April Vacation

Last week was Maura’s April vacation from school and we put the time to good use. Except for Tuesday, when Maura had a dentist appointment, we had a fun outing every day she was off from school. I’ve already written about our first outing, down to Cape Cod to go hiking on Monday. On Wednesday we visited one of our favorite haunts, the Children’s Museum. On Thursday was a trip to Weymouth’s annual April Vacation Carnival. On Friday Jennifer took the afternoon off and we took another family hike, this time in the rugged terrain of the Blue Hills Reservation.

We arrived in Downtown Boston on our Wednesday outing in time for an early lunch and a visit with Jennifer at her office building before we went to the museum. Though it rained later in the afternoon the weather was beautiful when we arrived in Boston so Maura and I ate our baloney sandwiches on the Greenway. Because it was Earth Day there was an event going on and we enjoyed listening to a rhythm band and watching stilt walkers as we ate our lunch. Afterwards we met Jennifer for a stroll and desert which she brought with her from an office party. Her building was having an Earth Day event in the lobby and we picked up some biodegradable swag. The Children’s Museum was as usual noisy, chaotic and crowded. Maura had a wonderful time. There were no new exhibits of note but there were a few Earth Day demonstrators there as well and Maura got a piggy bank for her collection.

Thursday morning we spent at home because we had a coupon for an unlimited ride bracelet that started at 2 pm. Maura was very excited all morning. Julie Tittler and Peter came over to join us at the carnival. Maura loves carnival rides and she had a great time, though she couldn’t convince Peter, who is four, to ride any rides with her. Maura is big enough to ride almost all of the carnival rides by herself now, including some of the really wild ones. I didn’t ride with her this time. I would have had fun doing but I wanted to save a little money. I did play a carnival game to win Maura a prize. I won a plush husky puppy throwing darts at balloons. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to spend ten dollars for a two dollar stuffed animal.

On Friday Maura had hot dogs from Windy City Eats for lunch and then went to pick Jennifer up at the T-station. Since we forgot our Blue Hills trail map we went to reservation headquarters to pick up a new one and started our hike from there. We hiked for about three hours, out on the very rugged Skyline Trail and a longer and flatter route back. The weather was almost perfect and the hike was wonderful. It’s really great to get out and get some outdoor exercise on a perfect spring day. We were all exhausted by the time it was over though. The steep and rocky terrain is hard on knees and ankles.

April vacation made me look forward to summer. Maura has a few weeks of activities planned over the summer, she’ll be attending a day camp at one of town parks one week and spend a week apart from us with her grandparents in Indiana and another week with us. We will both be home for most of the summer and I plan on taking her on lots of outings.

Hiking Trip to Cape Cod

Monday was the first day of Maura’s April vacation and Jennifer had the day off because it was a state holiday here in Massachusetts. As the weather was expected to be nice we planned a hiking trip to Cape Cod to enjoy spring and some family togetherness. We decided we would visit two Massachusetts Audubon Society sanctuaries we had never before visited in the Upper Cape region, that part of Cape Cod closer to the mainland than the elbow where the peninsula bends to the north. Jennifer and I have been members of the Massachusetts Audubon Society for thirteen years. We joined shortly after we moved to Massachusetts and we’ve maintained our membership ever since. We strongly support their research and advocacy on environmental issues. Free admission to their wildlife sanctuaries is side benefit we do not take advantage of often enough.

Our first stop on Cape Cod was Skunkanett River, in the town of Osterville. Skunkanett River is inland, near the center of the peninsula and features a pond, upland forests and the river that gives the sanctuary its name. We didn’t see much wildlife but we didn’t see any people either. We could hear the birds in the trees and see the early green of spring, as the deciduous plants put forth their first leaves. A chipmunk watched us from the safety of an old pipe near the entrance. We saw a pair of mallards, a male and female, swimming on the pond. A scatter of blue feathers in the middle of the trail showed where something had caught a blue jay.

