It came and went really fast this year. The weather was sunny, cool and crisp, and we took advantage. Here are some highlights.
Above is Harriman Reservoir
The Manhan Rail Trail over the Connecticut River.
Hancock Shaker Village My library has a pass, so I have to visit every museum on their list.
Family.
Shenandoah National Park
More Family.
No summer is complete in Massachusetts without a visit to Cape Cod. Hope you had a happy summer too.
This year for spring break we packed up the car and headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.
Our first stop was Easton PA, where we stay at the lovely Lafayette Inn and had a delicious Easter breakfast and did a little egg hunt in their garden. After breakfast we packed up and spent the morning at the Crayola Experience. Which turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
Our next stop was Gettysburg PA, where my dear friend Ryan and his inspiring wife Alexia and four kids bought an 80 acre farm. Some egg hunting in the quail house and fresh corn bread right out of the skillet made for a perfect Eater supper (or was it dinner). While in Gerrysburg, it only made sense to visit The Gettysburg National Park.
Then we headed out along the Blue Ridge Parkway and spent three days hiking in the George Washington National Forest. We stayed in a condo at the Wintergreen Resort. It was their off season and so we had the entire pool and spa all to ourselves. We also had a lovely dinner at a friends house who now live in Virginia that I had not seen since we were teenagers. It was fun seeing our kids running around together and picking up right where we had left off twenty years ago. (The photos at the top of the mountian are on top of "cold or cole" mountain. You can access the trail from the Hog Gap Camp parking area.)
Our last stop was Charlottesville VA, where we spent the day at Monticello, Thomas Jeffersons' homestead. The setting was breath taking and the tens of thousands of tulips were in full bloom.
Dinner at the Whiskey Jar made for a perfect end to our trip.
The kids were off school last week for Winter Break, so we headed up to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid for the first part of the week to visit some dear friends. I've known Sarah since I was a teenager, yet after so many years of friendship had no idea what an incredible skier she was. While we were skiing the trails of the Adirondacks, she was cheering on her old teammates who where skiing in Sochi. But what made me aware of her skill, was the steep terrain that she dragged us up and then turned around and flew down, while nursing a one year old baby tied on to her stomach!
We returned after three days of skiing and skating, and came home for some more shoveling, night sledding and snowshoeing. Most often these activities only include the four of us,there just aren't a lot of winter lovers out there. So it was again a treat to share our enthusiasm with some local(ish) friends, and to reassure our kids that we are not the only parents who drag their kids out into the cold snowy mountains. They will thank us some day, but for now edible bribes seem to be working.
With likely only two more weeks left of winter, we plan to soak it all in until next year.
Fall seems to have come and gone. It's been warm, sunny and full of adventures.
Elsa has been playing soccer on a regional team this fall that has brought us all over New England. One of her games brought us to Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire, a large outdoor playground with hiking, biking, swimming and a maze of lakes and islands to explore. The campsites were wooded, well maintained and private. Many of them were right on the water with boat launches. Car camping is such a fun, easy, and inexpensive activity that makes all members of our family giddy. I plan to organize our camping gear so that we can pick up and go in a moments notice. We'll see where spring soccer takes us.
Just in case you can't figure out the costumes, they are Camptain America and Laura Ingalls.
We took a long weekend trip to the North Shore of Boston this past week. We were looking for some good sea kayaking and the Essex Bay caught out attention. We stayed in a hotel right outside of Gloucester, biked down to Good Harbor Beach, and expolored Gloucester a little bit too.
But we really came to do this particular paddle.
We put in at the town dock in Essex and parked our car in the public lot right behind the fire station. We paddled up through the salt marshed and over to Choate Island which is only accesible by boat and has a trail from one site of the island to the other and the continued onto Crane Wildlife Refuge.
