New England Explorations

While my parents were here last week, we did some exploring of the area - finally driving north of Amherst (we still haven't made it to Vermont) and down into Rhode Island and Connecticut. In Massachusetts, we went to Shelborne Falls and Deerfield. Deerfield is an early settlement and a battleground in the King Phillip war which I knew nothing about until we visited. Many of the houses in Deerfield are restored to their colonial appearance; you can tour them or just walk around town and take in the early America vibe. We chose the latter since we had been touring both the Eric Carle museum and the Emily Dickenson house the days before and Nora was about in revolt (as was Dad, who enjoys historical sites, but isn't too fond of being part of a guided tour). Deerfield was lovely, especially the little meadow walk/nature path that finishes out right next to a very old cemetery. However, Shelborne Falls was a real jewel. It's in the Berkshires and while a very small town, has a thriving artist community and a really lovely floral bridge (this is much less touristy than the write up made it sound).

Over the weekend, we headed south. RI was the final state for my dad to visit so he can say he's been in all 48 of the contiguous USA, so it was fun to cross it off the list for him. And of course, Rhode Island has lots of beaches - a big draw for Jason, Nora, my mom, and I. Dad is not so much on the beach, but he does like state parks, so when both combined, we were all happy. We finished off this two day jaunt with a stop in Mystic, CT, which was very touristy and yet still felt relaxing and fun.

Old tombstone in Deerfield (1731?)

This is in front of some fancy smancy prep school where all the boys were blazers and Bermuda shorts. I liked the tree.

Our first day at the beach was really warm and lovely, but there were advisories up warning us out of the water, so we just built sand castles. Nora found an abandoned hole dug by another 4 year old to sit in.


This was later that day at a state park just south of Newport, RI. The kites were so magnificent, we had to pull over. The beach was much rockier and the waves rougher here, since we were facing the Atlantic instead of the bay.
We spent a long time checking out this big octopus kite, Nora ran right for it when we got to the park, and then she and some other kids ran in and out of its tentacles; it really was amazing.