14. Six Flags

The carousel at Six Flags is located in the very front of the park. There was no line as most visitors were scrambling to get to the roller coasters. We easily got on for our ride and completed our task for the day quite quickly. The carousel was very large, with horses and menagerie five abreast and the chariots were the most awesome chariots I have ever seen. They were like giant couches that stretched over the entire base of the carousel - seven or eight people could easily have fit on each row.

Huge bench:

Side view: 

Crazy kids: 

This was an Illions carousel, a historic ride dating from 1909. Marcus Illions was another famous carver from the Golden Age of Carousels. His style incorporated a lot of gold highlights and accents into his carvings, especially on the manes. The manes of his horses also stand out for me because they always look like they are blowing forward - as if the horses were galloping backward. I think it would be more fun if they always had Illions carousels going in the reverse direction.

However, the Six Flags carousel moved in the correct direction -- which, on American carousels, is always counter-clockwise. In England and Europe, carousels move clockwise because they expect riders to want to mount the horses properly, like equestrians. In America the direction of the revolution was reversed when carousels first started incorporating the brass ring. Most people are right-handed, and if the carousel moved in a counter-clockwise direction then they could more easily grab the rings. Now even carousels without a brass ring (like the Six Flags ride) still move in the counter-clockwise direction in America.

We have a lot of pictures of Brynn, we were trying to get something we could use for her birthday invitation. She was really smiley, but the cell phone camera just wasn't giving us anything good:

I wish we had spent a little more time there, and I wish we had taken a ride on the chariot. I think we got caught up in the excitement of the park, and after one ride, we were off to stand in line for some (kiddie) roller coasters too. It was a great carousel - I highly reccommend stopping for a peek before or after you hit the other rides! 

Horse with a crazy mane

Reindeers

Another horse with a stylized mane

Roaring lion

Side view

Rory taking a ride

Close-up of my horse

13. Buttonwood Park Zoo

Our thirteenth carousel hunt was a little cursed. Our plan was to round out our Cape week by hitting the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford on our way back home. We called on our way to check on the hours, only to discover that the carousel would be closed before we arrived! 

We weren't completely discouraged. There was also a carousel at the Emerald Square Mall that was sort of on our way home, so we headed there next. We arrived at the mall and wandered around, hitting every nook and cranny without turning up a carousel to ride. At the Information Desk we inquired about the missing ride, turns out, it had been dismantled and moved out of state a year prior.

It was two weeks before we had another opportunity to get to a carousel - and again we headed to the Buttonwood Park Zoo (http://bpzoo.org/). This time we were met with success! It was a muggy, hot day, but the carousel was up and running so we did that first. This carousel is fairly new, and very well-kept in a brand new building. There were all sorts of interesting and unusual animals to ride including a hummingbird, an eagle (with a fish in its claws), and a seal. The zoo is very small, but so far, it is the first place we have visited in Massachusetts that has elephants - including on the carousel (see above)!

There were numerous other new animals for us to try out that we had never seen before. Above Will tries out the hummingbird. Below you can see the hummingbird from the side:

Rory tried out the eagle - we all loved that there was a fish in his claws!

We agreed that this seal was the cutest!

Rory outside the carousel (and the zoo - hence the fence).