If you live in the Boston or New York City area, you already have access to plenty of fun activities right in your own backyard. But sometimes it’s nice to take some time out as a family and enjoy a slow-paced weekend getaway. Nestled right in the middle of both cities is the magical little town of Mystic, Connecticut. Its easy-access location right off I-95 makes it a short hour’s drive from Hartford, 2 hours from Boston, and a slightly longer (and more congested) 3 hours from New York City. But don’t fear hours of traffic in the car with the kids, even Amtrak stops in Mystic! The quintessential New England small town, Mystic offers big-city-caliber attractions, making it a perfect destination for family fun.
If you only have a day to spend, make the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration top on your list for a close encounter with beluga whales and penguins. In our family’s opinion, the Mystic Aquarium is the best aquarium around. It offers both indoor and outdoor exhibits, has an amazing animal rescue and rehabilitation program, an indoor sea lion show, and plenty of exploring space for even the smallest of visitors. There are two well-staffed touch tanks where kids (and parents!) can hold and learn about New England sea creatures. Kids can crawl through a tunnel under the lobster tank and see life from an animal’s point of view in the Crittercam exhibit. Be sure to catch the sea lions at feeding time, as you won’t soon forget their loud hungry barking! Check the aquarium’s website before you go as they often host seasonal special events.
If you’re ready for lunch after your visit with the fishes, head down to Mystic Pizza on Main Street. Made famous by the Julia Roberts movie, this hot spot has some of the best pizza we have tasted. The restaurant is decorated with memorabilia from the film, which parents will enjoy. The kids will love the noisy, fun atmosphere and may even get a chance to take a tour of the kitchen where their lunch is being baked.
After lunch, be sure to wander around the Main Street area. There are plenty of unique places to window shop. The highlights of town for the kids are located near the bridge. Aside from the bridge itself, which is a bascule drawbridge built in 1920 and refurbished just last winter, Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream on the west side of the bridge is a favorite with locals and visitors alike. It’s a good place to stop for a treat and watch the bridge go up and down on a cold or rainy day. On the other side of the bridge is Mystical Toys, a local shop full of educational and specialty toys and books. If the kids have some energy left to burn, turn onto Cottrell Street and walk to the end. There you will find a great little fenced-in playground, providing a space for the kids to safely run around while Mom and Dad watch from a shaded bench.
After recharging, head over to the Mystic Seaport to learn all there is to know about maritime history. Older kids will enjoy seeing all of the restored historic ships (and building a model of their own), and the younger ones will appreciate the children’s museum, especially for kids 7 and under. Check out the “Fun For Kids” section of the Seaport’s website for a complete listing of age-appropriate activities.
If you have more than a day to spend in Mystic, consider visiting some of the lesser-known attractions that are favorites among locals. If you happen to be visiting in October or November, be sure to make a stop at B.F. Clyde’s Cider Mill. The oldest steam-powered cider mill in the U.S., Clyde’s is a favorite for apple cider donuts and, of course, cider. You can watch the mill in action and buy all things cider in the shop on site, from candy to wine. Be warned that the lines for the cider-making demonstration and donuts can be rather daunting on a fall weekend, but the wait is definitely worth it!
If you have some budding artists in your family, consider a quick 10-minute drive north on Route 1 to the town of Stonington, where you will find Prescient Studios, an art glass gallery and factory. You may have already stopped into their other location, Studio Jeffrey P’an, when walking through Mystic. If you spoke to the owner, you might have learned that he always encourages kids to come check out the glass blowing in action at his factory. The artists at the factory are very welcoming and take time to describe the steps of glass blowing as they are creating. While there are shelves of beautiful art pieces on display at the factory, there is plenty of room to keep little hands a safe distance from the breakables.
On your way out of town, stop by the Mystic Market for some fresh-made treats or gourmet sandwiches for the road. From cookies and cupcakes to paninis and salads, there is sure to be something for everyone. If you happen to be celebrating a birthday while in Mystic, this is the best place around for gourmet cakes.
After your family’s first visit to Mystic, you’re sure to come home with your own list of places to visit the next time you return. And there is sure to be a next time!
Christy Newell is a 2011 Superoo, mom to two little explorers, ages 3 and 5, and married to the Coast Guard, which always keeps us in new adventures. We live our lives as perpetual tourists, treating each duty station like an extended vacation to experience all it has to offer. Keep up with her family at http://nomadicnewells.
