and windows were the trading post).

We got to move throughout and so much of it was accessible.

Back outside we visited the greens and met washer women, and soliders, and a black smith (photo above) and a Native American with a handmade canoe.

They taught us about the life of soldiers, and the method of fighting, and for a little while, anyway, it was “ok” to like the Redcoats. Winking smile

We learned so much. And I can’t do justice to the history of this place. I’m so glad I finally saw it and think it might be the best kept secret in Western NY.

Ecclesiastes 3:8
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace

Campers ‘R Us

August 18, 2017 | Stacy

We woke slightly before seven. Well – there was also that 2 A.M. bathroom run…

I had my electric griddle and had the dry ingredients for pancakes prepped in a ziploc along with a recipe for assembling the wet ingredients. I have no idea what went wrong but they were runny. Very runny. So they ended up flat and spread out. So we had non-circles that we rolled up and dipped into syrup.

Or sprinkled on powdered sugar. They were crepe like, come to think of it.

That turned out to be the one thing about big-family camping I didn’t love. I wanted people to eat when it was hot, so we didn’t all eat together. It was a bit of a production, although it was fun to do it in a way. I just didn’t like not eating together.

After breakfast we headed a few miles west to Old Fort Niagara. I am going to do a separate post about that.

I did a pretty nice job with lunch, didn’t I?

Ok. I admit it. We ate at the Silo in Lewiston. It was delicious AND they went about and beyond with food safety for Stewart. Big thumbs up.

Katriel and Johanna got ice cream with their kids’ meals.

As John and the kids piled into the big van I wandered over to this statue. While walking I was thinking of little quips about what they were possibly pointing at in Canada. As I drew closer I got excited –

What a beautiful statue!!! Yeah. There was definitely a time when the sight of Canada meant freedom. Good job, Lewiston.

Back at camp we ~~stared at each other for hours~~ enjoyed one another’s company. Some hacky-sack. Some frisbee. Some football. Some Disney Emoji Blitz. Some checkers.

Dinner was pizza mountain pies and s’mores. There were more games and bedtime around 9:30 P.M. again. We were exhausted.

1 John 4:7:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

That thing where the Butlers go camping.

August 18, 2017 | Stacy

I’ve never been into the idea of camping. It just never screamed “vacation!!!” to me. Normally, when we travel, we look for rental houses. The idea is to stay in a place that is equal to, or nicer than, the house we live in. Alternatively, it’s nice to stay in a lovely hotel that possibly offer breakfast, a hot tub and someone to make your bed for you.

I’m not sure where the idea even took seed. But for whatever reason, there it was, in my head. And one day it dawned on me that while it was perfectly normal for a person to grow up and say, “My parents never took me to the Panama Canal,” or “My parents never took me to the Great Wall of China,” it was NOT at all okay for someone to say, “My parents never took me camping.” Like – who can’t camp? (** please note – it is hideous for a person to grow up saying, “My parents never took me to Disney World.” Just sayin’. **)

So – things started to fall into place ridiculously quickly. We did have to move it from June to August because I only had two weekends off this summer and the first one would have required the kids to miss their last week of baseball and they were enjoying it too much!

So my friend Jamie lent us two tents, three mattresses, and two chairs.
My friend Sharon lent us a stove we didn’t end up using but was glad to have.
My friend Jackie lent us an easy up.

And it took two cars to get all the people, gear, and food to our destination. Thankfully, we picked somewhere only two hours from home.

We stayed at Four Mile Creek State Park. I chose it with very little research based solely on its proximity to Old Fort Niagara. The Fort is a place I’d always wanted to visit and we knew we needed something to do all day besides stare at each other. (Nigel would tell you we did plenty of staring at each other as it was!)

It took much longer to get there than it should of because it dawned on me 45 minutes in to our trip that we’d forgotten the thing to blow up the mattresses. We had to back track to a Walmart in Greece to purchase one. Then there was construction. ‘Nuff said.

Once we arrived the site took shape VERY quickly. Having lots of young adults helped tremendously.

Imagine our surprise when we opened up Jamie’s tote of mattresses and found – wait for it – TWO air pumps. Can’t write this stuff.

There was a little rain. Then there was a lot of rain. Then there was a little rain again. I think it was fine. It kept the bugs away and we had plenty of dry time for cooking.

Katriel is sad that her corn is hot.

Stewart helped. A lot. He was by far the most eager to give camping a try and he was tremendously helpful.

And goofy.

We played some games and realized just how dark it does get. We were in bed 9:30 P.M. ish, I think. Interestingly, some of us found the sound of the rain pleasant and soothing, while others found it like nails on a chalkboard. God makes us all so differently.

Psalm 121:8
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore