De Plane! De Plane!

This summer, we discovered Castle Island in South Boston. Remarkably, I have lived most of my 40 years in Massachusetts, but never visited this place until a few months ago. After talking to other suburban mamas, I realized I wasn't the only one who had overlooked this place.

From a historical standpoint, Castle Island is significant as the home of Fort Independence, an imposing granite fort built in the mid-1800's. We have yet to actually be there when tours are being held, but even walking around the Fort is interesting to little kids.

Besides Fort Independence, there are several things that my kids & I loved about our two trips to Castle Island.

First, there is the location. I have no hangups about driving in Boston, but the traffic and the expense of parking can make me less-than-anxious about returning. Fortunately, Castle Island is an easy drive up Route 93 (we live south of the city) to exit 15; signs point the way from there. The main road, William J Day Boulevard, runs alongside the beach and literally ends at the Castle Island parking lot. And, get this, the parking is free. Free!

One of the first things you may notice after parking is the low building at the far end of the lot. This is Sullivan's, a seasonal take-out restaurant that sells hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and other kid (and adult) favorites. It's cheap, greasy and crowded. . .in other words, perfect. There are outdoor tables or plenty of grass nearby for a picnic.

After eating (doesn't everyone eat first?), follow the path past the bath house to the playground.

The playground has two large play structures and swings for kids of varying ages. Park benches line the perimeter, so if you are lucky, you may actually be able to sit back and watch your kids play for a while.

Wait, what's that noise? Oh yeah, I didn't mention the aspect of Castle Island that made my son wild the first time we went. The planes. Planes from Logan zoom overhead every minute or so, and they are low and loud. My little guy channels this guy the entire time we are there, and I never get sick of it.

Besides the playground and the planes, there is the beach. When we visited in July, lifeguards in their chairs lined the beach all along the road leading to Castle Island. There were kids in the water everywhere we looked. On our last visit, it was hot, but the water had cooled significantly, so there were mostly just toes getting wet (one other thing is that it is windy here; pack accordingly. And your hair? Fuhgeddaboudit).



Walk along the beach a bit to the rocky part. Over here, my kids found the bodies of crabs, clams, mussels, and loads of shell fragments and cool rocks (bring a pail or deep pockets).


Although the warmth of summer is gone, Castle Island would still be a pretty great place to visit on a fall day. It bustles with dog walkers, moms with kids, runners and retirees---all out enjoying the neighborhood beach with the planes overhead.

All knocked up and nothing to eat

I recently announced over on my personal blog that my husband and I are expecting our second baby. I am beyond excited but despite the fact that it's only been two years, I am shocked at how much I have forgotten about being pregnant.

That said, I am looking for advice. What does a pregnant lady eat?

Let me explain. I am one of those women who don't suffer morning sickness. Or nausea. I KNOW. Genetics. My mother and sister were the same through all of their pregnancies as well. However, lately when it's been time to eat, I come up short. I either have no idea what to eat, or what I want to eat, so I usually end up waiting too long, over thinking the issue and eventually losing my appetite altogether.

The only things I can remember enjoying during my last pregnancy were nachos and ovaltine/banana/rice milk smoothies. Me thinks I need to expand the repertoire a bit beyond those two choices.

For the past three weeks I've been daydreaming about going to the grocery store with a fabulous list of healthy, appealing items to stock up on and for the past three weeks I've gone grocery shopping and come home with milk, bread, bananas and guacamole. Seriously.

Help a sister out, won't you?

10/10 @ 10:00

The New England Mamas support all mothers as they love and feed their babies. The League of Maternal Justice is hosting a virtual Breast Fest today. A member of the League says:

We'll be asking mothers across the blogosphere to whip out their weapons of mass nourishment and feed their babies live via web cam in a Virtual Nurse-In, or to send us pics of themselves in their past or present breastfeeding glory for a montage breastfeeding video footage that might just make Bill Maher fall off his chair. ...Not a breastfeeder? We love your boobs too -- but in case you don't feel like flashing them, write a post, or put up a snazzy boobalicious button. Boob-shy? Same goes for you - you don't have to bare your breasts to support the cause.