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The last two days of our Twizzlers trip were filled with long days on the road. While day 4 was extremely long, it also featured some of my favorite highlights of the entire trip.
We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge one last time (making sure to give a packet of Twizzlers to the tollworker) and bid farewell to San Francisco with our sights on San Jose. It was here that we met up with some friends for breakfast at a fun restaurant called Scramblz. The restaurant is open until 3PM daily and serves breakfast, it’s speciality, the entire time. Portions are huge (plenty to share) and the atmosphere is very family-friendly. As a matter of fact, there is even a toy chest in the waiting area for kids! Unfortunately, breakfast was the extent of our time spent in the South Bay because we had so much road to cover.
After a nasty bout of traffic in route to the Monterey area and Highway 1, we finally cleared the crowds and began enjoying the dramatic central coast. It was my husband’s first time driving along Big Sur and it was extra special driving the road with a first timer. We stopped at the first few turnouts so he could hop out and take pictures, though I reassured him that the views would go on for hours. Who could blame him? With views like this it is hard not to want to pull over and take it all in.
My daughter insisted we pull over when she spotted a herd of cattle feeding not far from the road. Watching the cattle graze, I couldn’t help but think of those “Happy cows live in California” commercials. A cool, grassy field alongside some of the most scenic coastline in the country is definitely not a bad place to be a cow.
One spot I knew we couldn’t miss was Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. A short 1/4 mile trail ends at a viewing point overlooking the most beautiful beach on the California Coast. What makes this beach so special? Well besides having blue-green waters, dramatic cypress trees perched on surf-slammed rocks, and a perfect little cove that is usually deserted, the beach also has a waterfall that drops down onto the sand and into the sea!There is no reasonable way to actually get down to the beach unless you are into taking life-risking climbs down the side of an unstable cliff. The empty sand, minus a few birds taking a bath in the waterfall, makes the scene even more picutre perfect.
Our final stop of the day was just north of San Simeon, home to Hearst Castle. As much as I love Hearst Castle, there was no way I was going to take my four-year-olds on a guided tour of a mansion filled with priceless artifacts. Instead, we stopped at an elephant seal rookery on Piedras Blancas beach, just four miles north of the castle entrance. Back in the 1800′s, elephant seals were hunted for their blubber and thought to be extinct by the 1880′s. Luckily a small group of 20-100 elephant seals managed to survive on Guadalupe Island, off the Baja California Coast. Now there are 170,000 protected elephant seals worldwide, all decendents of that very herd.
If you have never had the chance to sit and watch a heard of elephant seals interact, I would definitely put it on your to-do list. They lay on the sand like lazy lumps of blubber and frequently squabble about all sorts of elephant seal issues including: stepping on each others’ flippers, looking at each other the wrong way, and generally just existing near one another. The sounds they make are highly entertaining and the brief moments of exursion followed by flops of exhaustion onto the sand are comical. There were several white furry babies in the group, all of them being worthy of an “Aww” moment. My kids loved watching the seals interact so much that I literally had to drag my daughter to the car. I would have been happy to hang around a bit longer but the sun was setting and we hadn’t even reached our hotel room yet.
That night, we stayed at the Sand Pebbles Inn in Cambria. As soon as I walked in the door to register, I knew we were going to love this place. The woman behind the desk could not have been nicer and her kids were hanging out wearing PJs, playing board games, and quietly singing Adele songs. A bucket near the door was filled with sand toys for visiting children to take across the street to Moonstone Beach. I was walked to my room, asked about my day, and graciously helped when I asked for dinner suggestions. As a matter of fact, the innkeeeper even told me where to sit and which waiters to ask for! Our room had 2 queens beds, a fireplace, and an incredible ocean view for only $279. On a Saturday. In August! I was incredibly impressed. Every single person working at the property wass incredibly welcoming and friendly, and the complimentary breakfast the next day was very tasty. I can’t speak more positively about this wonderful little inn.
Day 5 of our trip didn’t leave me much to write about. Since I had been feeling under the weather during the last two days of our trip(and my daughter was showing some of the ame symptoms), I wanted to just head home and get some rest. Unfortunately, we were heading home on a Sunday and many other people must have had the same plan. Our 4 hour drive turned into a 6 hour drive, and we didn’t hit a bit of traffic through Los Angeles! Tonight, I had to break it to the kid that the Twizzlermobile was being handed off to another family in the morning. My son didn’t take it well. I think he really enjoyed driving around in his “candy car”. I know we all did.
