Category Archives: what to know

Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting Salem During October

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Salem is a fantastic place, and if you’re planning a visit there I would highly suggest going in the month of October because that’s when the town really comes to life, though it has fun stuff going on all year, you can find out more at http://salemweb.com/guide/tosee.php.  It’s got all sorts of scary history with the Salem Witch Trials and they also claim their are a number of haunted houses there, not to mention plenty of Halloween movies were filmed in the little town, perhaps mostly notably Hocus Pocus and Bewitched.

We went the second week of October and started out by walking the town and checking out the vendors.  There were about 100 Tarot Card readers, and though I’ve never had a reading and don’t know that I believe in them I was tempted to get one just to see what it was and because if I were ever to get one it seems like Salem would be the right place for it.  In the end it was $30 for a 15 minute reading and I realized I am too cheap to pay for something I think is more hokey than anything… I would rather have a new pair of shoes, but the cards look cool.

Already there were quite a few people in the town dressed up for Halloween and a lot of related events going on such as dance parties, Halloween vendors, haunted tours and the like.  We visited the memorial for those accused and sentenced during the Salem Witch Trials and visited more shops while we waited for our evening haunted tour.

At 8 we met up with our tour guide/group and were lead through the streets of Salem and told about the ghost stories and strange occurrences that have a happened there.  The Witch House that is right next to the monument had really creepy murder stories and apparently is the most haunted place in Salem. People claim to see lights in the attic or catch glimpses of people in the windows and such, after hearing all that we were happy to move on. *Note, if your going with kids you might not want to attend a haunted tour since a lot of stories were really dark.

Things to Note

1) If you want to visit in October go early in the month
If you’re going to go to Salem during the month of October and you don’t want to get clobbered by crowds go in the first few weeks of the month, the closer the date get to Halloween the more crazy and packed Halloween town gets.

2) Limited Parking
If you plan on going in October you should also know that parking will be limited.  Another fun option is to take the commuter rail there saving you the headache of parking.  

3) Day Trips
If you want to go for day trip there are quite a few museums you can visit and there is also a trolley ride that will take you around the town and give you a tour of the interesting places, which can be nice if your totting along tots.

4) Evening Tours Will Be Packed!
If you’re planning on going on an evening/haunted tour during the month of October things are going to be crowded.  We were in a tour group that had probably around 40 other people in it, which meant that some times it was difficult to hear our tour guide.  Also there were a whole bunch of other tour companies doing tours at the same time, so we often had to wait a few minutes for previous tour groups to move on before we could visit certain sights.  Finally, I would not recommend attending the evening tours with children.  We brought our then 9 month old son, and it was fine to carry him around, but the stories they tell are not child friendly and you may want to avoid the potential nightmares/scares I assume younger children would walk away with.

Summary & Stars ★★★★☆

Four stars.  We had a really fun time visiting it, my husband loved it and wants to make it yearly tradition though I think as our children get older we would plan more of day visit to see the decoration and less of a visit to see the more “scary” things.  If you want to go during the month of October consider going during the first few weeks to avoid massive crowds.  The town is quaint and nice to walk around on and there are a lot of museums to visit during the day.  Evening tours during the month of October are really crowded and busy and not child friendly.  Consider taking the commuter rail to avoid the hassle of parking.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Salem Witch House (Pretty much the Center of all the things going on in Salem)
310 1/2 Essex Street
Salem, Massachusetts

Phone:  978.744.8815
Website: http://www.salem.org/

Touring Boston – What to Know About Apple Picking at Russell Orchards

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Let me start by saying we love the Boston tradition of Pick Your Own Fruit.  We’ve loved picking apples each fall and we have loved getting to pick a few different kinds of berries this summer.

Over the weekend my husband and I decided that we really wanted to go apple picking this year and since I had a baby due in less than a month we decided that sooner would be better.  We got everything ready in the morning and packed into the car but when I pulled up the address to Tougas Orchard (my personal favorite) we found out they were closed for the day so we decided to try out Russell Orchard since we had seen flyers around campus for an outing the rest of the school was planning there.

