2026 August: Crane Repair and Fun Times

 18 August 2026

We had so much fun last time, that our neighbor, Marina, invited us over to her place again for another musical evening. This time her daughter, Jenny, was visiting from her home in the Boston area and joined in the fun. Jenny and her mom put together a delicious meal. Next we had a guitar / piano sing-along.  Lastly, we ended the evening with Strawberry Rhubarb pie from Delicious Orchards with vanilla ice cream on the side. Fun night!

Clark brought some music to share. The day before he had spent the afternoon playing a number of songs. At one point I joined him to sing while he played. I helped him work out the placement of chord changes on some songs. I thought he would play some of those this evening with Marina, but he had other songs in mind for her. 

They frequently had to "put their heads together" to work through some of the songs. 

I am fascinated as I watch Marina play the piano. Many times, the music pieces Clark presents to her are ones she is not familiar with. Even so, her fingers fly over the keys to produce beautiful music. Never once does she appear to look at her fingers as they move up and down the piano's keyboard.

As she played, Marina discovered that she loved the composition of a song from Carole King's Tapestry album (Will You Love Me Tomorrow), so Clark loaned her the CD to hear more of Carole King's tunes.

21 August 2026

A little over a month ago, in mid-July, Clark and I found an oily fluid at the base of the crane used to lift our dinghy off the boat and into the water. That led to us taking the crane apart to determine the source of the leakage. I described the disassembly in my August 5th posting of the blog. The pictures taken at that time are shown below.

Leaking hydraulics

Cables shedding their skin

Looking up from under the crane

After a month of waiting for the new parts to arrive, we were finally able to start repairs today. Thankfully, the weather cooperated. We had temps in the 70s with a cool breeze. This repair was difficult for a variety of reasons, but it would have been tortuous on a hot day! 

When we removed the cylinder and cable to be sent away for repair work, we boosted the crane up and propped it on a tall block of wood we use to support the mast when we lower it for bridges, etc. For what we needed to do at that time, it was sufficient. However, to do the replacement work, Clark felt we needed more visibility and headroom, so he propped the crane up on a ladder while we worked.

Ladder propping up crane with white
board next to it being what we used last time

Fortunately, there was a ring bolt on the end of the crane that nestled nicely into a groove in the top of the ladder and held the rather precarious assembly stable.

Clark said we had to run the new cables first - there were 6 of them, and then we could reinstall the hydraulic cylinder to complete the project. We had removed one cable to determine length and sent it, as well as the cylinder, to the repair shop as a model for production of the new replacement cables.

New cables! Yay!

To do the disassembly / assembly cable work, Clark laid on his back as shown below. With the tight space inside the crane housing, he could not get both hands with wrenches in to unscrew / screw in the connecting bolts. I peeked inside, took one look at what was required to disconnect the old / connect the new cables, and knew I had no prayer of achieving success ever! Thankfully, it wasn't my job!

When we pulled out the old / sample cable to send away for replication, Clark connected a line to the cable, so when we pulled it through, it would become available to use later to feed the replacement cable back down to the bottom of the boat where the motor resides. We struggled to get the old one out due to limited space in the pathway from upper helm to the bilge.  Pulling the new cable through, we met some resistance when it reached the far end, but a bit of a tug got this first step in a long process completed. Only 5 more cables to connect!

First cable in place!

When we did the first cable, we had to tape it to the pulling string. The tape although necessary, added bulk we did not need. For the remaining three cables to be pulled from top to bottom, Clark had a connector with male fittings on each end that allowed us to connect the old cable to the new one. With this done, each new cable easily followed its old cable partner down the hole and out the other end! 

The crane moves up, down, in, out, left, right ... it's a busy bee when its working! The connections of the cables make all that happen. When we removed the one cable to send to the repair shop, Clark had me label its partner that remained behind with an "F" for forward. The cable we removed, he said, was for aft. 

Clark and I both got a workout with this project - he more than me! Each cable required going repeatedly from work at the upper helm to work in the bilge. Access to the crane's motor is the worst! It is via the lazarette where Clark has to move a lot of stuff out of the way, including spare power cables, kayak paddles, buckets of cleaning supplies, and more, to create a crawl space. He then crawls over items that were not removed to climb into the compartment where the motor resides. 