Disclosure: I have been chosen as one of the Twizzlers Traveling Families. My trip (gas, hotel, food, and incidentals) is being paid for by Twizzlers. I have received no other compensation and opinions stated are entirely my own.
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Sharlene Earnshaw (aka doubleadventure) is Blogger-in-chief for Trekaroo and the blogger behind Double the Adventure.
Travel with kids to: CA |CO | DC | FL | HI | IL |MA | NC | NY | OR | PA | TN | TX | VA | WA
My family only had one full day to spend in San Francisco so we set out to make the most of it. The day began at House of Air, a huge trampoline-filled building located at San Francisco’s Crissy Field. I take that back- the day began with us scrambling to find enough spare change in our wallets to make bridge fare ($6.00 is obsene!) followed by our GPS leading us deep into the city and far from the true House of Air location. We we reached the Financial District, I knew something was very wrong and after some research I discovered that the House of Air website actually warns that GPS will take you to the wrong location. Oops! Luckily, my husband is excellent at manuerving the crowded and crazy city streets and got us to our destination just 5 minutes late. Phew!
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As soon as we parked, we lept out of the car and ran to the entrance to make as much use of our hour long session as we could. We noted that the House of Air has an incredible view of the Golden Gate Bridge (a reaccuring theme in this trip) but didn’t have time to fully enjoy the vista. We had to get inside and jump!
I can’t begin to explain just how much fun House of Air truly is. My daughter was a bit nervous to jump on the super bouncy trampolines at first because they propelled much higher in the air than the typical bounce castle. Luckily after about 5 minutes, she was completely sold on the experience. Although I can say with 100% certainty that my kids had a blast, I think that my husband and I may have even had more fun. There is just something about letting loose and bouncing to your heart’s content that is good for the soul. It didn’t take long for my husband to find his way into the dodgeball room. It was truly hysterical to watch my 6’5″ husband play dodgeball in a room filled with teens and preteens. He must have looked like a giant with a menacing red ball to the kids on the other side of the court. While an hour doesn’t seem like very long to spend at a trampoline house, I assure you it is plenty of time. Bouncing is a great workout but our aging joints and bladders were definitely feeling a bit jossled by the end.
After all that bouncing we had worked up a good appetite so we headed up into the Marina District and had burgers at Barney’s, which has won awards for serving the best burgers in San Francisco. The atmosphere was casual and family friendly but the burgers were gourmet all the way. Besides having a menu with about 15 different topping combinations, the restaurant also gave diners the option to choose a beef, chicken, turkey or veggie patty for their burgers. Being the purists that we are, both my husband and I went with the beef patty, which was large and flavorful. I dined on a very spicy chipotle burger, which was definitely up my heat-loving alley. Paul must have been dreaming of more tropical temperatures because he went with the Maui Wowie, which he gave two teriyaki splattered thumbs up. The kids weren’t in a burger mood but the kids menu had many burger-free options such as hot dogs, girlled cheese, and chicken fingers.
After lunch, we decided that no trip to San Francisco was complete without a ride in the Twizzlermobile down Lombard Street. I have been to San Francisco dozens of times but had never actually driven down the street, famous for being the most windy in the country. I always had the “that’s what tourists do” mentality but today I face the reality that I am, in fact, a tourist. Riding down Lombard Street may be touristy but its also pretty fun. I think some of the most fun I had was when I hopped out of the car and tried to race down the hill through the crowds to get a good shot of the Twizzlermobile winding its way down the road. I felt like a member of the Hershey paparazzi.
We spent the afternoon at the Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum and San Francisco institution located at the Palace of Fine Arts. I have fond memories of enjoying the Exploratorium without my kids but this was the first time they were old enough to enjoy and understand the exhibits. Though my preschool-aged children weren’t interested in everything inside of the museum (many of the exhibits are geared towards ages 7 and up) , they did find plenty to keep them occupied during our 2 1/2 hour visit. My son was attracted to anything that related to balls including levatating balls, launching balls, and running marble balls down kid-created tracks. My daughter loved the exhibit that allows kids to create art using a wooden stick to manupilate sand on a spinning table and making the time lapse move forward and backward in the life cycle of a fungus. My favorite will always be the volcanic sand which has magnetic properties and is just so fun to play with!