The drive to Russell Orchard was beautiful and the parking lot didn’t seem to busy as we pulled in,

which was what we expected going on a weekday rather than a weekend.  As I mentioned I was less than a month away from my pregnancy due date so after a long car drive I really needed to use the bathroom.  Unfortunately my very first experience with Russell Orchard was with a row of very poorly maintained port-a-potties.  Ugh.  Being unbalanced and pregnant the last thing I wanted to do was squish my roundness into the stinky cesspit.  Toilet paper and urine was everywhere, there was no clean toilet paper to be found, the toilets were super full and looking at their little service dates marked on the inside of each port-a-potty it has been weeks since they had been serviced.  Using them myself and then taking my two year old to use them was absolutely revolting, and I’m sad to say it but that initial experience may have tainted the rest of my view of Russell Orchard.

Anyway, moving on to the Orchard Summary.

1. Bathrooms
This place has been around over a 100 years (or so they claim) and they still only have a line of port a potties for bathrooms.  Gross.

2. Pricing
The price for the apples was quite low compared to some of other orchards.  You paid an admission fee $3/person and that would later be credited toward your fruit.  Apples were $1.75 a lb.

3. The Orchard
I felt like we really could have used a little more help and direction when it came to this part.  After we paid our fee and were given a bag to put our apples in we were simply sent on our way and told not to get on the tractor tailor because that was only for kids on field trips.  Great.  … but we didn’t know what to do or where to go, there were no maps and no further instructions given.  We ended up wandering down the long main road looking for any kind of signage that suggested apples ready for picking.

It was a fairly long walk and I wish we would have brought a stroller, since my toddler is pretty big and a pain to carry, but we didn’t know how far away the apples would actually be.  However the trail was fairly rough so I don’t know that a stroller that wasn’t a jogger would have done much good.

Eventually we found the apples and they had a bunch of different ones clustered together.  Each row being a different type of apples so you could get a good variety without additional walking. There were apples everywhere, mostly all over the ground, which was kind of sad, and I suspected it was because they didn’t have any people there giving directions or telling you to be careful what you picked because anything you pick should go in your bag like many of the other orchards do.

Also we went the last week of September, and I don’t know if it was the time of year or the location or something else all together, but the flies and mosquitoes were out in swarms. We all came home with multiple bug bites.

4. Other Fruit
I was pretty excited that this orchard also had raspberries that were still available to pick so after we got our fill of apples we again headed to the main desk to try to get some direction to where we could find the berries and again we were pointed in a vague direction back into the orchard.  Still poor signage and no maps.

However when we did find the berries they were great.  Tasty, delicious, ripe, and they cost a fair amount less to pick than they do at the grocery store… which does not seem to be the case for most of my apple picking experiences.

5. Other Features
They have a few animals enclosed in a fence, mostly chickens and geese and a sign warning that they are not tame and to be careful around them.  There was no playground that I could see and only handful of benches.  The general store was nice and they had some really tasty ice cream there, but other than that there wasn’t much that stood out to me.

Summary & Stars:

★★☆☆☆

Two stars. Gross bathrooms killed this place for me, and having that added to a complete lack of direction and instruction left me pretty disappointed.  I feel like there are so many great orchards in New England that I would not waste my time returning to this one.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Address:

Russell Orchards
143 Argilla Rd.
Ipswich, MA  

Phone: 978-356-5366
Website: http://www.russellorchards.com/ 

Touring Boston – What to Know About Apple Picking at Tougas Farm

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I had a friend set up a toddler playgroup date to Tougas Farm, the one she claimed was her favorite place to go apple picking and I was excited to go experience another apple picking farm (see my post on Lookout Farm for the first experience).  I was extra excited because we didn’t have a car at the time and she offered to drive us there, which was amazing.  It seems like a lot of Pick Your Own Apple farms are a good 45+ minutes away from the Cambridge/Boston area and you really can’t get to them without a car.

This orchard is set up in two parts.  You drive there and park, across the street from the parking area is a barn where you go to purchase your pass or to pick fruit and on the same side as the parking lot there is the farm store, a huge playground, and farm animals.

Things to note about Tougas Farm:

1.  How Pricing Works
Here you pay an initial admission price, I want to say it’s around $7-10/person and you get a sticker and a receipt saying you’ve paid.  Then you are given a bag for your fruit and sent into to orchard behind the barn.  You pick the fruit you want, then you take it back to the payment barn and they weigh it.  You are charged by pound, but the initial entrance fee you paid goes toward your fruit.  So if you go with two people you’ll pay $14 to get in, but that $14 gets you $14 worth of fruit.  If you pick more than $14 worth of fruit you just pay the extra per pound amount, if you pick less than you miss out on a few dollars worth of food.

