Let's just get that out of the way right there in the title - I didn't take any pictures. I know, I know. It's much less interesting to read text on a blog than it is to look at cute pictures, but it is what it is. I am simply a lousy photojournalist, and what's more, I found it insanely frustrating as a kid when my mom would follow us around like a maniac with a camera insisting we reproduce certain activities, pose in front of various landmarks, and just generally pretend to have fun for the sake of taking a picture instead of actually having fun. So for the sake of posterity, I'll have to verbally recap our vacation and the last bit of the summer.
We went to the same place we went last year, and oh what a difference a year makes. In fact, this year's vacation was vastly superior to last year's vacation for two reasons. First and foremost, both kids are a year older. A year older, a year less irrational, a year more compliant, and a year less likely to plunge themselves to an untimely death at any moment. (Also! Both potty trained. We cannot overlook that.) Second, we learned that the secret to a successful vacation is going with another family. Kids have playmates that are NOT their siblings, and thus much less likely to instigate all-out brawls, parents have company AND can crib a little date-night time as a couple by switching off nights leaving one couple home with all the kids. In addition, while the ratio is the same when you have two parents and two kids as when you have four parents and four kids, somehow it seems much, much easier with four adults. For instance, in the morning: one adult can make breakfast and pack lunches, one adult can pack beach bags and organize the stuff for the day and straighten up the condo, two adults can do all the sunscreening and coralling of wiggly kids. It's great.
Newport was again, a great place to spend a vacation. The biggest highlight was the beach, as last year. I've concluded after this summer that there is literally no amount of time my children can spend at a beach (ocean or lake)after which they are sick of it. They can and do spend all day at a beach and still protest when it's time to go. We spent two full days at the beach, dragging all the children off only for lunch, during which they just demanded to go back to the beach. Easton's beach is great for kids, with the carousel, waterslide, playground and clean restrooms, but there is a significant red tide problem there that put a little bit of a damper on our second day at the beach. The kids also loved touring Fort Adams - I wasn't sure how a tour of a historic site would go over with a gaggle of four and unders, but surprisingly they were captivated. Owen became extremely into the idea of "listening tunnels" as a strategy to defeat his enemies (enemies TBD, naturally. He's just filing ideas away for later, I guess.)
We went back on the Amazing Grace Harbor tour. You might remember that we did this last year; if you do remember you're probably surprised to hear that we did it again. It was a pretty traumatic experience last year. Both children were waaaaay too young to be on a boat and it was all we could do to keep them from man-overboard. They ran around the boat, resisting arrest, refusing to wear life jackets, and just generally trying to drown. This year, they were both cooperative and loved it. Like I said before, what a difference a year makes. The other highlight of the week was the Newport Gulls baseball game. The boys LOVED it. The stadium is tiny (truly tiny) and it's not even a minor league team, it's a college wooden bat league. The staff was so friendly (the bat boys came out to the bleachers giving kids balls from the game, the announcer would announce whatever you wanted him to - he wished the birthday boy in our party a happy second birthday - and the whole night out was so cheap! Including tickets for our family, parking, and a bag of popcorn at the stadium, we spent $17. By contrast, we spent $28 that morning to play mini-golf - and the mini-golf place didn't even charge us for Elias! (BTW, if you find yourself in RI - there has to be a better mini-golf place than Mulligan's Island. We weren't impressed). We enjoyed taking the boys out for lunch, which we didn't even attempt last year. All in all, a good time was had by all.
Now summer is winding down, and Owen is so, so excited to be starting at the "big school" (the public elementary school across the road from us) in pre-k this fall. I have mixed feelings about it. After our week away, we went back and spent a weekend at our friend's houses in West Roxbury in our old neighborhood. It's true, summer here in Lakeville is great, but as the fall approaches, I'd much rather be back in Westie, with all the kids' old friends, our friends, and the city than here. I'm just a city person, honestly. For what it's worth, the kids have made new friends and if you asked them, I'm pretty sure they'd rather be here. And I do think that I'd rather live here than in a suburb of Boston - I'll take Lakeville over Needham or Natick any day. But it did make me a little West Roxbury-sick this weekend, I have to admit it. Maybe it's just because it was where our first real home was, but I miss it and suspect I'll always be comparing where we live to there. I do realize there are real advantages to where we are, however (great public schools being chief among them), so c'est la vie. And la vie rolls on into the fall.......
