A dedication to the New England (and nearby) areas—travel, food, lifestyle.
It’s been awhile since we’ve gone to the zoo, since the girls were rather impatient when they were younger. Now that they are teenagers though, they are much happier strolling through the zoo. We bought a season pass so we can enjoy up with Zoo Lights in the winter months!! We spent just as much time chasing butterflies and bees as we did with the larger animals!
A quick local jaunt turned into a favorite. This week we walked around Bare Cove Park, in Hingham, Massachusetts. The girls talked about how they loved this “hike”, although to call it a hike would be rather misleading. It’s a flat and straight paved bike path. We took the out and back route to the harbor, and it was lovely and not remotely strenuous, or hike-like.
We went this afternoon to walk through the Garden in the Woods, in Framingham Massachusetts. There are many varied flowers throughout the walkway. The walk was beautiful, although the girls were not interested in staying too long because they were overwhelmed with mosquitos. So, take warning, bug spray would make the walk more enjoyable!!
What a gorgeous weekend for a trip to Halibut State Park. We visited here back in 2010 but neither of the girls remember the visit, so it was well worth a return trip. Beautiful quarries, water views, stone sculptures, it had everything.
It’s always nice to visit some local haunts off-season, before the crowds! We traveled to Beavertail State Park and then Fort Wetherill in Jamestown, Rhode Island. I imagine this is a very busy place during the “in-season”. The water was beautiful, the green almost looking like the Caribbean!
This weekend Lydia and I hiked on the Hanover Greenway, the Fireworks Trail. It is a nice 3.2 mile trail, well maintained although at one point ran along a manufacturing plant, with a smell that wasn’t working well for our nature hike! Beautiful day all around, and there was not a single soul out there hiking with us, which was surprising given that it was the first sunny day in awhile.
It was our final beach day, and there was no parking at Lowdermilk Beach, our first choice, so we went to Clam Pass Beach instead. It wasn’t my mother’s first choice as there was an $8 parking fee, but it was well worth it, and I now have a new favorite beach in Naples. It was very crowded, but the water was beautiful, the food for lunch was great, and the ride over on the tram was very efficient. Many people were walking to the beach on the boardwalk (I’m guessing maybe a kilometer?), but I can’t recommend this as there were spiders and spiderwebs EVERY where. Look up, look right, look left, the whole ride out to the beach was through a maze of webs covered with spiders. I was grateful for the roof on the tram ride.
We hiked the short boardwalk through the Fakahatchee Strand. My kids had done this hike before and were not as captivated on the second trip through as they had been in the past. It was also not a very handicap-friendly walk, at least not the first quarter mile or so which was on rocks and sand before reaching the boardwalk!
We took a daytrip to Sanibel where the water and shells were beautiful, although the traffic made the trip almost not worth taking. It will be a long time before I venture back here!
This weekend, Lydia and I headed to Marina Bay in Quincy (Lieren was at a school activity). I worked in Marina Bay many years ago, and remember it for being chic, upcoming and having great views of Boston. It was cold, and much more developed than I remember. There were still great views of Boston, but overwhelmed by construction, high-rises and boats. Disappointing in general as nothing was open (and it didn’t appear to be much to be open), but it was nice to see some roses blooming in spite of the December cold!
