We've had a great summer! It started with our trip to Audrey's circus camp in northern Vermont in June, then camping on Cape Cod; our fantastic visit to Seattle and Richland; camping with neighbors in Central Massachusetts and several fun day trips and also a nice visit from my parents. We're definitely getting good use of our camper van this year.
Back in August while Hurricane Irene was approaching we headed to the Franklin Park Zoo. Boston has two zoos run by the same organization. The Stone Zoo is about a mile from our house and we go fairly often, but we had never been to the "main" zoo which is south of town. It was fun to see it, but we're spoiled by Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo which is top tier. The Franklin Zoo has a baby gorilla which the girls enjoyed watching.
I figured we had until early afternoon before the first rain bands would arrive. Sure enough, after a couple of hours at the zoo the first bands arrived around 1:00. We got back to our car just before the third band came through and then it started getting torrential. By the time Irene arrived in New England she was only a tropical storm. We didn't get all that much in Boston: maybe a few 45-50mph wind gusts and 3 inches of rain total over three days. It rained nonstop all day on Sunday.
Then school started. Audrey is in second grade now and Charlotte started Kindergarten, both at the Roosevelt School two blocks from home. They are loving it. Although Audrey complained to me that they were teaching math that she already knows how to do, and Charlotte really wants homework and hasn't been assigned any yet.
Over Labor Day weekend we introduced my friend Mark and his wife Gretchen and daughter Ava to the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary. They live in Newton west of Boston and were curious to visit a North Shore site. We gave them the grand tour of the Rockery, the Old Stone Bridge and the marsh trail in between. Then we had a fun picnic on the grass at the visitor center. We also visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History which I had wanted to see for some time. They have a Harry Potter-themed scavenger hunt that is very effective at getting kids to 1) visit the whole museum and 2) look closely at exhibits.
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