We ended our day with family and friends who met up with us at Off the Grid, a popular weekly food truck event that is held at Fort Mason on Friday evenings. It was here that I was able to meet up with Liling and Brennan, the masterminds behind Trekaroo. It’s always great to have our little Trekaroo family together, and good food only sweetens the pot. Though my family enjoyed all the food we sampled from the different trucks, we concluded that Chairman Bao had the leg up on the competition with some amazing pork belly buns. The only downside to Off the Grid is that the lines are long and the seating is sparse, creating an environment that is not ideal for little kids. That being said, my kids love food trucks (they have been well-trained) and enjoyed the company of our group until Mr. Sandman started pouring extra doses of sleep dust into their eyes and it was evident that it was time to pile back into the Twizzlermobile and head back across the bridge for the night. Tomorrow, we take on Big Sur!
Sharlene and Liling at Off the Grid
Disclosure: I have been chosen as one of the Twizzlers Traveling Families. My trip (gas, hotel, food, and incidentals) is being paid for by Twizzlers. I have received no other compensation and opinions stated are entirely my own.
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Sharlene Earnshaw (aka doubleadventure) is Blogger-in-chief for Trekaroo and the blogger behind Double the Adventure.
Travel with kids to: CA |CO | DC | FL | HI | IL |MA | NC | NY | OR | PA | TN | TX | VA | WA
Today wasn’t high on activities but it most certainly was high on excitement. We made the four and a half hour drive from Avila Beach to San Francisco in the late morning, after enjoying some rousing games of ping pong at the Lighthouse Suites, or as my son called it “the best hotel ever!”. We enjoyed the rolling hills landscaped with vineyards and vegetable fields, but after a few hours on the road, rolling hills covered in rowhouses and a foggy mist were much more exciting.
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San Francisco has always held a special place in my heart. So many of my favorite memories of early adulthood are set in this diverse city by the bay. Originally, we had planned to spend all of Friday afternoon in Golden Gate Park but a friend reminded us that the Outside Lands Festival was taking place in the park this weekend and trying to get in and out of the park would be a near impossiblity. I was a bit frazzled at the notion of having to change our plans at the last moment but thankful to not accidently stumble upon a traffic nightmare.
Though we only had about 90 minutes on Thursday to spend in the park before everything shut down (most concessions close at 5PM), we were able to take a fun paddleboat ride around Stow Lake. The last time I paddled my way around the lake my husband was simply my boyfriend, and he was successfully wooing me with a romantic day in the park. It felt nice to come back to the park and once again paddle side-by-side, but this time with two little ones enjoying the ride in the back seat. We couldn’t help but notice that it was much harder to paddle the boat this go around and I am sure my gluteus maximus will be throbbing in the morning, but sharing pink popcorn with the kids and laughing at the ducks who were following our boat in hopes of snagging a bit of our sweet treat made it worth all the work.
After the park we decided to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, our official landmark in the Twizzlers Landmark Summer event. The bridge and I have a funny relationship. I have a pretty big fear of bridges but I have always loved the iconic beauty of the Golden Gate. I love it so much that I have spent time admiring it from nearly ever angle, including a brave walk across the bridge itself. While walking the bridge is completely safe and certainly an experience I would recommend to anyone visiting San Francisco, driving across it today and seeing people peer over its edges reaffirmed by decision to make that a once in a lifetime experience. I would much rather view it from the lawn of our incredible hotel, Cavallo Point Lodge.
I have stayed at some pretty amazing hotels, but this hotel may just take the cake when it comes to amazing views and historical relevance. Cavallo Point is situated on Fort Baker in Sausalito, CA. Fort Baker is part of the National Park system, and the buildings which were formerly officers quarters built between 1901 and 1915, now serve as lodging. Sleeping in such gorgeous buildings filled with rich history and offering incredibly scenic views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate makes for quite the lodging experience. The other bonus is that there are several suite-sized options on-site which give parents some separation from the kids at bedtime.