He cannot stand up and even turning around is difficult. When he is in there and needs something, I am the runner to go get it. We can pass items back and forth to each other under the exhaust hose shown in the picture. Whatever lovely breeze we could feel was entirely blocked down here. Clark had a fan running for some air and a flashlight nearby to see what he was doing.

Clark in the cramped compartment 
in the bottom of the boat that holds the motor

To install the replacement hydraulic cylinder, we had a bit of a puzzle to solve. Two metal rods hold the cylinder in place. Taking the old cylinder out had been relatively easy and included removing those metal rods. Even so, removing one of them had been a bit of a trick requiring Clark to contact the sellers of our type of boat to learn what needed to be done. It had a short locking screw holding it in place that had to be removed. 

To insert the rod back in place we had to line up the hole for the locking screw, and then hammer the rod into place. To reattach the other end of the cylinder, we had an even bigger puzzle to solve. Two washers needed to be set in place as the metal rod was driven through. How did the washers get in that tight of a space? 

We had optimistically hoped to complete the crane repair in one day. However, that was not meant to be. By the time we got the cables installed and one end of the cylinder in place, it was late and we had no plan for how to resolve the washer issue. 

Since it was past time for dinner, we decided, i.e. Clark decided, that we should "call it a day". He said he would call his contacts at Krogen Express for insight on how to proceed. Anticipating that it might rain the next day, we dragged in our tools, etc. but kept them handy for the next day's work. After that, I was happy to head to the house to get dinner going. Fortunately, I had leftovers I could throw on top of a frozen pizza for a delicious dinner. 

From rolling around on the floor of the compartment with the motor, Clark's clothes were a disgusting, oily mess. When he returned to the house, I made him remove his clothes immediately. I was ready to throw his shirt in the garbage, but he asked me to run it through the washer to see if we can keep it for future use as a work shirt. (insert eye roll here!)

22 August 2026

When I looked out the window this morning, it had just started to rain. I checked the forecast / radar, and it looked like any weather would be gone by 11:00. However, the few "spits" of rain I saw earlier were the only ones we received in our area for the day, and work on the crane could begin as soon as we finished breakfast. Great?!

Yesterday, not knowing that there was a piece of the crane that could be removed to replace the cylinder, we had tried to work around it. Our attempts at taping the washers to the cylinder had failed spectacularly. With input from those with experience, Clark learned that a protective, decorative plate could be pried off the bottom of the crane. Doing this improved the situation considerably. 

Of course nothing ever seems to go seamlessly, and the work to pry to plate off caused a bit of damage that had to be repaired. Clark pulled out the epoxy kit while I cleaned the plate to be worked on. I then assisted as he applied the epoxy, and we set it aside to be reinstalled when ready.

To insert the second of the metal rods, we had to align the holes in the cylinder block with the holes in the crane perfectly. Both the crane and the cylinder are heavy in weight. I can hold the cylinder, but I cannot lift the crane even a smidgeon. I had the job of lifting the cylinder into place while Clark fidgeted with lifting the crane up and down. As we both set down our parts of the endeavor for a rest, I had come to the conclusion that our efforts were futile. 

I said, "We need a jack hammer!" Clark looked at me and said, "I have no idea what that is!" By then I knew I had said the wrong thing. "We need a jack like you use to lift a car. Then we can get it in place and hold it there." He actually thought it was a good idea and went off to the house in search of one. When he came back and started to work on the crane, I noticed a blood stain on the deck. 

"Did you hurt yourself? I see blood." I examined him and found his knee was scraped. He explained that in his search for a jack in our overcrowded garage, he had tripped over a bicycle, fell against a garbage can, and struggled with my "little red wagon" (that I mostly use while gardening) as it rolled across the garage. We later found two red marks striping his abdomen! It must have been a spectacular fall!  Earlier when he was working on the cylinder, a wrench fell and hit him on the cheek. Ouch! I was glad it had not hit his eye!

I am sure I would have taken a long time to recover from the accident in the garage, but he just returned to work on the crane as if nothing had happened. If I hadn't seen the blood, I would never have known, well, at least not until later when I saw the red marks across his stomach! 

