The Blaze

When we were in England, our landlords forbade us from displaying our Jack-O-Lanterns. They did not celebrate Hallowe'en because they thought it was too pagan. Well, setting aside the demonic aspects, Hallowe'en is a blast, and after our experience in England we discovered it is much better with lots of carved pumpkins. After our pumpkin fast, imagine our delight when we discovered THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE last year, near Washington Irving's Sleepy Hallow, no less! This year we knew we had to go back and see the thousands of carved Jack-O-Lanterns again. So we bought our tickets early. Unfortunately Christine fell ill the day we had our tickets. Feeling impetuous I, Lyndon decided to brave the cold dark world and take Coco to THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE all by myself. Things were complicated when just before it was time to leave, Coco took a nasty fall and cut her lip on the asphalt while on a trip to the grocery store. After changing out of our blood soaked clothes (that is not hyperbole), and consulting Coco's wishes, I decided to forge ahead with our plans to attend THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE.

 

We arrived at the THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE without incident. I listened to some Tchaikovsky while Coco napped. We bought a sandwich and a lunchable for dinner and headed for THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE.

 

The thing to remember about THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE is that it is dark. So with each beautifully crisp picture, please imagine me croaching, with the camera on the ground (for lack of a tripod) with Coco either clinging to me or running off in the wrong direction. In life one must choose between taking good pictures and being a good parent. You decide which I chose.

 

 

Van Cortland Manor all dressed up for Halloween.

 

 

A hairy snake??

 

 

Coco with her bruised lip. She was very well behaved at THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE, if a bit too adventurous.

 

 

Here you can particularly tell that the camera is on the ground. It makes these flowers seem gargantuon. Makes me think of Through the Looking Glass.

 

 

Floating fairies.

 

 

Giant worms??

 

 

I tried unsuccessfully to get Coco to look at me here. Too many interesting things to look at.

 

 

All the great gothic monsters lined up together. Frankenstein, Mummy, Dracula, Skelaton and Witch.

 

 

Flash makes things seem not so spooky.

 

 

Is this skelaton merely friendly or crawling out of the ground to devour us?

 

 

Hard to Rest in Peace with those bats flying above you. Seriously guys, learn to read. How many times do we have to write the same thing on our tombstones and still you don't get it.

 

Never separate a spider and his web.

 

 

This web is pretty big. Coco loved it. She made a miniature spider's web at a crafting event with her friends.

 

 

The skelaton spider.

 

 

Something wicked this way comes. Luckily Macbeth did not himself make an appearance.

 

 

This was Coco's favorite part, the TUNNEL OF LOVE. All of the pumpkins were carved with hearts. A worker mentioned the tunnel at the start of our tour, and Coco had been talking about it ever since. When we got here she did not want to leave. She just kept talking about it.

 

 

 

Coco also loved the giraffe, elephant and lion,

 

 

the Dragon,

 

 

and the Dinosaurs.

 

 

Coco and I had a great time. Coco now loves pumpkins, so we carved one tonight. Not as good as the ones we saw at THE GREAT JACK-O-LANTERN BLAZE, but Coco still loves it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!