Our next noteworthy event was our anniversary, 12th of its kind. We had to decide what to do for it. I had a clever idea, which disappointed ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger.
It comes to carousels. In Cass County, Indiana --- not quite at Indiana Beach, but nearby from our perspective in mid-Michigan --- is an antique Dentzel carousel. A Gustav Dentzel carousel, not one of those William Dentzel carousels you've seen everywhere. Gustav was the patriarch; almost none of the carousels his business carved are still operating. And if that weren't impressive enough, the Cass County carousel still operates the brass ring game, where riders on the outer row can reach out and try to grab a ring good for one free ride. We've wanted to get there, and keep thinking of it when we think of going to Indiana Beach, but never think to check when they're open or where precisely they are.
So I checked. Could we get there on our anniversary? Incidentally for this I tried Apple Maps for like the first time since everyone was laughing at it and uh, yeah, it's not bad actually. Anyway in distance certainly; it's closer than Cedar Point and we day trip there all the time. Piggybacking that on a trip to Indiana Beach would be even better, as long as the ride was open. And here was the sticking point. Their web site gives hours, but web site hours rarely keep up with the truth. Their Facebook presence, though, that had a post specifically stating what their hours would be the 4th of July. It had a couple-weeks-old post about their hours for that weekend. From this I supposed that they were open weekends when they could and they were absolutely going to be open the 4th of July.
Thus the idea I pitched. For our anniversary, go to Michigan's Adventure --- but the real fun would be the 4th of July, going down to Indiana Beach and also, hey, the Cass County Carousel was open so we could go there.
I thought bunnyhugger might be disappointed not to go to Indiana Beach for our anniversary --- we'd done that twice before --- but hadn't imagined how much she would rather go down on our anniversary rather than the Thursday after. Even with the promise of the carousel. She stated her belief that the carousel was open most weekends on the web site hours and that the occasional Facebook posting was just reinforcement, not the exception. And she certainly found my Michigan's Adventure idea disappointing for reasons I could not imagine. Did not imagine, at least.
Well. If all we wanted to do was go to Indiana Beach, we'd want to get up around 9 am anyway and hit the road by 10, so, I could call first thing in the morning and ask if they were running the carousel. So that's what we planned. A few tired moments after 9 am on our anniversary we got the confirmation: the Cass County Carousel was running, and we would aim for that to start our anniversary.
Back to Halloween night, now. Let's see what bunnyhugger looks like in her new fursuit, at the hipster bar where we play pinball. Yes, more of that. She's that good-looking.
Velveteen does not approve of how quickly she got the bonus.
Only thing I'm sorry about with this picture is there's no telling where the ball is; a good action shot of that is fun.
And I like how here Velveteen and the playfield almost exist in a void. The side of the game is hidden in shadow, but also by the edge of a booth.
This set of costumers were a safe bet to win the costume contest.
Velveteen having a pretty good game on Monster Bash, considering that ever since it moved to this location it's been brutally hard.
The costume contest going on. Sorry the light is appalling but that's what it was.
Trivia: American athletes to the 1920 Antwerp Olympics rioted aboard the Princess Matoika, the rusted troop carrier bringing them to Belgium. Apparently the sea was rough, the food awful, and the 108 male athletes in below-decks cabins miserable. (Female athletes and a few officials had top-deck cabins.) Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle.
Currently Reading: John Adams, David McCullough.
