catherineaq

We rode on the Conway Scenic Railroad on one of the Valley Trains for lunch. The scenery was pretty enough, but you can see prettier scenery on your own. You also see the back yards of homes a bit. We did the luncheon ride, and were not too impressed by the food, either.

However, for our son, it was fun to have the novelty of riding on a train, which he rarely does. And it was a very cool train, so that made it a bit more worthwhile.

If your expectations aren’t too high, and you just want a train ride, go ahead.

We stayed at Adventure Suites because it seemed like it would be fun, in a kitschy (sp?) kind of way. And it was! It’s not cheap, but it is very amusing, and comfortable and well-staffed.

We stayed in The Cave.

We were vacationing in Florida recently, and we spent most of the time relaxing at the beach, but we wanted to visit an attraction as well, yet we didn’t want to face the crowds or the expense of Orlando attractions.

Instead, we went to the Brevard Zoo, and we couldn’t have made a better choice. It’s a wonderful place! Most of the staff seems to be volunteers, and were very friendly and helpful. The zoo is easy to navigate. It has plenty of different animals, so it feels worth the visit, but is small enough that about the time that you’re beginning to tire, you’ve seen it all.

As a family, we do still-water kayaking, which is one of the reasons we chose to visit this zoo. You can kayak through part of the zoo! We were able to get a close look at animals that were keeping themselves away from the pedestrian visitors. (Note: Small children can’t kayak. I believe you have to be 5 or older.) The kayak ride was about 30 minutes.

Another charming feature of the zoo was the observation platform by the giraffe enclosure. You can buy crackers formulated for giraffes, and they’ll eat right out of your hand. It was delightful!

We also enjoyed feeding the lorrikeets. We didn’t know what to expect when we stepped into the aviary with little cups of nectar, so perhaps the volunteers should warn people. For us, it was a thrill to have birds mob us, but we’ve told others about it and they seemed unnerved at the idea. We couldn’t stop laughing, looking at each other covered with birds (and the nectar they were gobbling messily).

The grounds were well-kept, the zoo is quite near the highway (unfortunate, but it does make it easy to find), and the prices were surprisingly reasonable. The snack bar was also reasonably priced (considering that they have a monopoly and could charge more) and had a suprising variety of food.

A few years ago, my son and I visited Borderland in the spring, when a usually sluggish creek was running high. We were charmed to see that someone had created two waterwheels out of natural materials. For each, they’d stuck two forked sticks into the stream and put an “axle” (?) stick across (resting in the forks). There were paddles built off the axle made of smaller sticks bound there with strong grasses, with flat rectangles of bark wedged into slits in the end of the sticks. Every part was something from nature. We watched the waterwheels for a really long time, and they worked beautifully! I wish I’d had a camera with me! Now we go each spring (as we did today) to see if there are any, but we’ve never seen them again.

We took my 6-year-old apple-picking at Gould Hill Orchards this fall. Our surroundings were beautiful, and the experience was all you could expect of a nice fall day in New England. I’d definitely go just for this part again.

However, it’s a terrific place for kids, too. Free apples for the kids when you walk into the farm stand part is only the start. There are also all kinds of things from “the way they used to do it a long time ago” to impress or puzzle a child.

And then there’s The Little Nature Museum! To quote their site: The Little Nature Museum is located in the 220-year-old historic barn at Gould Hill Orchards. The Museum’s collections include Fossils, rocks, minerals, shells; mounted birds, insects wildlife; interpretive and changing exhibits. Guided nature trail walks wind in and out the the orchards, forests, fields, and streams.” In an amazingly small area, there are an amazing number of activities and things to look at.

Kids can earn small prizes by doing activities, some of which are tactile or manipulative and some of which involve reading and finding out answers from the displays. We really enjoyed it, and our son (a nature buff) was thrilled to get his pin and mini-poster. We’ll definitely go back, because there’s more there than we were able to do! (For example, we didn’t even do a nature hike, which is very unlike us!)

I thought this would be a tiny museum within Harvard. It’s got much more to it than I thought! I went with a visiting college friend, and we really enjoyed the glass flowers. The rocks and meteorites were also cool, and many of the fossils and animals were fascinating. Some exhibits are nicely updated, while others were old and dusty-looking. I’ll go again with my son, as it contains many things he’d enjoy. On Sundays from 9-12 it is free to MA residents, so that is probably when we’ll go.

Whenever S is away at a conference, E and I have an adventure. E is now 6, so castles and knights are an area of interest for him, though not an obsession to the degree that dinosaurs and superheroes are. Still, worthy of interest.

So I’d been meaning to check out this museum for a while now, and since S was away, I looked at their website. They were having an even called Knightmare at the Higgins in anticipation of Halloween.

This is what made it worthwhile for a six-year-old, IMHO-that there were events in addition to the armor. Otherwise, it would be a lot of the same. “Look! Armor! It’s cool, huh? Oh, and more! And more! And more!” And they really do have a lot of armor. But because of the Knightmare event, they also had a costume parade he got to participate in. And we got to do a Halloween craft. They also have a room where we could do a rubbing, and try on helmets, and play with toys, and read stories. Interspersing these activities with looking at the displays kept the balance right, and we were happy for about 3 hrs. Had we gone on a non-event day, it wouldn’t have been as sucessful. Oh, and their gift shop is great-things for all ages and all budgets.

It’s about an hour’s drive from our house; we arrived about 11:40 and ate a preplanned “picnic in the car” before going in. That was a budget-motivated choice, but it turned out to be a wise one, too. I didn’t see any likely dining spots around. (Although it was pouring rain and I could barely see the building!)

Free parking too.