For dinner, we decided to head back into the city and enjoy some pizza at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach, San Francisco’s Italian neighborhood. Unfortunately, they told us the wait was almost 2 hours to try a slice of Tony’s world champion pizza and there was no way our four-year-0lds were going to last that long. The nice thing about the pizzeria is that Tony will call your cell phone when it is time to sit down so if you want eat here (and everyone who has tasted this pizza agrees it is worth the trouble) be sure to send someone earlier to make the reservation. We ended up at Calzones, an Italian restaurant specializing in homemade pastas, pizzas, and you guessed it- calzones! The food wass good but I can’t help but wonder what I was missing at Tony’s. It’s a good thing we didn’t decide to wait because my son ended up falling asslep at the table. We were all exhausted from a long day’s travels. Luckily tomorrow is short on car time and big on fun!
Disclosure: I have been chosen as one of the Twizzlers Traveling Families. My trip (gas, hotel, food, and incidentals) is being paid for by Twizzlers. I have received no other compensation and opinions stated are entirely my own.
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Sharlene Earnshaw (aka doubleadventure) is Blogger-in-chief for Trekaroo and the blogger behind Double the Adventure.
Travel with kids to: CA |CO | DC | FL | HI | IL |MA | NC | NY | OR | PA | TN | TX | VA | WA
I love my job. How many people get to wake up on a Wednesday morning in July, pile into a minivan completely decked out in a Twizzler candy wrap, and just start driving?
Today, we began Trekaroo’s leg of the Twizzlers Landmark Summer Adventure with smiles on our faces and a box full of Twizzlers in our trunk. After making it through Los Angeles with only a scant few stop and go moments, my husband and I breathed collective sighs of relief and watched the coastal towns on Highway 101 whizz by.
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After three or so hours of driving, I decided to pull off the road at the famous Pea Soup Andersens restaurant to get a fun picture of the Twizzlermobile in front of the iconic roadside stop and stretch our legs a bit. Obviously, I was not paying close enough attention to the numerous split pea themed signs because suddenly we found ourselves leaving Buellton and entering Solvang.
My navigation skills turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The last time I visited Solvang, a charming Dutch town on California’s central coast, my kids were less than a year old so everything in this Danish hamlet felt new to them. We decided to take a surrey ride around the town, which my kids absolutely loved, and stopped to grab grapes from the farmer’s market and pose in front of the same wooden shoe I posed my infants in years ago.
After enjoying ice cream in the town square and letting the kids point out to Mommy and Daddy all the toys they “needed” from the local toy shoppe, we hopped back on the highway, waving to Anderson’s Pea Soup just on the other side of the road. As we drove further along up the Central California coast, I marveled at how many new wineries had popped up in recent years and made a mental note to visit at least one on our trip back down from San Francisco.
We ended our day at the Lighthouse Suites in Avila Beach. I had never been to Avila Beach, the little sister of the much more popular Pismo Beach, but now that I have had the opportunity to get to know this tiny beach town, I have already made a mental note to return next summer. Lighthouse Suites, our lodging for the night, is definitely a property designed with families in mind. All the rooms are suite-sized with separate living and bedroom areas. The decor is charmingly nautical, celebrating the hotel’s beachside location and expansive ocean views. Families will love the heated pool, spa, life sized checker board, ping pong table, putting green, and complimentary breakfast.
Directly across the street, a pirate ship themed park sits next to the Avila Beach Sea Life Center. The beach is located about 20 steps from the hotel with soft sand, gentle waves, and two piers flanking it on either side. A set of swings and a slide sit on the beach as well. After enjoying the pool, playground, and beach my family made our way to the Avila Pier. We strolled on its wide planks while waiting for a table at the Custom House, a popular local eatery serving seafood, steaks, and kid’s meals delivered on frisbees which my children were absolutely delighted to take back home. While on the pier, we watched pelicans dive bomb the ocean in search of fish, usually with two scavenger birds flanking it’s sides in hopes of grabbing some of the pelican’s hard-earned prize. As the sun began to set, my daughter noticed a sea otter feeding in the kelp beds below the pier. Upon further scanning on the water, we found several little otters bobbing in the water. I can’t wait to see what unexpected moments we have in store for us tomorrow!
Disclosure: I have been chosen as one of the Twizzlers Traveling Families. My trip (gas, hotel, food, and incidentals) is being paid for by Twizzlers. I have received no other compensation and opinions stated are entirely my own.
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Sharlene Earnshaw (aka doubleadventure) is Blogger-in-chief for Trekaroo and the blogger behind Double the Adventure.
Travel with kids to: CA |CO | DC | FL | HI | IL |MA | NC | NY | OR | PA | TN | TX | VA | WA