After a break for lunch we took a second hike, this one at Long Meadow, on the shore of Cape Cod Bay in Barnstable. This was a different environment. Here we hiked through meadows and old fields now filled with wind twisted scrub, brier choked second growth forest and a wood with holly trees. The trail led by vernal pools and a swamp where we may have seen a frog, though it jumped away too quickly for us to be sure. A boardwalk led down into the salt marsh that fringes the bay. From the end of the boardwalk we observed sandpipers running along the beach and brants swimming in the open water. A seagull was repeatedly dropping a clam hoping to break it open to get to the good parts inside.

The trip was a wonderful family outing. It cost little and got us away from the streets and lawns of the suburb where we live and into some wilder lands. It was a great learning experience because we got to see many environments in one day. Perhaps we will go back some summer day and see how the places change with the season.

Field Trip to the DeCordova

On Sunday April 5th we took advantage of Bank of America Free Museums Weekend to visit the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. The DeCordova is a museum of contemporary art in a lovely rural setting. It was a beautiful day with sunshine comfortable temperatures, important for a trip to the DeCordova as many of our favorite pieces in their collection are displayed outside in the sculpture garden. Our favorite sculpture garden works were Pine Sharks, a trio of circling sharks suspended in the treetops, and the Musical Fence, which was the only sculpture that was interactive. To fully experience it you needed to hit it with a stick.

Inside the museum proper some of the exhibits were hard to explain to Maura and not to everyone’s taste in our group. We all enjoyed the exhibit of contemporary portraiture even though some of the questions Maura had about the works in it were hard to answer. Many were intended to make the viewer ask questions that are hard to answer. Some of the paintings we saw in other galleries were a bit more difficult. They often dealt with adult themes that I was not comfortable discussing with a six year old. We only saw one of the short films. I would have liked to have watched more of them but Jennifer felt that my father, whose taste in art are more conservative than mine, would not enjoy them. We went back outside to the sculpture garden where everyone found works that interested them.

On our way out of the museum building we used the front door (we’d entered through a side door) and found something that I wish we had known about when we’d gone in. The DeCordova offers an interpretive activity kit for children that I think Maura would have enjoyed using. They update it when their exhibits change so it always features pieces that visitors might see. We’ll make sure we pick one up the next time we visit the DeCordova.

Before we left we visited the gift shop. Maura found a toy there that she had been looking for a long time, Popzolos. She had used them in her kindergarten class to create a character named Hut Dog that she has written many stories about. We’d identified what they were several months ago when we found them used in an exhibit at the Boston Children’s Museum but we hadn’t yet found them in a shop. She got a set as a souvenir and that topped off a very enjoyable visit.

Older but Proud

I’m not proud of myself. Turning forty is not much of an accomplishment though it is a milestone. I have a few more gray hairs than I did last year and a little less money. I am very proud of Maura though. She can keep a secret.

My parents came for a visit last week to help me celebrate my birthday. Their arrival was a surprise. I’d begun to wonder when they were going to come, because they almost always come for a visit sometime in the spring and I had not heard a date mentioned this year but I did not know they were coming for my birthday until my mother called from the highway to tell me not to go out until they arrived. The remarkable thing is not that my parents surprised me with a visit for my 40th birthday; it’s that Maura knew they were coming for months (since December) and she never let it slip. Even when I asked her the previous afternoon why she was so excited she said it was because the next day was my birthday and did not give a hint that the real reason for her excitement was that she was going to see her grandparents.

My parents’ visit was enjoyable for everyone, as was our celebration of my birthday. We went to dinner on Friday. Where we went was another secret that Maura kept very well. She did spill the beans on that one eventually because she dropped a clue that she didn’t realize would give it away. Dinner was in the Monday Club Bar at Upstairs on the Square, on Winthrop Square in Cambridge. It was restaurant I had wanted to try for months but it’s beyond our means except for special occasions. I was not disappointed. The food and the atmosphere were superb and the company was wonderful. Three generations of Elletts were joined by my good friends Andrew and Julie Tittler (Uncle Drew and Auntie Julie to Maura). Maura made me proud once again by behaving very well at the restaurant. I hope she learns that dressing up and being on her best behavior can be fun once in a while. I think she had a good time at dinner and I made sure I told her how happy I was at her deportment.