So as I mentioned we were actually headed to Alexandria Bay where I had intended for us to take a boat trip to Bolton's Castle. Alas that was not to be - instead they were holding "Pirate Days"- horror of all horrors... so we made a quick U-turn and headed "out of Dodge" as they say. You see - that thing isn't at all the point of DART- which seeks authentic D A on the road- not fake festivals with people in Halloween costumes....onward....
so we ended up a bit early at our next planned stop in Ogdensburg and decided to lunch first at the local hot spot (and it was hopping...)
the food was not amazing but we did try THEIR mac and cheese soup - still no match for the Newport WA Audrey's Diner mac and cheese soup... :-(
We were in Ogdensburg to visit the Remington Museum/House there- where Remington lived the bulk of his life. Although known best for his western art in Colliers Magazine, he was apparently really an upstate NY guy who had gone west, had the quintessential western experience and returned home and painted from the essence of the west. This is probably why his work is somewhat "mythic west" and has become ingrained in the American culture so completely.
here is a great quote from Wikipedia-
"At sixteen, he wrote to his uncle of his modest ambitions, “I never intend to do any great amount of labor. I have but one short life and do not aspire to wealth or fame in a degree which could only be obtained by an extraordinary effort on my part”." (LOL - have to at least admire his honesty...LOL) He was an active child, large and strong for his age, who loved to hunt, swim, ride, and go camping. He was a poor student, though, particularly in math, which did not bode well for his father’s ambitions for his son to attend West Point. He began to make drawings and sketches of soldiers and cowboys at an early age. At nineteen, he made his first trip west, going to Montana. In the Ol’ West of 1881, he saw the vast prairies, the quickly shrinking buffalo herds, the still unfenced cattle, and the last major confrontations of U.S. Cavalry and native American tribes, scenes he had imagined since his childhood. Though the trip was undertaken as a lark, it gave Remington a more authentic view of the West than some of the later artists and writers who followed in his footsteps, such as N. C. Wyeth and Zane Grey, who arrived twenty-five years later when the Ol’ West had slipped into history.
I find the above work very interesting after just reading that Remington quit Yale Art School because they wanted him to paint and draw from still life settings and plaster casts... you can see early interest in movement led to this masterpiece - note the shadows from the magnificent lighting of this renown sculpture- so dynamic you can feel that horse bucking! Below are some of the works he produced with the ADK and 1,000 Islands area as his subject.... he frequently went to a camp on an island to paint.
but the one thing I was repeatedly drawn to were his horses-
below - a series of horse and mule paintings:
upstairs they had exhibits of other artists- this one of course drew me- LOL - but it was cool close up as it was a mosaic...
detail:
the gift shop held the one object I purchased as a souvenir(gift for Phil) a hand carved Cardinal wooden pen! Along with some cute stuffed horses....
then we headed to the power station on the St Lawrence near the Seaway Locks. Because of security (ha) you couldn't get close enough to really see the locks and since we had done more than one lock by this point, we decided to move on to the power plant museum, which had tons of interesting info-
We were at the Hawkins Point Visitors Center across from the Moses - Saunders Dam (shown below)
and while the focus on the next couple is not fabulous the information is amazing- or at least it was to me...
who knew? but this next one was kind of scary in the big picture way- we are drinking the same water Napoleon bathed in? or the Romans used in their sewer systems????? Not sure this was something I really wanted to dwell upon...
the dam-
and the power grid it supports heading down towards NYC - the way the cloud hung over the towers below reminded me of the emerald city shot in the original OZ...
this one seemed like a power tower family- all different sizes and colors...
the sun was heading down when we left there and headed toward Malone- now we would have no problem reaching that far tonight -since we had left Bolton Castle and the 1,000 Islands cruise behind for the next trip... remember - can't do it all in ONE trip...
and- again... getting near the ADK Park again - we had issues with finding rooms - alas the Super 8 at Jon's (yes that was the name) was right on the road we would take the next day out of town... and had two rooms reasonably priced... the county fair is in town and this was the last night- headliners Little River Band were about to start just about the time we pulled into town.... Vince Gill had been there the prior evening--- so we grabbed dinner at Jon's and took a collector's menu to remember it by and then headed off to sleep, a good day behind us and another incredible one ahead!
Stay tuned because tomorrow we have both The Wild Center and the Adirondack Museum on the schedule!
