Day Out With Thomas 2011

We went to the Day Out With Thomas event at the North Conway Scenic Railroad in NH last week. This was our second year going, so now we feel like old pros.

The biggest tip we learned was to buy tickets ahead of time. Last year Saturday sold out so we had to go Sunday when the only tickets left were available. So this year we ordered online a couple months in advance.  We also opted to go on a Friday since it is probably less busy than the weekend. There were big crowds as the trains unloaded but there is stroller parking on the side of the rails.

C was so happy

We wound up on an open car which was much more enjoyable, the middle car in the photo above. The latter was luck of the draw as they just try to fill up the trains as there is no assigned seating, but we loved seeing the mountain views and enjoyed the breeze as well. The train goes backwards and then forward back to the station and the ride was about 25 minutes.

one of the gorgeous mountain views from the train.

kids of all ages enjoyed seeing the tortoise

DOWT tickets include admission and the train ride, and they offer a scavenger hunt with a small prize if you get all the stamps. They also had rides on small rail cars, bouncy houses for different age groups, photo ops with Thomas & Sir Topham Hatt, a tortoise and wildlife expert walking around, and a large tent with crafts and activities, and much more. Another tip if you are on a budget try to steer your kids past the gift shop as the toys are pretty expensive, but last years t-shirts were half off. ;)

If your child is obsessed with trains or Thomas, I highly recommend this event. This was better than Christmas for C! And W was still very interested and he liked getting to see the inside of a train again and push buttons. The guys working with the trains are very knowledgeable and willing to answer any questions. We had also begun re-reading the original Thomas stories by Rev. W. Awdrey in preparation of the trip.

North Conway has a great playground and picnic area nearby and the downtown is fun to walk around and has some fun general stores and Dondero's Rock Shop which has all kinds of cool rocks and fossils.

Amish Country

During our stay in Lancaster County, we stayed at a busy and quaint B&B in one of the villages. Our hosts had a map of some places off the beaten path for suggestions to see while we were there. We started off at a book shop which sold a mix of authentic Amish-German books, school supplies, cookbooks, and fiction. We found a couple of first grade level writing books for W.

From there we stopped at a variety of shops and farms, a wooden toy shop selling everything from play kitchens to marble and car runs, a wonderful dairy which had excellent iced cream and animals to visit, a farmer’s market, and of course, quilt shops. W & C picked out a Thomas-themed quillow and Cars pillow (they know their audience). They actually did wind up useful in the car ride as well. I bought some chow chow, a delicious mix of pickled veggies, at one of the shops. One of my favorite sights on this trip was a clothes line from an Amish house to a telephone pole, and that was the one line connected to the home. 

cornfields somewhere between Strasburg and Paradise

After visiting a locally renowned quilt shop, we wound up back where we went on our last trip. Lapp’s Quilts on N. Star Rd. in Ronks, PA is a quilt shop in the basement of an Amish home. They have a wonderful selection and a lot of creative patterns with a nice variety of colors. After drooling looking over the many quilts for quite a while, we agreed on a double wedding ring quilt which suits our cozy log cabin bedroom very nicely. Quilts are an expression of art and the craftsmanship of these quilts is superb. If you ever want to buy an Amish made quilt, please do go to the source. Their prices are lower than the shops in the towns and they are more than willing to answer any questions about the products and let you take your time. One tip with shopping this locally: bring cash or your checkbook, many places do not accept credit cards.

The other highlight of our day was the Bird-in-Hand Bake Shop, which offers a variety of baked goods and treats, and is part of a gift shop. Outside the bake shop has goats to feed, a playground to climb on, and gliders to enjoy. We ate local delicacies like shoo fly pie and oatmeal cream pies (way better than Little Debbie’s). This place is well known and during busy times there will be tour buses but we happened to go at a less hectic time and we really enjoyed it. This day was the perfect wrap up to our vacation. I love the rolling farmlands of Pennsylvania, it is very scenic and welcoming. Now we are back at our little house in the big woods of NH and gearing up for summertime and a garden of our own.