Clark wanted a jack that was not hydraulic, and he found what he wanted in the trunk of our car. The jack worked well as it allowed us to finetune the placement of the crane. First, Clark inserted the pin from the back side of the arm just enough to insert one of the nylon washers that has to fit between the cylinder and the inside of the case onto the pin leaving room to swing up the cylinder. The jack was adjusted to align the hole lengthwise while we pushed the cylinder up to align the hole vertically. Tapping on the pin got is started through the hole in the end of the cylinder.

Next, the second nylon washer for the other side was inserted with screwdrivers between the cylinder and the case and carefully aligned. Eventually, we were able to tap the pin through the second washer. Continued tapping on the pin pushed the bearing material out of the hole in the side of the arm requiring further alignment and tugging to get the pin aligned to the center of the hole so that the bearing material could be reinserted. Eventually, we got it started and were able to screw the bearing covers onto the end of the shaft and tap the pin back into the centered position and put on the remaining bearing cover.

The dinghy was still in place making the space tight, and the railing was aligned with the position of the pin complicating that work. As we got closer to the end, the longer each item took. There was a problem with the bearing cover threads so the tap and die set had to come out for the covers to go back on. The process of running the rod through the holes while inserting the washers was frustrating and took a significant amount of time, but finally the cylinder was installed! 

Clark replaced the panel we had epoxied, and it was time for a test. Rotate left and right worked just fine. However, when Clark depressed the "luff up" button, nothing happened. At first we thought it might just take time for the air to get pushed through the long cables, but eventually, Clark decided that just maybe the up an down cables were reversed. He pushed the "down" button, and sure enough, the crane went up. Apparently, we still got them swapped even with all our care and labeling. Now the two cables needed to be reversed. 

Clark hoped he would not need to climb back to the cables by going into and through the lazarette. Unfortunately the connectors for forward and aft were on top of the cylinder and therefore no longer accessible without uninstalling the pin we had just installed. Thus, climbing into the lazarette was his only other choice. All the items in the lazarette removed for accessing the cables had been put back, so once again we had to pull it all back out. 

The cables had been secured in place with wire ties that had to be disconnected, the connections swapped, and the cables then resecured with wire ties. Through all this up and down and in and out, I had to be the "runner" for whatever he needed. That meant I was up and down stairs to get things - sometimes from the upper helm, sometimes from the engine room, etc. Since I can't reach him in his cubbyhole without descending into the lazarette, I was in and out of there multiple times as well. Needless to say, we both got a lot of exercise over the last couple of days.

With the cable swap completed, we were back up top with the crane for another test. This time it worked as designed, and our repair appeared to be completed. 

Yay! Crane goes up when it should go up!

However, when the crane retracted, it made a squealing sound that Clark decided had to be investigated. He was afraid that something internal to the crane, separate and distinct from the cylinder replacement, was misaligned, so he took it apart. I was very concerned as Clark stood on the very edge of the deck pulling on the front of the crane to remove it. I was afraid the momentum, if it came off suddenly, would throw him over the side. 

A fall to the deck or dock from that height with railing to hit on the way down could result in injury I did not wish to think about! I warned him to be careful, wrapped my hand around his belt to hold onto him, and grabbed my other hand around the boat railing to prevent either of us from a fall. It was probably not needed. It might have been a useless effort if he actually did fall. It gave me a little comfort. He was fine!

Front of crane to be removed

One very long rope weaves through the crane to make action happen. Years ago we took the crane apart and restrung it as the line was old and had stretched. Today, it looked all too familiar!

Checking the lines and sheaves

Clark examined the line, and all appeared to be in order. He was afraid one might be out of its appropriate track and causing friction, but we could find nothing out of place. Before putting the cover back on the crane, Clark attached a line to the end of the crane rope and fed it through the crane's hook so as not lose the end of the line as we put the crane back together. We had a box under the crane to collect anything that fell or came off the assembly as we worked on it. We did not want any parts falling overboard.

With the crane back together, it was time for the real test -- could we lift the dinghy and get it into the water from the top of the boat? The consequences of a crane failure with the dinghy in the air would be severe to say the least. I held my breath as the crane started to lift the dinghy. When it looked like it would be successful, I went below to grab lines as it reached the water.

Given the dinghy was now in the water, we decided to go for a cruise for a fun break from the work. We headed out of our creek to see what we could see.

"Taking my picture, again!?"

Clark made faces at me as I aimed my camera. He did not know I had it set for a selfie!

Happy to be on the water!

