skip to main |
skip to sidebar
My mom and I have a tradition dating back at least thirty years (yes people I am THAT old, or THAT young, however you want to look at it). Every mother's day we would go to Volante's or Mahoney's and crank up the garden. This was a tough tradition to live up to when I lived in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and even NYC. This Mother's Day tradition was one of the many reasons we moved was to be closer to family. Now the boys have joined the dadventure.
I chose Russells because it is the Disney World of garden centers. The boys love this place. It is everything living in Brooklyn was not. We now own 3/4's of an acre and have been slowly filling it up one spring, summer and fall dadventure at a time. Last summer, Liji spent most of it picking peas and eating them straight from the vine. Now we had already hit Russells en route to Codman Farms for early plantings this spring because of the quality and accesibility that make all of that outdoor fun possible.
Mom and I like to find those crazy varieties of tomatoes, the boys of course refuse to eat them. She hung out in the petunias and annuals while I took the boys over to the pond fish supplies. As if having Lake Cochituate in the backyard wasn't enough, the boys want a pond (read, dad wants a coi farm). So, we grab two bullfrog tadpoles and hope they don't end up in the fish tank filter like last year. We just added "Froggy Learns to Swim," to the library, thus completing the "Froggy" series just in the nick of time. Finally, we made sure to rustle up a few bags of MooDoo, cause the boys love to say "cow poop" about as much as I love spreading it. And we're out. Two hundred bucks down, piles of poop, months of organic produce and man-labor ahead, how better to spend Mother's Day appreciating mom.
The Walk for Hunger
Back in the day, before I was a principal, and even a teacher, I was a professional activist. I worked on dozens of campaigns for Clean Water, Safe Toys and Fighting Hunger with the PIRGs on college campuses from Mass to Colorado, Washington to Oregon. It was a chance to put my ideals to work and see the country. It led to many adventures, including one nighttime escapade involving a banner, a highway overpass and a snowplow driver in Fort Collins, CO with my good buddy Brian, now the director of the North Carolina Conservation Network. 'Nuf said. This year, we decided to get the boys involved. No nighttime escapades necessary, we decided just to walk.
The recent cuts in school budgets everywhere have really concerned Kam and I. Some teachers have spent a lifetime building careers, but even former educators may go to bed hungry this year. Project Bread estimates that over 550,000 Massachusetts families are affected. This wonderful organization has been the sponsor of the walk since 1969, with over 44,000 taking part last year. We decided it was time to jump on. We thought 20 miles might be a bit steep, despite the long legs and endurance of my amibitious four year old. We decided to skip the first sixteen and hop on at Magazine Beach in Cambridge. We slowly made our way past the crew regattas, over the Charles and up a beautifully lined Comm. Ave against the flow of the thousands. It was inspiring.
After the finish we couldn't pass up an opportunity to soak in the Commons. The tulips were out, the birds aflutter and the mallards with newbies. It was straight out of our fav "Make Way for Ducklings" by the best New England author ever, Robert McCloskey. We met a good friend for brunch (no bagel stores on the walk route, so she came through). Then of course, we had to hop on the swan boats. Our driver was a second generation employee and regaled us with tales of his dad cutting off his pants to make shorts on a 90 degree day against swan boat policy. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful family event. Please make sure to sponsor our walk by clicking here and help out those less fortunate. Maybe next year you can join Team Dadventure in making a difference with us.
Miami. You're thinking blue waters, South Beach clubbin' it with Jay Z, long stretches of beach with infinity pools. That is so last year people. Come on, hit the Redlands with the locals. Now I know rural Florida isn't what makes us Beantowners fly south for spring break, but it sure is fun for the kids. Back in the 80's when everyone else was runnin' drugs (or runnin' from drugs) on the beach, I was heading down to farm country with my grandparents. What no beach first thing in Miami? Please people, first sign of sun and we hit our fav seaside kiddie spot at Matheson Hammock. But when the beach gets hot, nothing hits the spot like a strawberry shake at Knaus Berry Farm.
The Dunkers, a sect of German Baptist who dress suspiciously like Amish run a great You Pick'em down here. Why wait till July for Land's Sake Strawberry Festival in Weston when you can hit the season in Miami in April. Plus, the cinnamon buns are out of this world. We asked for a rec for lunch, they suggested our old haunt the Fruit and Spice Park's cafe. This place is a trip unto itself, with 37 acres of fruit bearing trees, many of which you have never heard of. We came for the shrimp tacos of all things, but the fruit sampler with mulberries was certainly the highlight.
A trip south of miami is certainly a waste though without a stop off at the Coral Castle. This place is a roadtrip institution to the tune of the World's Largest Twine Ball in Darwin, Minnesota. Latvian immigrant (alright, my people were Lithuanian, but close) Ed Leedskainin spent the Depression and beyond hauling hundreds of tons of coral around south Florida to make one of the creepiest palaces we've ever seen. This guy even inspired Billy Idol to write the track "Sweet Sixteen" about his long lost love. So, if the beach has you bored or burning, head south on Tourista Route One for a little tour of rural south Florida, the Redlands await!
Posts