  

A Railroad Ride

3 modes of transportation

Earlier this month on our road trip we spent a couple of days in Lancaster County, PA. A couple of years ago we vacationed here and enjoyed it so much we wanted to go back to some of the same places we saw, including the Strasburg Railroad and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. This time we showed up early in the day so we started off at the Choo Choo Barn to see their amazing model railroad display. It is a large room devoted to the intricate display of trains mixed with miniatures and local references.

waving to the conductor

After visiting the shops, we got a picnic lunch of sandwiches and ate at the picnic area near the station before our train ride. We later boarded the train, and enjoyed the pace of the old fashioned “steamie”. We stopped off at the picnic area along the train route which gave them an hour or so to play at the playground. This spot seems to be mostly visited by local Amish and Mennonite families (of which there were many about, we were there on Ascension Day which is a big holiday for them). There were several horses and buggies parked in a special section of the parking lot.

The boys are still mildly obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine (especially C) so they both enjoyed the ride and seeing the trains up close. Thomas wasn’t there in person..or.. uh.. Train, but at the station there was a smaller ride on Thomas they loved seeing. We will be going to Day Out With Thomas next month in NH, so they will get another choo choo fix soon.

a coach like we rode on

at the museum

overview of the RR Museum from a central walkway

We got the train/ museum combined pass which I recommend especially if you or family members enjoy learning about trains. As I was taking pictures of the boys on a train (with Jacob) I had comments that it would be hard to get them down, and it was true, they could have stayed up there all day. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania had added a large area with a kid friendly play space and displays since we last visited. W & C also got to hear their names in Morse Code and visit an area set up to look like a telegraph office circa 1900.

They both took a big nap after this busy day! More Amish Country adventures coming up in our next post. 

Monticello

C at the fish pond in front of Monticello

We were able to visit Monticello, home to Thomas Jefferson, on the day we spent driving from SC to VA. We enjoyed getting to see the beautiful Virginia countryside. It was late afternoon, around 3pm when we arrived, but we were able to take a tour through the house and walk around the grounds before closing time (6pm). Sadly, we didn’t have enough time to peruse the Visitor’s Center but we will be planning to take the boys back when they are a bit older and can appreciate and understand the history of Jefferson.

The fish pond outside of the home was used to keep fish until they were ready to be served for dinner. Pretty much every detail was well thought out! Thomas Jefferson was very detail oriented and a logical thinker, and even had his own version of the Bible in which he clipped out parts that he did not agree with. Of course he is best known as his role for founding father and president, or as W knows him, the guy on the nickel.

It was interesting to learn how much the French culture made an impact on Jefferson’s life, including many things which he incorporated into Monticello such as built in bedsteads with closets/walls on the side of the bed to take advantage of the space in the room. He was a tall man and the bed was built just tall enough with a couple of inches to spare. They also have displays dedicated to the Lewis & Clark expedition which Thomas Jefferson sponsored. In the foyer there is an interesting mix of Native American relics and inspirational artwork. 

one of the many butterflies we saw

The grounds of the home include impressive gardens and a walking trail to the cemetery where Jefferson and his family are buried. It was a hot day but the shaded paths were a welcome place for a walk. There are foundations of slave cabins along the garden path, and I was glad that they included this important history in the tour and didn't gloss over it, despite Jefferson's many accomplishments he was a slaveholder his entire life not to mention his connection with the Hemings family.

W views the garden after cooling off in the sprinkler

Charlottesville, VA is a college town, home to the Jefferson-founded University of Virginia, and we drove by and saw his statue there on the way to the hotel. We took the boys swimming at the pool there and then had another early start the next morning to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, aka Lancaster County. More on that in the next post.

    

A Visit to Ft. Sumter

On Memorial Day W and I were interested in going to see Ft. Sumter, and the chance to go on a ferry ride to get there sounded pretty appealing as well. Above is a view of the fort from Charleston. It does not appear very big at all.

