A dedication to the New England (and nearby) areas—travel, food, lifestyle.
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!
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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!
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Sometimes the best finds are the ones you find by mistake! A few weeks ago we headed to Simsbury, CT, where I spent my early years, hoping to climb Talcott Mountain. Unfortunately, I didn’t research in advance, and found we couldn’t get anywhere near the mountain because there was a huge event, and cars were parked up and down the road! On to Plan B. I remembered going to McLean Game Refuge when I was in girl scouts, so we headed there. Wow, what a gorgeous location, especially with the peak autumn colors!! So glad for Plan B.
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Ok, I confess, this event took place in August, but since it is a rainy weekend here in New England (thank God, it hasn’t rained in forever!), we didn’t get very far for our travels. The girls said this was one of their favorite day trips, we took the ski lift up the mountain and enjoyed the view. Thank goodness we found Lieren’s flip flop that floated off her foot while we rode the lift!! There were plenty of goodies and activities for the kids!
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Well, you can’t win them all. I had seen a post on facebook about someone’s newest favorite hiking location, so we knew where we would be headed. We looked up the Wildlands Trust, and the two locations in Marshfield were Pudding Hill and Phillips Farm Preservation. We chose the Pudding Hill location because of the pond. We drove by it the first time, and found there were just two parking spaces. No one else was there, which was surprising because it was Labor Day weekend and the perfect weather (although not very sunny). Honestly, it was a little boring. Just a path in the woods, a path by a small pond. Regardless, it was one we have now logged for the books. We did try the second location, Phillips Farm, on our way home, although there was no parking that we could find. Perhaps on another day.
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Happy Labor Day weekend to all!
Finally, some relief from the heat, it was only in the mid-80’s today. Still no rain (hard to believe Hurricane Irene was 5 years ago today!). We took the dogs for a walk around Houghton’s Pond in Milton, and tired dogs = happy dogs!
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This weekend’s post is dedicated to the local town (traveling) carnivals. This carnival was in Hull, MA, but they pop up all summer in towns all around us. Nothing says summer quite like an evening carnival!
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Today we headed to Buttonwood Farms in Griswold, CT. They are famous for their sunflower field, and I had heard they were hosting a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish foundation. A few days earlier, a friend had posted photos of beautiful sunflowers, so I was very disappointed to find most of the flowers dead and wilted. We then moved on to plan B, and stopped at Stepping Stone Falls, in Exeter, NH, on our way home. I imagine the falls look much more dramatic when it is not in the middle of a summer drought.
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Well, the weather is predicted to deteriorate fairly quickly over the weekend, so we took advantage of Saturday morning’s sun and headed out early. I read about a Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, MA, so we headed out. We were familiar with the route as it is very close to the VT/NY borders and we’ve traveled this way many times before. While we all agreed that the bridge was a bit smaller than we anticipated, it was beautiful nevertheless. We also took advantage of the area and saw the Glacier Potholes, otherwise knows as Salmon Falls.
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We drove past Turner’s Falls and the beautiful French King Bridge on our way home. While it was a ridiculously hot day for May (97-101 degrees), the sunshine held out.
Today we decided to walk around Salem, MA. We had gone several years ago, days before Lydia’s leukemia diagnosis. Needless to say, she was too sick (unbeknownst to me) to allow us to see much. What a charming city to walk around in, bustling with activity and tourists! Next time we have to leave enough time to see the Chinese House Exhibit at the Peabody Museum. Salem struck me as a great place to retire to, lots of foot traffic, a great walking city.
Later, we drove to Marblehead to take the scenic drive. To be honest, I was less impressed with Marblehead than I expected, especially after hearing for years about this gem of the North Shore. But as fascinated as I am by lighthouses, I did have to take a quick picture of Marblehead Light.
I’m glad we added Marblehead onto our tour, but certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to venture back there!
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