Last year, I received a request from my niece to take her on a birthday trip to the New England Aquarium. A really loves animals and spent the day staring at the penguins, leafy dragon seahorses, and giant fish there in amazement. This year, I decided our trip would be a little bit different. I had heard about a sanctuary up in Ipswich, MA that I thought would blow her away; a place called “Wolf Hollow.” Recently, A has been…
Being a coastal city, Boston has a thriving boat culture on the Charles River and Boston Harbor. Several sailing clubs service each location and offer sailors the opportunity to see Boston and Cambridge from unique vantage points. I have been a member at Community Boating on the Charles and at Piers Park Sailing Center on the harbor, and both experiences have been very positive. I sailed on the Charles River at Community Boating for several years when I first…
Some of my favorite pieces of public art are the ones that are hidden right in plain sight. In downtown Boston, there is a series of beautiful crafted “bricks” that hundreds of people walk over each day. Created by Kate Burke and Gregg Lefevre in 1985, these bricks chronicle not just Boston’s history, but some unique aspects of living in the city. Stones include directional ones that tell you how far away places like the North Pole or Moscow are….
This week marked the final week of summer before school starts and Eric has to get back to work. We took our annual trip to Cape Cod late in August, and we planned to follow our normal routine of reading novels, swimming at the beach, and grilling dinner. This time, we made two additional trips to historical sites in the mid-Cape region. Col. Benjamin Godfrey Windmill The Col. Benjamin Godfrey Windmill in Chatham is a working grist mill located just…
Even though we live in New England, we almost never go up to Vermont for some odd reason. That changed when we received a gift certificate to “Rabbit Hill Inn”(http://www.rabbithillinn.com/) in Lower Waterford. Located just a few miles over the New Hampshire border, the inn was a perfect homebase to go and try something we had done before: ziplining and a ropes course at Loon Mountain (http://www.loonmtn.com/) with their Adventure Pass! (http://www.loonmtn.com/experience/summer-activities/summer-adventure-passes) Jocelyn’s take: I’m not the most athletic…
We meant to start kayaking several years ago, but something always seemed to get in the way. First, we ran into trouble getting supplies, then we couldn’t transport the kayaks because buying roof racks proved more difficult than we originally thought. These obstacles stalled our plans and took up all remaining space in our basement as we slowly collected everything we needed to kayak. Luckily, we ironed out these issues and managed to get kayaking this summer! Over the last…
One of our favorite cities to visit for lunch is Portsmouth, NH. Only an hour north of Boston, it has a number of really cute stores and restaurants and, more importantly, cheap parking! Recently, Portsmouth put up a new memorial on Chestnut Street after excavation revealed a hidden secret. The Backstory During construction in October of 2003, something unexpected showed up as the dirt was being removed: the remains of wooden coffins. Located near the spot that old maps…
While in London, we were determined to see a production at The Globe Theater. The Globe is the theater where William Shakespeare staged his plays during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Though the current structure is not the original building where The King’s Men portrayed Shakespeare’s characters (it’s actually the third incarnation of The Globe: the first one burned and the second one was closed by the Puritans) it stands a few blocks away from the original theater’s Bankside location….
One of the weirdest places that we found ourselves wandering through in Paris were the Catacombs. While waiting in line for 2 1/2 hours was horrible, walking among some of the 6 million bodies made us forget that. For only 10 Euros, it was totally worth the cost, but you might want to go later in the day if you don’t want to wait in line. Bring some cards, water, and a good book to pass the time while waiting…
Jocelyn’s take: I have wanted to visit Stonehenge for a very long time. I was lucky enough to explore another set of standing stones in Scotland, which only made me want to get to Stonehenge more! Seeing as how we didn’t rent a car this trip, we booked with a group tour called “The English Bus” to transport us to and from Stonehenge. After traveling to a “Secret Location” and Bath, we finally came up to the Visitor Center for…