2.  Travel
Their orchard seems fairly compact and it was easily walkable with a toddler without a stroller, but there is a little bit of walking involved.  There are thick patches of grass and wide walk ways between the trees so it would also be really easy to bring a stroller if you wanted or needed one.  Also different variety of apples have all be planted close to each other, so one row of apples will be Gala, the row next to it will be Cortland, the row next it will be something else, etc.  So it’s easy to get a good variety without having to do a lot of traveling.  

3. Helper Assistance
Around each area of picking they have farm workers telling you the process.  These people are great and they’ll explain to you and your kids how to pick fruit so you don’t pull a whole bunch you don’t mean to off the tree, how to find good, ripe fruit, and if you have questions about which apples taste which way these people are great for insights.  (also they have no qualms about you sampling the fruit as you go… thank goodness because I think my son ate his weight in apples while we picked.)

They had a smallish picking area, maybe 10 rows of apples open at a time (New rows open as all the apples from those rows get picked), but each row was a different kind, so I could pick some gala and some cortland and some … uh, yellow ones all kind of at the same time.  It was also great for my toddler son because he could just run wild through the different rows exploring and finding other kids.

4. Playground
The playground is by the general store.  It’s big, and there are tires to climb on, an old tractor, a couple of big wooden play structures, swings, slides, things to climb on etc.  The playground is also surrounded by picnic tables if you bring snacks.

5. Farm Animals
This is for sure my sons favorite thing about this farm. They have lots of farm animals (goats, pigs, chickens, lamas, sheep) and for $1 you can buy a small bag of food pellets to feed the animals.  The animals were surprisingly soft and good about taking the food from small children and my son loved getting to poke the food through to them and getting soggy goat lip kisses on his hand.  Thankfully they also have a nice outdoor washing station right next to the animals so you can clean up as soon as you’re done.

6. Bathrooms
With kids bathrooms are so important and not all the farms have great one.  These ones are big and attached the general store next to the playground and animal yard.

7. General Store
They have a general store and some of my most favorite apple donuts.  If you come to pick apples you really shouldn’t leave without trying one of their apple donuts.

Summary:
This is my favorite farm that I’ve been to so far.  It’s less expensive than Look Out Farm (though it has fewer activities) but it still has plenty for kids to do and it’s a great day trip.   I’m fairly confident my son would be willing to brave the drive just to feed the animals.  The farm and picking is compact which makes it nice and easy to walk and they’ve really just made it a pretty experience with green grass between the fruit trees, a great play area, fun animals and nice bathrooms.

Rating:

★★★★★

Five stars, I thought this place was great.  It was perfect for a day outing with a toddler, I loved being able to walk around and play and not drag a stroller with me.  I thought the grass everywhere was a nice touch and we could not get enough of feeding the animals.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Tougas Farm

234 Ball Street
Northboro, MA

Phone: 508-393-6406
Website: http://www.tougasfarm.com/

Family Friendly Boston – How to Have a Fantastic Camping Trip With Kids When You Don’t Have Gear (Shawme-Crowell State Forest)

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I grew up in a family that loved camping and all things outdoors… and I married a man who hates anything that could be considered remotely dirty.  With that said camping has not been very high on his list of priorities but it’s something I’ve really been wanting to do and really wanted to take our son to do.

As another summer season was nearing it’s closed I realized that another year was going to pass without us getting out and really enjoying nature the way I did growing up, and felt disappointed about the loss and I also realized if I wanted this to happen I was going to have to make it happen.

I wanted to go camping, but since my husband is not an outdoors man we have zero camping gear.  So I figured camping was out of the questions and I started looking around the different Massachusetts state parks to at least try to find a place were we could have a fire and make some s’mores.

As I was searching I came across the “Yurt” and all of the sudden my dream of taking our young son camping while being 8 months pregnant became a possibility.  I was thrilled, and ended up booking a Yurt at the Shawme-Crowell State forest, thinking that we could go spend a night there, then drive down Cape Cod and enjoy a day at the beach the following day.  It sounded like the perfect short trip for our little family.