View from the top of the fort, all of the crumbling brick walls are original.

It took about a half hour to get there by ferry, and we had about 45 minutes at the fort to tour around. We opted not to listen to the tour guide since it was very hot and crowded, W said he would rather walk around and see and read things for himself.

The building materials for some walls included local shells  

W said seeing the original cannons was his favorite part of our tour

W is a little young to know very much about the Civil War, although we have learned a bit about slavery and the underground railroad this year. We picked out a book about Children in the Civil War which shares some of the lesser known stories of children affected by that war, and it is a good introduction of this part of American History for younger children. 

W enjoying the book on the return Ferry ride

Middleton Place

While visiting the South we just had to visit a Plantation, so we went to Middleton Place. No relation to the newest British Princess that we know of. Near the entrance there is a large rectangle reflecting pool where a couple of swans reside. 

The “big house” had damage during the Civil War, and was rebuilt only to burn in a fire a decade or so later, so there are piles of crumbling brick but the surrounding gardens were kept up and there are nice walking paths leading to secret gardens and too many varieties of plants to count. Some of the gardens showcase beautiful statues which were donations to the plantation in later years. Along some of the paths bamboo was growing. It is a great climate for it, where rice used to be the primary crop.  

The hydrangeas were in bloom and we saw cranes and turtles as well as a couple of baby alligators. They also had several farm animals on the grounds, a safe distance from the alligators. Spanish moss hung from many of the trees.

look closely... is that a log or an alligator?

We visited the chapel which was built for the slaves and open to the entire community. It was extremely small and it was moving to think of the people that were so grateful for that meager space to worship. There is an area where a house was built during reconstruction for former slaves to live and it is fascinating to think about how the way of life in the region changed so dramatically during their lifetimes. 

Overall we would recommend visiting Middleton Place to learn not only about the history of plantation life but to get lost in the beautiful marriage of European inspired gardens and the nature of the low country.

South Carolina Low Country

On our recent trip to South Carolina, we visited the city of Charleston and walked around downtown, visited plantations, and of course went to the beach. The late May weather this year was hot, even for SC. I found it comforting that even the locals were complaining of the heat & humidity. Folly beach was beautiful and the kids had a great time. The water was so much warmer than up north! There are Palmetto trees everywhere. The Magnolia trees were still blooming while we were in Charleston, we were excited to get to see them throughout the city.

Charleston downtown is worth a day to walk around and explore. There are no high-rise buildings but lots of cute antique-looking houses and shops (our favorite was the Rainbow Row of houses). You know you are in the historic districts when you are passed by horse-drawn carriages of tourists. The boys cooled off at a water splash fountain at the beautiful water-front park.

feeling refreshed!

During our stay we visited the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in the United States. They have a small factory video tour which was very informative; W enjoyed it way more than we thought he would since he is not even a tea drinker yet. Charleston has the perfect climate for growing tea, and you get to see the machinery that they use to process it. We all agreed that if you happened to be in this area, going here in combination with somewhere else would be worth your while. But it is kind of far from most other places, so would not be a standalone day trip. We ate at The Fat Hen (my favorite meal of the trip food-wise, C could have behaved better, but I loved the BBQ Duck sandwich.) We also visited the Angel Oak tree, which is amazing to see in person.

3/4 of us!

More on our SC trip including a visit to a plantation and Fort Sumter coming soon! :)

Traveling with kiddos

Our recent family vacation was too jam packed to fit into one post, so we will break it down into categories to write about the different places we visited. But before we get to that, as I upload our many photos to winkflash, I wanted to write a bit about traveling with young kids, and how that part of the adventure went.

