Not our dog’s dream, I guess.
Drizzle be damned, my dear wife Karen and I fulfilled our promise to Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and took her to the Doggie Evening at Lights on the Lake Tuesday night.
The folks with the orange wands waved us onto the grassy lot as part of a line of after-dinner Syracuse-area people also taking advantage of this on-leg-opportunity — both two and four — to soak in the many holiday displays that line the shore of Onondaga Lake and are available for admiration via carload from tonight until Jan. 3.
Our community digs this holiday centerpiece of spirit as it enters its 26th year. I wrote about it and shared more photos in my weekly Mark It Up column this morning for Syracuse Public Media site WAER.com. You can find it by clicking the link below.
http://waer.org/post/let-there-be-lights-lake-year-26#stream/0
Just out of the car, our dog pulled and growled just a tad as she became accustomed to being around the other pooches. We’ve taken her to Onondaga Lake Park more than a few times before, but never at night, nor when it was raining.
Early during our stroll, Santa wanted Karen and Ellie B to stop for me to grab a shot with my iPhone 6. Devoted Dogamous Pyle listened, but couldn’t keep herself from watching the other dogs who were continuing in the direction of the lights.
Nighttime parade.
Back on the path, Ellie B settled down quickly. Karen declared that our dog was in parade mode, much like when we took her to Manlius to join the flock from the Dog Gone Inn Doggie Day Care Center for Memorial Day and July Fourth marches.
I snapped away at the lights, glad that it never really poured.
Hover over any gallery photo for a description. Click on the bottom right photo in any gallery for an enlarged slide show.
Some of the neighbors to the right side of the trail decorated the back side of their houses to get into the spirit. I didn’t notice if that meant they did or didn’t decorate the front side of their places as well.
This makes two years in a row that Karen and I have appreciated the lights on foot. We still haven’t taken the drive together. I’ve never driven the path at all. Could this be the year?
Do you think that Lights on the Lake might blow a fuse or throw a circuit breaker? Does this bring the movie ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas’ and Randy Quaid’s madcap character to mind, at least just a bit? How about that video with the flashing display with music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra?
Mark Bialczak 
Walk Mark, walk.
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Yes, ma’am. 😉
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LOL! That’s so cool! I still can’t believe it’s almost Christmas already. I love that your neck of the woods has so many organized events for dogs. 🙂
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We really are for the dogs, Rachel. In a good way, of course. 😉
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LOL! That’s awesome! 😀
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Beautiful lights bro Mark. Love it all. Ellie B. is such a trooper, posing like a pro. Ever think of entering her in a beauty contest?
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Ellie B has enough swagger without a sash around her neck, sis Angie! ❤
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I vote there will be NO circuits blown. And, I adore beautiful Christmas lights. 🙂 Happy Light Seeking MBM!
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I think I saw 2,597 extension cords out there, MBC. No kidding!!
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Well, that is a LOT of extension cords MBM!!!!! Don’t step on any of them for heavens sake!
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They put those little metal thingies over them, MBC. So cars can drive over them. It’s a vehicle procession for the duration.
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Okay…whew. 😉
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What?! Christmas lights before Thanksgiving? You all should be strung up by them!
Let me guess: It’s because of the weather up there. If you waited, you’d be battling wind and snow to string them, view them, and remove them.
Very pretty, and I bet Ellie P. had a great time. I laughed at the title–leave no pun undone!
😀
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I pun-ish my friends as much as possible, Babe. Remember that. 🙂
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Oh, I will–I’ll Mark your words.
😉
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That looks like so much fun. We love the holiday lights, rain or dry. 🙂
Glad you didn’t get too wet. 🙂
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I had my hood up lots of the time, Tracy. 🙂
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it’s definitely big and bright and fingers crossed – nothing will blow. i’m a sucker for christmas lights and love to walk and drive through –
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If that baby blows, Beth, I think you’ll hear the pop in Ann Arbor!
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There is always something magical about Christmas lights, no matter how jaded one can get during the season. It’s also hard to capture in photographs the magic they convey. What a fun outing!
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It’s a grand place, Kerbey. I don’t have the right camera to capture it brilliantly, unfortunately.
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Looks like great fun. It is a tradition in our household to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (not one of my choosing) but my husband loves that movie. Especially the part about emptying the “sh*tter” into the sewer in front of their house. The movie kind of disgusts me, but my husband cracks up every time he watches it – this will be our 20th year this Christmas – yay!!!!
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Yeah, not an elegant film, SD, but funny in its own way. Hahaha.
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I love holiday twinkly lights! Okay, okay, I really just love twinkly lights! We saw a really good display in Lexington a few years. The local John Deere does a small drive-thru display here, but nothing like Lexington’s, or what you’ve got there.
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Hooray of John Deere, keeping Tractor of your need for twinkly lights, Joey. 🙂
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Good dog. Cody would never have settled down, and would have embarrassed us in front of all the other dog owners whose charges were acting like show dogs. Cody might get coal in her stocking this year.
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Poor Cody. Just being Cody. No coal for her, please, CM. 🙂
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Ha! Yes, I wrote a poem last year about a guy who fatally hung himself in Christmas lights after not being seen for days, hidden somewhere in the miles of decorations. Somehow I’m thinking that someone like that would have a much more gaudy display than the ones pictured here, but you never know.
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I read your interesting poem and thought of many things, Marissa, including our walk through of this event here. Which is pretty much tangle (and strangle) free, thank goodness.
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Ha, you remembered!! Yes, it just looks to clean and neat for all that…but who knows what kind of aggravations went on during the preparation?
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It was darn memorable, Marissa!
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Thank you Mark!
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Nice display Terp!
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Thanks, Gatorette.
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