Last week I went to Onondaga Lake Park with my friend Scott Thomas to walk the Lights On The Lake event, which is normally a drive through event. Usually they open things up with a walking event, and this year they had two nights, with the second night being a dog walk as well. We went that night, even though we didn’t have a dog with us, and it turned out to be an interesting and fun venture.

For one, you learn pretty quickly that when it’s dark you just can’t see dark dogs at all. This means when they walk up on you if you don’t get your emotions under control you’ll be jumping all night; that took a few minutes to get used to. You also realize the same goes for little kids, who not only are hard to see but, being at a much lower level, had some issues with the dogs they couldn’t see as well. Lost of crying, that’s for sure.

Also, I learned that it’s not quite a “walk” when you go with a professional photographer, and yet it’s still pretty intriguing. We’d walk until he saw something he wanted to get a photograph of, and then that would be a 5 to 10 minute pause of set up, then testing. The images you see here, except for the one I’m in, were all taken with my Android phone; follow the link on his name to see more professional shots taken at the event (though he doesn’t have them up at the time I’m writing this).

Finally, it seems that dogs don’t quite get the event, which of course makes sense. Dogs were walking into each other and frankly, some didn’t take it all that well. Lots of jumping and whining and a little bit of growling, but overall it was fairly peaceful. I was thankful I didn’t get a nose in the private area; you men know what I’m talking about.

I’ve always loved holiday lights, and this was no exception. If there was any complaint at all it’s that a lot of the lights had nothing to do with holidays at all. I wasn’t quite sure how to equate the water sports and animals with the holidays, so I went with “it’s a lake” and lakes have water belief and moved in, though it would be cool to one day see a real submarine on the lake; we’ll probably never see dolphins though.

One of the things you don’t think of as much when you’re driving is that there are significant dark areas. In the car you have your lights on, although low, but walking you have times when you’re totally in the dark. There’s nothing to do about that, and since it’s now supposed to be only cars that might be taken care of, but if you decide you want to try walking it beware a bit and don’t go alone.

I had a good time, even though at a certain point the cold started getting the best of me. Seems most of the people were enjoying themselves, as well as the kids, and that’s what’s most important. They were requesting $2 donations, which we paid, and unfortunately I can’t remember how much it’s going to cost for the cars to go through. Truthfully, I’ve always thought the lights look better with snow on the ground but I’m not pushing our luck on that one just yet. I hope you get a chance to get out and see the presentation; very cool.