Albany Brass Ring

I've been wanting to visit the Albany Carousel for a while, and we finally got the chance.  It's an all-volunteer effort to build a hand-carved carousel, in the tradition of the classic Denzel carousels. The Denzel family actually donated a 1909 mechanism to them.  They advise on their website that visitors are welcome, but we weren't prepared for the fact that it is set up so well for visitors, with a gift shop, a couple of animal rides for kids, and lots of friendly folks to tell us all about what they are doing.  Jasper was really fascinated!  They have some volunteers who are expert wood carvers, and others who have never carved anything before.  All the animals look wonderful!  Many of the animals that are 100% complete are actually not on display there.  When I asked about them, they explained that many local businesses have the finished animals on display.  If you don't live near Albany, you might consider making a grand day of it, visiting the workshop, and then having a scavenger hunt to find each of the animals!  I definitely want Jasper to see that people working together can make something marvelous.  And when the carousel is finally complete, it will hopefully mean something to him that he actually got to see it in progress.  Info on the Albany Carousel is on two websites: http://www.albanybrassring.com/home.php and http://www.albanycarousel.com/.  I posted about visiting the carousel on Hayden Island, along with Darrel Jabin's cool movie about Oregon carousels (including the Albany carousel) here.

This miniature, working carousel was owned by the Denzel family.  They actually used it as a Christmas tree stand.

Igknighter the Dragon.

Vincent.

Munchie the Lhasa Apso.

Harriette the Frog.

Jasper was given a lovely picture of Harriette.

Hope the Giraffe.

Jasper got a ride on Jasper the Frog.  A volunteer explains how it works.

A model of the future carousel.

Jasper spies "The Guardian" in the window of No Dix.

"The Guardian" is a Hippocampus.

A couple of blocks from the carousel is the Willamette River, and a lovely riverfront park.

There were lots of these geese on the Willamette, which I believe are a domestic species that escaped!