It is about an 8 hour trip or longer if we had stayed on the beach. We traveled in and out with the tide. The paddle would have been possible against the tide but much more challening, and although our kayaks were ideal, canoes would have made the trip as well. The salt marsh horse flys were pretty brutal but a long sleeved shirt and a hat covered in deet would made a big difference.
We returned to the town dock biten, sunburned, tired and stunned a the endless beauty we had just experience, and on the car ride back to the hotel we were scheming our return trip.
Enjoying the lazy pace of summer this year.
Grout Pond We will have to come back here to camp this summer. The dozen hike to or paddle to sites have fire pits and tables but feel like the winderness, and the sandy beach by the put-in is a nice place for little ones to swim.
When your 4th grader can't stop talking about early American history, you pile into the car and head to Virginia for her spring break.
We started our trip in Chincoteague. An island on the coast, with miles of National Seashore, wild ponies, sandy beaches and roads and trails for biking. If you squint you can see some of the ponies in the background by the trees.
Then we continued on to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. Elsa was so excited to walk through the doors of the court house where Thomas Jefferson first practiced law, stroll the streets where Patrick Henry addressed the public, and lay her hands on the original bricks laid by the first settlers in Jamestown. Giddy she was, we were grateful to experience that level of excitement without having to hit the parks in Orlando. So seeing as we were driving right through D.C. on the way back home, we couldn't rob her of the full experience without letting her lay eyes on the Declaration of Independence.
What made the trip most enjoyable for those of us not as excited about early American history as Elsa was, were the bike paths and scenic road that tied everything together. Traveling with a child with special needs can be tricky and in a lot of ways Cyrus is still really just a big toddler. Trying to get him to walk, follow the rules and not touch anything is a losing battle. He used to be a big back pack rider but at this point he has just grown out of it. So now the WeeHoo is our new best friend. He is so happy to be in it, I see our future trips and weekend adventures being planned around bike routes. Now if we can just get him to peddle forwards instead of backwards.
I had no idea Maine was so beautiful and I can't wait to go back. I've decided to archive our travels in as much detail as possible with a "Trips and Travel" category, so years from now we re-track our steps.
Our trip started in Portland where we walked around town and sat down for a cup of tea at Dobra Tea. The choices where overwhelming for a tea enthusiast like myself and I could not walk out without a few Pu-erh nuggets to go.
After a rainy drink on the harbour we has a wonderful dinner at Local 188, full of tapas, cocktails, dinner choices, and a highchair. It was a perfect place to go for drinks, snacks, desert and everything in between. We loved it so much we tried to go again on the drive back but couldn't get a reservation.
We camped at the Lamoine State Park Camp Ground site #16. It's a rustic car camping site, considered a "walk in", meaning that you park your car and walk about 30 feet to your tent site. It was lovely, wooded and private, and cost $14 per night. Some of the sites where right on the cove but I hear you have to book in Februrary to get a site for the summer.
We paddled right from the boat launch there and explored the coves and islands all day never getting more than an hours paddle away from our camp site and 20 minutes from shore in the event of a meltdown. We rented sea kayaks and got maps and advice from Acadia 1 just up the road and had the boats delivered to the boat launch.
We spent one day hoping on and off the Island Explorer Bus, a free shuttle in Acadia's National Park. It was comfy and convienient and will transport your bike as well. On the drive out we drove through the campgrounds within the park (which were very nice) and learned that the shuttle bus goes to the campsites as well. I would be happy to stay at one of the campsites there and just spend the whole week discovering the park by bus or bike.
Since we'd come this far it only made sense to visit Scott and Hellen Nearing or at least their homestead. And the highlight of the trip for me............. meeting Eliot Coleman and walking around his farm, that he bought years ago from the Nearings. He and his wife Barbara Damrosch have been my gardening teachers and their knowledge and experience continues to assist me in my passion for growing food. It was so fun to see them going about their business and their gardens were as amazing as I had pictured them.
It was a wonderful, relaxing week and we were so glad to have my in-laws around to share it with.