Things to Note:

1. Yurts are a great way to camp for families without camping gear
Yurts, if you haven’t hear of them before are round, canvas/wood covered structures.  The ones at Shawme-Crowell had cement floors, locking doors, a wooden table and beds with mattress.  Which meant as far as camping gear went the only thing I needed to bring was blankets and pillows to cover the mattress.  Perfect!  That also meant I didn’t need to have or set up a tent and we could pretty much get to the camp ground a be ready to go.

Each yurt at Shawme-Crowell also had a water sprout by it, a cooking grill and a fire pit.  You can choose if you wanted a 4 or 6 person Yurt.  

2. Firewood
Don’t bring firewood with you camping.  If you want a camp fire you will have to buy the firewood from the camp ground.  Apparently there have been lots of problems/fears about bugs being brought in with outside wood so they don’t allow any.  We bought six logs for $5.

3. Yurt Rental
You have to rent a yurt for at least two nights (which was a bummer for us because we only wanted to stay for one, but we still had to book it for two)  and you can choose the size you want for your family between a 4 or 6 person yurt.  The price was around $55/night.

4. Amenities
Yurts have a water spout, cooking grill and fire pit right next to each one.  There is also power in yurts including lights and outlets to plug in whatever you need. If you walk down the road a little bit there is a bathroom with flushing toilets and showers.

Summary and Stars: ★★★★★

Five stars.  We had a fantastic time camping here.  Staying in yurt made it so easy and even my outdoor hating husband admitted that it was fun and worth the memories.  If your looking into planning a camping trip with kids I would highly suggest this as a painless way to go enjoy the outdoors without the headache of hauling around and setting up tons of gear.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Shawme-Crowell State Forest
42 Main Street
Sandwich, MA 02563

Phone: 508 888-0351
State Forest Website: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/shawme-crowell-state-forest.html 

Website for booking a yurt: http://www.reserveamerica.com/camping/shawme-crowell-state-forest/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=MA&parkId=32621

Touring Boston – What to Know About Visiting the Franklin Park Zoo

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First thing to know is that if you live in Boston/Cambridge and you have a library pass you can get discount tickets to the zoo, you just have to go to the library and ask for them.

Unfortunately the “T” doesn’t get super close to the Franklin Park Zoo so if you don’t have a car you’ll have to take a bus, and for us it was a bit of a hike.  We got there on a summer day where the weather was in the 90 degree range and I realized that zoos everywhere are pretty much the same. You do a lot of walking in heat to see lazy animals hiding out in the shade.  Going into it with that mentality here are my thoughts about Franklin Park Zoo.

1) Price
Fairly expensive.  Adult ticks are about $20, children 2-12 are $13, 2 and under are free.  If you have a library pass I think the adult tickets are lowed to about $12/person.

2) Stroller Access
Yes! Lots of it and lots of walking!  If you have children who will still fit in a stroller and you want to see most of the park I would suggest bringing it along.

3) Size of Zoo and Variety of Animals
Honestly I thought this zoo was surprisingly small.  I just looked up the website to double check but the animals total in at 46 different species, many of which share enclosures.  I guess it sounds like quite a few, but you can tour the whole park fairly easily in an hour or two.

4) Playground
One of the best things about this zoo was that they have an awesome and huge playground in the middle of it.  After seeing about ten animals my two year old son was bored with the animals but he was super interested in the playground, I think he could have played there happily for hours.

Summary & Stars ★★★☆☆

Three Stars. Franklin Park Zoo is fairly difficult to get to by public transportation.  The zoo itself is quite small compared to other zoos I’ve visited (Hogle Zoo – Utah, San Diego Zoo – California) but was really manageable for a toddler.   The playground was amazing and if your children get tired of animals it’s a great place to kick back and let them run around in an enclosed area.

Have you been here before?  If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below. 

Franklin Park Zoo
1 Franklin Park Rd.
Boston, MA 02121

Phone: 617-541-5466
Website: http://www.zoonewengland.org/franklin-park-zoo 

Winter Hours(October 1- March 31) 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. daily

Summer Hours(April 1 – September 30) 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. weekdays
10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. weekends and major holidays