Sunset Delight requires at least 4 feet of water under the keel. There are places local to us that we do not go in that boat for depth, and maneuverability, reasons. I took some pictures as we explored waters we have not traveled in a few years. Our travels took us into the Little Silver lagoons. 

We passed a house that has been here "forever". It is clearly old, and given the number of chimneys (Clark counted 8), it must date back to before central heating existed.

Older home on Little Silver Creek

We noticed some differences in other houses - many of them had grown in size. The one shown below is a combination of brick and vinyl(?) siding. It wraps around the entire end corner of a lagoon. Apparently, they connected what used to be a standalone 3-car garage to the house by adding some living area and one additional garage opening. The garage space added has garage doors front and back, which were open so we could see through. Needless to say the structure was huge.

Another, nearby house, was also breathtaking in size. The picture shown below does not do it justice. It is like three houses joined together as one!

As we motored around, Clark kept an eye on the depths. He made me nervous as we approached the end of one lagoon. The trees were crowding in and the water was getting shallower. He asked me, "Do you want to have your hair combed?" (I was facing the stern and did not know what was coming up behind me) I looked around and saw a low-hanging branch from a tree. "Ah ... no thanks? Please turn around!"

Branch hanging over water at end of lagoon

He replied, "I'm not sure I can turn around here." He reversed up the lagoon until he found a spot with more space. Phew!

Many houses were familiar. Clark noted differences in some. Other than the size I noted earlier, I had no clue what the houses used to look like. It has literally been years since we explored these lagoons. 

I noted a couple of things of interest to me.

"Boy Fishing"
statue at the edge of one property

One house has a honest-to-goodness tree house with a tree growing through it.

We saw the mom sitting by her pool in the backyard. As we motored by a young boy started calling out hello to us, so I waved. I guess he thought we hadn't heard him, so he yelled again, and yet again. Clark said, "What is he saying?" I replied that he is saying, "Hello Doofus". I had understood him the second and third times and waved back all the harder apparently frustrating him. Eventually, his mother grabbed him and told him to be quiet.

Of course out trip on the water took us past a few birds of varying types. 

2 Cormorant sentries guarding the boat behind them

Osprey
fishing from a red marker

Blue Heron on a dock

Another Blue Heron
on another dock

And we saw two deer in a backyard with two fawns lying in the grass nearby.

Coming into our creek, I noticed a boat that catches my attention every time. I wonder how they chose the boat name.

"Weekend at Bernie's"

With our little excursion completed, we returned home to put the dinghy back in place for the final crane test. It was successful and the dinghy is back where it belongs. Clark decided that he needed to make himself more work by washing the bottom of the dinghy. When I went to put the rail covers back in place, I found stitching had come out, so I found my sewing tools and sat down to do a repair. 

We still had tools out from the earlier crane work, so all that had to be cleaned up and put away where it belonged. As I walked up to the house, I noticed some really tall crabgrass and pulled that out on my way by. Even the house, when I returned there, presented work as Clark had left the box the crane parts were delivered in sitting in the middle of the floor in the den. That had to be discarded / sorted into garbage vs recycle vs packing material to keep. 

We were both tired and grimy. I made meatloaf with mashed potatoes and baby peas for dinner.  We ended the day by watching a few episodes from the Netflix series "Outer Banks". Season 5 was just released this past Thursday!

23 August 2026

After the work done yesterday and the day before, my legs are telling me how many stairs I climbed and how often I climbed into the lazarette. Clark pulled out his guitar for some relaxing strumming, and I decided to update the blog. No boating today!

2026 August: Local NJ Boating

 13 August 2026

Before our last trip to the Bahamas, Clark made a spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a small dinghy that we could use there that we could "beach" to go ashore. Unfortunately, that did not work out as well as we hoped as we had no engine to propel the dinghy and no time to buy one before we had to depart to catch a weather window. 

That dinghy has sat in our basement waiting for its turn to be useful ever since. This past week Clark decided we should drag it out of the basement and set it up for potential use. We have a 4-HP outboard that he could use to propel it, but before he could do that, he needed to register the boat in NJ to be legal out on the water. 

Before we could go to the MVC (Motor Vehicle Commission) to register it, Clark needed to find the documents showing proof of ownership, bill of sale, etc. For over a week we looked high and low - on the boat and all over the house. Usually I am the one to find things but not this time. Luckily, Clark did stumble over it finding it near related boating equipment. Once he found the documents, he ran off to the MVC to get the registration done. 