Whether you're a nurser or not, I think we can all agree that being a mom is tough enough without having to defend your choices to insensitive passers-by. Visit the League today or post a story of your own (like this one here) in support of all moms who just want to have the freedom to do right by their babies.

From Boston to Orlando

I'm currently in the Sunshine State for a family reunion. We are very fortunate that my aunt and uncle have saved their time share units for the past few years so that the whole family can use them this week. When I first heard that my aunt was hosting this reunion, I was really excited. An "excuse" to go to Disney World! However, slowly the other financial aspects of this trip started to set in. A big one was how were we going to get there.

We knew we wanted to fly. Although most family and friends from outside of New England assume that Logan is the best gateway to Massachusetts, we actually prefer to fly out of TF Green in Rhode Island. Our drive is about the same to either airport, but we find TF Green to just be a lot nicer. From the employees to the cleanliness of the airport, to the cost of parking, to the ease of getting to the terminal from long-term parking, TF Green is just a lot of better. Plus a lot of times the airfare is cheaper.

This time TF Green did not have the cheapest price. However, the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire did. (Yes, despite being called "Boston Regional," the Manchester airport is in New Hampshire.) We found amazingly cheap tickets from there to Orlando. The trip to the airport wasn't much longer. Plus we were able to do curbside check-in before my husband, the Big Giraffe, dropped us off and parked the car. The long-term parking was a tad more than TF Green but far less than Logan and the Big Giraffe was comfortable walking to the terminal from our space. For a family of four with a lot of stuff, it worked out really well. My only complaint about the trip actually has nothing to do with the airport itself, but rather the airlines. We flew Southwest which doesn't have assigned seats. The sounds great, right? Sure, except that I got stuck sitting next to someone else's kid because there weren't enough seats for his brother and him to sit next to their parents. In reality he was very polite and well-behaved, but it's bad enough trying to figure out ways to entertain my own kids without throwing an extra child into the mix. Fortunately he actually helped me entertain my older son; he had UNO cards which we all played for a while.

Alright, there was one other downside to the trip...while our super-cheap flight home is mid-day, our super-cheap flight to Orlando left at 6:25 AM! You can imagine that after a travel day that involved leaving our house at 3:30 in the morning, we slept very well on our first night in Orlando. And it was certainly worth it!

Day Trip to Rhode Island

The nice thing about living in New England is not having to drive far to find something totally different from your every day life. I grew up in spitting distance from Massachusetts and Rhode Island (although I never did try that) and was only a car ride from shopping at Quincy Market or sunbathing in the ocean sand. It's a glorious place to live.

After I got married, I moved out here to the Western Hills of Connecticut, and now I'm close to New York state, which adds another dimension to my travels. So much to see, so little time. Soon my family and I will take our annual drive up to Freeport, Maine, where we shop at the outlet stores and buy WAY too much at LLBean. I'm also getting excited to travel up thru the Berkshires to check out the fall colors next week.

This past weekend we took a van ride to Rhode Island. Hubby and I, and the 3 kids. My son is hours away from turning 6 and my girls are 4 and 3. We usually take a few summer trips over to the ocean to dig for clams and eat some great seafood, but our lives got hectic this year. And with the weather still summer-like, we thought a jaunt to the beach to get some good food and stick our toes in the sand would be a fun family trip.

And it was. We got to the beach and it was so foggy. Come to find out, it was just that little piece of land sticking out into the ocean that was foggy, that wonderful town called Point Judith. On our way home, the sun came back out as we traveled farther inland. The lobster and steamers were glorious; the kids LOVED to collect shells and dip their toes in the salty water. My son is all excited to bring his shells to show-and-tell at school tomorrow. And the ride was full of laughter, music and happy, content kids. Thank goodness my kids have always traveled well.

It was a wonderful family day trip. And it didn't take long to get there.