New Year's in Saratoga

This year, my family decided to break both habit and tradition and go out for New Year's Eve. Saratoga Springs was holding a First Night Festival that promised to be both more entertaining and less boozy than Albany's, so we decided to give it a try. My parents went off with their friends one way, and me, my husband, my best friend, and her boyfriend went another. There were tons of bands, entertainers, vendors, and other fun things going on from about 6 pm until midnight.


Saratoga has been a spa town since the 1800's, is home to one-third of the Triple Crown, and is full of gorgeous old buildings centered around a lovely park that houses all the different mineral springs. One of the first things we saw as we walked around were various musicians performing in the store windows; the young lady above was singing opera.


We went into the Military Museum (formerly the Armory) for free snacks and folk musicians, and wandered around looking at the exhibits. Some organization or other was charging $5 to get your picture taken in this old Jeep. Nate managed to sweet talk them into letting him take a picture, just of the Jeep, for free. He was amused to point out that there was a tray of cat litter underneath the engine to catch stray oil drips, since apparently every functioning Jeep leaks. Ours certainly do, at least.


After the Armory, we went down the street to the local Elementary show and watched a juggling act. "Juggling act" is really a misnomer, since the performer made fabulous balloon animals, rode around on a unicycle, walked a tight-rope, and (as you can see above) balanced things on his face. He even got someone to volunteer their toddler for his balancing-act:

We also saw an Irish rock band, explored some of the beautiful public buildings, popped in to various dance and music performances, and finished up with a midnight firework show, before meeting up again with my parents. It was a really fun night, and well worth the ticket price. There was so much more going on than you could possibly have time to see, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun New Year's activity.

one of the many decorated storefronts