I realized after he left, and too late to warn him, that he would need a reservation to get any work done. Some 30 to 45 minutes later he returned saying he had been unsuccessful as 1) he did need a reservation and 2) our Eatontown location no longer performs this function. He would need a reservation in a town about 30-minutes drive north of us. Some years ago (not so many years) a New Jersey governor did a facelift on the, then called, DMV (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) to make it more efficient and renamed it the MVC to take away the stigma and stink of the inefficient old system. Oh well - nice try!

Clark scheduled his appointment, which unfortunately was several days into the future, made the appointment, and got the boat registered. Now that he had the boat registered, he needed to put the registration numbers on the boat. (No wonder it has sat in our basement for a couple of years!) Recently, the last West Marine near us closed permanently. Clark did not think the one in Brick would sell the letters / numbers to apply anyway, so he ordered them online. 

When they finally arrived, he stuck them on boards (made for this application) that he could hang on each side of the dinghy proudly displaying the registration data. Before applying the new letters / numbers, he removed the old ones from the board and cleaned the board with acetone. (Taking the dinghy for a run had turned into a full-blown project!)

Now, finally, to take the dinghy for a test ride!  Having no idea when the outboard was last used or how well it would run, I decided to let Clark go out on his own first. I would join him after he approved its condition. If he had to row back, we did not need my weight in the boat, and I did not want to assist in rowing it!

Surprisingly, the engine had gasoline in it, and it had not turned into a gluey substance. Clark ran the boat out to the end of our creek and even made it back again! Now it was time for both of us to go for a spin!

Clark at "helm" and 
Ev up front to enjoy a dinghy ride

When Clark went out on his own, he ran the engine up on speed and tried to get the dinghy up on plane. Even with just him in the boat, that was a no go. Given that, our excursion was a very slow ride out to Pleasure Bay and back to the house. 

The first thing I noticed as we exited our creek was that we were on an eye-to-eye level with a bird sitting on the no wake float and monitoring the waterway.

At eye level with a sea gull

Rather than just going to the end of our creek and back home again, Clark took us down a neighboring lagoon that we don't ever navigate on Sunset Delight due to narrow width concerns. The first thing we both noticed as we entered the lagoon was the smell. Just one creek over from us and ours isn't odiferous. As I scrunched up my nose at the smell, Clark said, "Manure!" Lovely! 

Even so, we continued down the creek to the end (very short ride) to check out the view. 

Clark's favorite tree is the Weeping Willow and one house on the creek had two of them. One was a real beauty and the other did not look quite so healthy.

Gorgeous Weeping Willow
on a Rumson lagoon

As we exited that waterway, I asked Clark if he planned to check out any more shallow lagoons, and he said, "No". He noticed that the "tell tale" on the outboard (per Google also referred to as the "pee hole") was dripping and not streaming. He keeps an eye on it and knew it had been streaming when we left. He was concerned that blades on the impellor had broken up due to age. As soon as we pulled up to the dock, he went into investigation mode.

"Why isn't the outboard peeing?"

Before doing any more aggressive investigation, Clark decided to use a thin piece of metal (like a very thin coat hanger type metal) to see if the hole was plugged. That, in fact, was the issue and, thus, a very quick fix! Yay!

Dinghy with NJ registration plates

So, now we have a usable, registered dinghy. What we don't have is a complete solution for bringing it with us on Sunset Delight for quick and easy way to get to shore (unlike our current dinghy which is tedious to deploy). How do we carry it with us? What engine do we buy for it (not gasoline)? Clark is doing research on electric motors and trying to decipher their power ratings into HP equivalent - not my idea of fun!

16 August 2026

The weather yesterday and today was simply put - amazing! We had temps in the high 70s or low 80s with low humidity. It actually felt cool outside! Yesterday, the 15th, I decided to do some gardening work. Every time I turn around the weeds have reappeared. They come up in between the pavers we earlier this summer had cleaned up as well as in the rock landscaping we have near the creek and everywhere in between.

Given that hard work yesterday, it sounded good when Clark said we should take Sunset Delight out for a maintenance run. We generally try to move the boat every 7 to 10 days to help keep the bottom clean. Plus, Clark had done some engine work recently and needed to check for any further leaks, etc. 

