Adirondack Family Time™

Just a quick note for anyone looking for a rainy day activity this weekend. Pendragon Theatre is performing Moby Dick Rehearsed November 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. on November 22. My ten-year-old and I attended the opening and we both loved it. It is remarkably well done. Even if you have not read the Herman Melville book of the white whale, the play brings to life that suspenseful tale of the sea that all can enjoy. Pendragon Theatre has managed to tell the story in just two hours. For an unabridged annual reading marathon you would have to travel well outside the Adirondacks to the New Bedford Whaling Museum where each year the book is read out loud by approximately 150 readers in a mere 25 hours.

The winter hours for The Wild Center are November 1st - Memorial Day: Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Bowling for Prizes I have never thought about bowling as something to do on the fly, go in for a quick game and leave. In my experience it has always been on outing. Romano’s Saranac Lanes has changed my opinion with all the various activities they have going on for children. Anyone wondering what to do with their children during school closings (snow days, conference days) may want to rethink bowling as an option where the special is $5.00 for two games and $1.00 for shoes. Though I am a huge fan of manual labor on school closings, I am sure my children would prefer to bowl. That said, there is also after school bowling from 3:00 -5:00 for the same $6. As far as my daughter is concerned bowling is all about the shoes. She does not care about the score on the screen or that her brother fist pumps with each pin down. She is there to see and be seen. Once again Romano’s Saranac Lanes has generously offered to hold another fundraiser. Twenty-four teams of five can sign up for the Nort

Trivia: What is the New York State bird? Answer Here

If you missed the live stream of the The Adirondack Youth Climate Summit that took place this past weekend at the Wild Center, please check out the video of the event. Workshops were scheduled throughout the two-day event pairing students with experienced personnel to inspire the 150 participants to come up with working models to green their schools and communities. Twenty high schools and six universities participated in this inaugural event. These institutions will serve as models in energy efficiency, sustainable energy usage, building maintenance, landscaping & grounds management, school & community garden planning, and how to affect the current science curriculum in schools. Read more

Did the rain or flu limit your ability to enjoy a bit of spooky happenings on Halloween? There is still an opportunity to continue the thrills and chills by seeing this year’s production of Sleepy Hollow, directed by Jessica Deeb. Based on the classic short story by Washington Irving, this musical pulls from a range of local child actors, ages five to fourteen. The story of Sleepy Hollow it takes place in 19th Century Dutch settlement of Tarrytown, NY where a gangly superstitious schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane comes to Sleepy Hollow looking for a wealthy wife. He meets Katrina Van Tassel whose brawny jealous boyfriend, Brom Bones, uses local stories to attempt to frighten off his rival. The townspeople further Crane’s fears with stories of the local ghost, the Headless Horseman. My daughter and I nip into the Lake Placid Center for the Arts for a quick preview. The Headless Horseman is sitting on stage waiting for the dress rehearsal to begin. She makes a beeline for my leg and peer

My children greet Stan Burdick, director of the Ticonderoga Cartoon Museum like he is the cable man and just offered free access to unlimited channels. They look at me like I am the only thing holding them back from nirvana. I brought them here. It is not the same thing as blankly sitting in front of a television though I stop short of telling them that. I shush them off making sure they carefully maneuver through the aisles. This museum is the result of Stan Burdick’s 50-year collection of cartoon memorabilia. A political cartoonist himself, Burdick contributed to many local newspapers during his career. His work has been selected numerous times for the annual publication, “Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year” and in 1996 he won the New York Press Association Award for his editorial cartoon of Eliot Spitzer. The museum houses over 700 pieces of original art from mainstream cartoonists like Chuck Jones’ Bugs Bunny, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, and Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury to the m