My dear wife Karen and I bought our tickets for the Chinese Lantern Fest a while back. And when my terrific daughter Elisabeth and terrific significant George Three told us the new shindig up at the New York State Fairgrounds over in Geddes had caught their eyes, too, we purchased a couple for them as well.

There hadn’t been too many nice weekend days since the event had started at the end of April, and commitments were stacking up with the ending date of June 24 on the horizon. We agreed to meet the couple of miles west of Syracuse at 6 p.m. Saturday, rolling the dice that at last the weather would cooperate.

Blue skies. Light jacket for me, sometimes on, sometimes over my arm.

And it was a scenic loop around the area that used to be home to the oval track and grandstand, a location where I’d viewed more than 100 concerts in my days as a music critic for the big daily.

Hover over a gallery photo for a description. Click on an image for an enlarged slide show.

We took in the sights.

We ate dinner, then took in the show.

George and I went for the noodles at the Chinese cart, while Karen got a gyro and Elisabeth chose pizza.

That caused us to stand in the back for the performances. They were steadfast about nobody going on the grass anywhere in the exhibition area, except for special trails that were marked off as “photo opportunity.” Interesting.

We wanted to see the lights of the exhibits go into effect, so we took one more big, slow loop.

We liked the final walk the best.

My thought was that it felt like walk-through night at Lights on the Lake. Maybe Elisabeth and George will join us for their first trip for that tradition later this year. They’ve only taken the car route.

Before we left, we all posed with our character for the Chinese zodiac system.

If the exhibit comes back next year, we’ll go more toward nightfall, better to see the full effects of the lights.

What seems to be the most interesting attributes of the Chinese Lantern Festival for you, and why?