We headed out at noon. We are generally gone for about 90 minutes if it is a simple maintenance run. With rain threatened for later in the day and high tide mid-day, we pulled in our lines and went out for our ride just as the clock showed 12:00 noon. 

Neighbor's Flags flapping in the breeze

As we crossed Pleasure Bay heading towards Sea Bright, we could feel a pretty strong breeze blowing. Looking over the beach at Sea Bright, I noticed an airplane pulling a banner quite low to the shoreline. I don't normally see them that low to the ground and wondered how he managed the wind with a banner trailing behind him. I also wondered what size audience he might have today as it felt cool for a day at the beach. 

Plane and banner just over the rooftops

As we went past a marina in Sea Bright, I noticed a crane on a barge at dock. The tow boat name was funny.

"Tug O' War"
at dock in Sea Bright

When we arrived home in the spring, we noticed that almost all of the day markers were gone from Pleasure Bay due to the weather over the winter. They were nicely put back in place a few weeks after that. It did not take long for boat to knock one over. The green marker (shown below) that marks the start of the channel we take to cross the bay to our creek now stands at a 45 degree angle to the water and is almost totally submerged at high tide. 

Double Green at 45 degree angle on the bay

Clark also noted while we were on our ride that the Red #28 that marks the exit from the Shrewsbury River into Pleasure Bay was gone - not out of station but gone! Since shoaling occurs at that point, it is a pretty important marker to have disappear.

We arrived back at our creek in less than one hour from when we left. When I mentioned it to Clark, he said that was because we pushed the boat up to wide open on the return trip to check out the max RPMS. Clark runs it up on speed occasionally to check out the boat's performance. It passed!

Re-entering our creek
Note the day markers are still in place!

After docking, we had some work to be done. Taking the boat up to max RPM in the wind meant we had salt spray on our port-side windows. Although rain was predicted for the evening, it seemed unlikely that the windows would wash themselves. The stripes of salt water residue had to be taken off if we wanted a pretty view.

Clark washed the windows, and then because he had a bucket of water, he decided to rinse other places that are used for handholds. Unfortunately, some of those were over the freshly cleaned windows meaning the windows had to be done a second time. While he fussed over that, I took a wet rag and wiped the salt off all the railing around the boat - also to get the salt off. 

Window cleaning time

Knowing Clark had done the engine maintenance earlier in the month, I asked if he had checked for spills and leaks. He had not, so he went to do that and found a puddle of oil by the starboard engine. I thought it was the port engine he worked on!!

Substance the color of mud on 
the engine and the floor

Clark immediately went into investigation mode. "Where did that come from?"

Clark looking for the source of
the problem - starboard side

I noticed that the dipstick for the oil did not appear to be fully seated. We think that may have been the issue. When we got ready to leave earlier, Clark went to start the engines and remembered he had not done the pre-trip engine checks (he never forgets!). Apparently, he did the checks in a hurry and may have left the dipstick not fully seated. Hopefully that was the, now rectified, problem.

Looking to the port side, he found some reddish color fluid. He cleaned it up and found a not-tight-enough hose clamp that he tightened. 

Red-colored fluid - port side

Finally, with windows and railings clean and fluids on both engines checked, we closed up the boat for today.

Earlier in the month ...

Besides getting the spare dinghy set up, Clark has been busy working on another side project for the boat. We have window shades in the boat salon that are showing their age having been in place since the boat was built many years ago now. Figuring out what to replace them with has been another problem to be solved. Where to go, what to buy, how much to spend, what color, what fabric, what style, ... 

 

After visiting the Blinds To Go store in Eatontown and the Hunter Douglas store in Red Bank, Clark checked out blinds.com, per a recommendation from a representative from the company that manufactures / sells the type of boat we own. The difference in price was truly amazing - a difference of hundreds versus thousands of dollars depending on where the shades are purchased.  

We got samples in the mail from blinds.com, measured, measured and re-measured the window and existing shades and finally have an order ready to go. Hopefully we will find we did a good job when they arrive, but really Clark will have earned all the accolades when the job is completed! Mostly I held one end of the tape measure for him!