Starting off, we had a 2 day road trip to SC with an overnight stop in Virginia. Then after a few days in SC, a day in the car back to VA, and the following day to PA for another few days at a B&B. On the final leg of the trip we went from PA (stopping in CT for our niece's birthday party) and back to NH. Yes, this was a bit of a challenge with a 6 year-old and 2 year-old. We didn’t wind up bringing a DVD player for the car ride and we actually survived.  We listened to CDs of their favorite band, the Imagination Movers (thank you guys for the sanity!) I cannot recommend this group highly enough, they are the real deal. Jacob knew a couple of their songs but this trip got him acquainted with their catalog, lol. I am hoping W is still into them as much next year when their concert tour comes around again, W and I saw them a couple months ago in Worcester MA, and next time we’ll bring C too. 

W did some of his homeschool workbooks, and C enjoyed stickers and Color Wonder books although most of those marker caps have disappeared somewhere into the void. We brought several books and a few wooden trains & a couple of Cars cars which helped mix things up. I also have a Kids Mode app on my droidx phone which came in mighty handy at some restaurants in SC and PA. 

With gas prices rising we decided not to rent a larger vehicle for the trip, so our trusty Toyota Corolla held up but it was difficult keeping the back seat organized and involved a clean-out every couple of days of the trip.

One major thing I would do differently: pack lighter! Especially when limited to a small-ish car trunk. I had packed light jackets, sweatshirts and too many long pants but the weather was unseasonably hot even during the Pennsylvania leg of the trip. I know I couldn't foresee this, but probably one sweatshirt/jacket per kid would have been sufficient and assume older children can get a couple wears out of jeans, etc. Also, when planning to stay somewhere more than one night it would be possible to do laundry even though I know it's not the most glamorous thing to do on vacation (many hotels and b&b’s offer coin laundry areas).

Another tip I hopefully will remember for next time is to bring a cooler and start off with enough snacks for day 1, not the whole week (smushed granola bars aren’t appealing to anyone).  We ate out for almost every meal which is very unusual for us. C consumed not much besides chocolate milk and applesauce for much of the trip, so his sytem was a bit.. uh.. thrown off so we were happy when he ate anything. I tried not to stress out over this, afterall, vacation is just temporary. Utilize the rest stops as much as possible, besides the bathroom breaks most of them have a place to run around and stretch your legs. The kids cheered whenever we got to one and W said they were one of his favorite parts of the trip. ;)

Having GPS on our phones was also extremely useful, this was the first long trip that we used this for and boy it made a difference. After this, our 3 hour trek to the White Mountains next month will seem like a breeze! Stay tuned to the blog for recaps of our trip and photos coming soon. 

   

New Hampshire Vacation

This past weekend we took a trip up to the White Mountains area of NH with Jacob's company. He took the day off Friday so first we went to North Conway and walked around and browsed a few of the shops. We ate lunch at the Up Country restaurant. We never know what to expect with the boys when taking them out to eat but they did okay and the meal was nice. Then we checked in at the hotel and relaxed and watched the Red Sox game. The boys were so excited about the hotel so that made it a bit tough to settle them down that evening.

Saturday morning we woke up to downpours. At breakfast we were still deciding if we should go for it and do Storyland that day or not, but we decided to go for it. When we got to the park it was still pretty bad, so we bought ponchos. Why do the adult ones come in yellow with the Storyland logo plastered all over yet the kid ones are plain white? :) We dressed the boys in swim shirts which turned out to be a very good idea, in addition to the weather there is a splash pad there. Anyway, after about 15 minutes the skies cleared up and then there was occasional drizzle but the rest of the day was actually quite nice. They didn't have the usual crowds due to the weather so there were fewer lines for rides and W loved riding on the Polar coaster, many spinning rides and the flume. C enjoyed the Storybook portion best which was more toddler friendly, and the rest of the time he was in the stroller. After we got back to the hotel, C took a nap and W and I had fun swimming in the pool while Jacob watched C and read.

Saturday evening we went to the dinner at the Mt. Washington Hotel, and along the way back to our hotel afterwards we stopped at an ice cream shop with a playground in the yard. The rain seemed to cool things down also so the humidity was a bit more bearable.