When not working on the boat in some way shape or form or pulling weeds, I have kept busy with my Kindle and nautical, historical novels or with a jigsaw puzzle my granddaughters gave me when they were in New Jersey.  Containing 1000 pieces, it kept me busy for a few days. Towards the end, I was convinced there were pieces missing but, thankfully, that proved to be untrue!

2026 July: Croton-on-Hudson and Connecticut

 

Lillian, Clark, and Jack
at Croton-on-Hudson Park

25 July 2026 - Sunday

Our son, Chris, reached out to us to see if we could come for a visit to his home in Connecticut to spend some time with the grandkids. Both children had a week with sports and other activities and only one parent available to manage everything. Chris's wife, Heather, had a business trip planned to France of all things! 

We left mid-morning and battled traffic as we drove up to arrive Sunday afternoon. A flurry of activity greeted us as Chris and Heather finished some work in their garden before Heather got ready to drive off to JFK airport in New York for her flight to Paris. 

Having checked the weather forecast for the week, Clark found that today would be the best choice for an outing to hike at Croton-on-Hudson in upstate New York - something he thought would be a great family activity. 

Chris volunteered to drive, and the five of us piled back into our car for more hours on the road. Once again traffic was heavy as we slogged our way to the park. When we finally arrived, close to 4:30 in the afternoon, we were all happy to extract ourselves from the car and check out the park! 

As we drove in to find the parking lot, we got our first views of the grounds. None of us expected the scene that met our eyes!

Clark and I have traveled up and down the Hudson River in our various boats more times than I can count, each time passing by Croton-on-Hudson ,and never once imagining what a gem was hidden there.

Croton-on-Hudson is part of the Westchester County Parks system. Our first obstacle was deciphering the maps to figure our where we would hike and how long it would take to do so. The maps were not so very helpful.

Fortunately, Google Maps led us to the appropriate entrance for the parking lot, and from there it was pretty straight forward as to where to go and what to see.

Wikipedia gives the history of the Croton-on-Hudson as being established in the late 1800s in support of New York City and the NY Central Railroad. Irish, Italian, and German immigrants moved to the area to do construction work for the aqueduct. Construction of the "New Croton Dam" began in  1892 and completed in 1906. I was in awe looking at the size of the structure while thinking of the manpower  required and the lack of modern technology used in engineering and construction. 

We found a place to enter the trail and began our relatively short hike to the top of the dam.

Chris, Lillian, Clark, and Jack

The woods along the trail contained some interesting structures and ditches / ravines.

"Break time already??"

Lillian found a "seat" along the way

Jack just relaxed in place.

"Lillian!! Watch where you're walking!!!"

Don't fall in!

The trail led us to the dam. Clark took pictures of the rest of us from the end of the trail.

Ev, Lil, Jack, and Chris

Clark taking a picture

From the walkway on the dam, we could look down at the sites below ...

Lillian

Jack, Lil, and Chris

and watch the many folks taking advantage of the park on a great-weather day. 

Views from the dam were impressive to say the least! We could see the bridge we had driven over to

reach the parking lot

and see the water rushing by below us. 

It seemed like I was always trailing behind my family.

"Hey! Wait up!"

The sheer height and width of the structure was impressive.

I asked Lillian to take a picture of Clark and myself. She did a great job!

Jack and Lillian

Finally we reached the spillway!

We found enterprising people at the park - both at the top of the dam and down below on the park grounds. Up top, two women had a cart and were vending sliced mango and watermelon. Down below we found an ice cream truck and a hot dog vendor. The entrance fee being $10 per car, folks came to make a day of it. 

Having seen everything to be seen up top, we retraced our steps down the trail to the grounds below for a closer look at the base of the dam. 

Standing by the wall, people look miniaturized. 

Jack wanted a coin to throw into the fountain. I did not have one, perhaps fortunately, as I saw no other coins in this fountain.

Lillian, Jack, Chris, and Clark

Jack heading for the wall
with a stick he found along the way

Clark, Lillian, and Jack decided to go over and climb part way up the wall of the dam for a photo op.

It did not look like something I was willing to try climbing - even just a short distance! I was not interested in a twisted ankle today.

Then we walked over to get a closer look at the water coming off the dam.

I enjoyed studying the details of the architecture of the structure. Amazing!

We then walked across the grounds to the bridge we drove over to enter the park for yet another perspective.

Bridge for cars coming into the park.

Clark taking pictures from the car bridge

Before leaving the park, Chris bought the kids treats from the ice cream truck on site. All three adults abstained. I knew if I had ice cream, I would not eat dinner.  On the way home, Chris suggested we stop for Chinese food in Danbury and ate at the "New China Wall" restaurant. We had enough food to have left overs for several days afterwards. 

27 - 31 July 2026

We stayed at Chris's house until Friday to help him out with juggling work and children activities. Jack had some summer school to attend leaving Lillian home alone with her mom in France. Clark and I spent time with Lillian when Chris and Jack were away at Jack's school.

Clark and Lillian spent a good bit of time in the pool together. 

I remember it was not too many years ago that Lillian refused to jump in the water afraid to get water in her eyes. Times have changed significantly!

Jack had a remote control boat that he decided to add to the pool-time fun. 

He also jumped into the pool!

Lillian and Jack both play soccer and had games / practices to attend. 

Complex dribbling exercises
Jack - blue shirt
Lillian - #14

Lillian practicing footwork

Jack poised to get the ball

One night Lillian had a basketball game. Jack and I stayed home together while the others went. Alas, Clark did not take any pictures!

Jack, Lillian, and I played a number of card games together including card games like Uno, Crazy 8s, Garbage, and a "Magic the Gathering" card game called "Instinct" closely resembling the rules for contract bridge. 

Jack challenged me to a couple of games of chess where I knew how to move the pieces but had no idea of a strategy to win the game. At 8-years old, Jack was better at the game than I was. 

Jack built a picnic set from a Lego-like kit.

Lillian wanted to go shopping, so the three of us (Clark, Lillian, and me) went to the West Farms Mall to help her spend her money - hopefully wisely. She went looking for squishable dumplings and cinnamon sugar pretzels. She found both and a few other things besides!

Of course, Lillian and I did some crafts together while I was there.

Blue (for Lillian) and Orange (for Jack) Squishable Dumplings
beside a bird house Lillian painted.

Lillian wanted to make flowers from pipe cleaners, but she needed me to work the hot glue gun to stick them together. 

Pipe-cleaner flowers

One morning, Lillian made waffles for the three of us (Clark, Lil, and me) for breakfast - Yummy!

Clark helped

Another day, Lillian announced that she wanted to bake. She pulled a child's cookbook off the shelf, and we looked through the pages to find something yummy. We opted to make Chewy Brownies, and my oh my they were delish! They had cocoa powder, chocolate chips, sugar and brown sugar plus more - simply sinful!

Since we have foldable bikes for the boat, we stuffed them in the trunk of our car to use while in Connecticut. One day, Clark, Lillian, Jack, and I went for a bike ride down the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail near their home. 

Lillian, Jack, and Ev

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us having a long bike ride. A storm popped up! Fortunately, at the time, we were located at Sweet Claude's Ice Cream shop located right on the heritage trail at the "Factory". We enjoyed our ice cream treats until the rain stopped sufficiently for us to pedal back home.

Mural at the "Factory"

Later in the week, Chris took ownership of a new car and took us out for ice cream at the "Micro Creamery of Connecticut", located in the Cheshire area, to celebrate the occasion.  Earlier, in the afternoon, he was acting "shady" and saying he had errands to run. The errand he had was to pick up the new car and surprise everyone with it! What a surprise that was! His old car was 16 years old and ready to be replaced.

On Friday it was time for us to head back to New Jersey. Lillian had an outing planned for the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge.  A friend of hers was having her birthday party there to enjoy the indoor waterpark with friends. I helped Lillian pack for the trip the day before, and as Clark and I left to head back home to NJ, she was anxiously awaiting the arrival of her friend to get going to the party. 

We waited until Chris got home with Jack before leaving. The drive from Chris's house to ours normally takes us about 3.5 hours. Usually, though, we drive home at 9:00 at night. We left on Friday around 1:15 and got home 5 hours later. Every road was backed up with traffic. Sadly, our timing meant we hit Jersey shore traffic on the Parkway. 

When we finally got home, we quickly unloaded a few items from the car and then ran across the street to our neighbor's house for dinner. (I mentioned our evening with Marina in my last blog update.) It was so nice to be able to have a relaxed and enjoyable dinner and evening of music after that hellacious drive home.