On Sunday we went back to North Conway and went to the Conway Scenic Railroad, where Thomas the Tank Engine had an event going on. (We had picked up tickets for this on Friday). C especially liked seeing Thomas. W was a bit grumpy for part of the day, but between the long car rides, the excitement filled weekend, sleeping pattern thrown off and being sick earlier in the week I am sure there was a reason, so we tried to make the best of the situation. There was a train ride with views of some mountains and a river, and tents set up with various activities for the kids. They also had a tortoise which the animal handler said was estimated at 50 years old, and expected to grow much larger. W said she moved really fast so he petted her but then kept his distance. After Thomas we visited a couple more places in North Conway including the local library book sale. Later we headed home but first went along the Kangamangus Highway to enjoy the scenery.

We are on the cusp of closing on a new home in southern NH, and by late summer we should be moving. W begins his homeschool Kindergarten after the big move once we get settled and into our routines. Needless to say we are all excited about the move and having a bigger yard. We will post much more about the move and our transitions in future posts on the blog.

New York, New York

  Last week our family visited New York City for a few days. My cousin lives there and the photo above is her view, what a lucky gal! It was amazing, and she was a very gracious host. For me and the boys it was our first time there, although Jacob had been before many times when he was growing up. Among the highlights of our trip were visits to the American Museum of Natural History, which is very fun for kids and kids at heart, Central Park, seeing the skyline at night, and eating cupcakes and gelato. My stomach is groaning just thinking about our total caloric intake, but all the walking worked it off, right?? :) 

                                        

This photo amuses me to no end.

The boys were troopers. We did make sure and stop at a few playgrounds. It was amazing to me that for several blocks W would complain that he was getting SO tired of walking, but as soon as he saw a playground he would light up and have the energy to run around for more than a half hour! Gotta love five year olds. 

C stalking a pigeon at a playground in Central Park

My cousin watched W while Jacob and I took C to the Met for a couple of hours on Sunday, and I really enjoyed seeing several of the exhibits although the museum is so huge you couldn't hope to see everything in a full day never mind a couple hours. We especially loved the bronze statue of Diana by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. 

Courtyard view of American statues at the Met

Our museum experiences were overall great (i.e. no extended crying from C and no temper tantrums from either), but it did make me realize that it is still a little early for W to really enjoy and appreciate museums and especially fine art. I had been wanting to take him to the MFA in Boston and I may hold off on that, since 5 is still quite young and there is plenty of time for discussing Rembrandt and Monet, right now the best thing is to stick with finger painting and hands on activities. 

Little April Showers

We are beginning to plant some seeds and plan on using this weekend to work on our yard and square foot gardening system that Jacob put together. On our Aerogarden there are currently around 17 tomatoes of various sizes so I am looking forward to our early crop. This picture was taken last week and my how they have grown since then, although all the tomatoes are still green and our niece calls them pumpkins.

Reading List!
Here are some spring time favorite books appropriate for April. These should all be available at your local public library.

• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss, Illustrations by Crockett Johnson
• Bunny's Noisy Book by Margaret Wise Brown, Illustrations by Lisa McCue
• Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson, Illustrations by Derek Anderson
• Good Night New York City by Adam / Veno, Illustrations by Joe Gamble

It was a sad day when I noticed Bunny's Noisy Book had gone out of print, although you can still find reasonably priced used copies on Amazon. I had wanted to gift it at a baby shower, it is filled with beautiful prose (what else would you expect from Margaret Wise Brown?) and the illustrations by McCue are really lovely. It was a book I picked up for my eldest son on a whim and I am so glad I did, even when he grows up  I plan on keeping it in our "library". Another favorite of our family is the Little Quack series, and Derek Anderson also illustrated the classic The Potty Train, which was helpful to our oldest a couple years ago. Mr. Anderson has an excellent web site, check it out.

We are also planning on reading books about NYC because we will be taking a little trip there in a couple of weeks. If anyone has any recommendations for New York City themed books let us know by next week so I have time to get to the library for them! We plan on visiting Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History. Photos to come on Little Men after our adventure.