I lived in Massachusetts for a few years in elementary and middle school, which is one of the reasons I like living in New England so much – it reminds me of all the fun stuff I did as a kid. My parents/school/church youth group loved Doing Stuff so I Did A Lot Of Stuff between the ages of 9 and 14. We went to amusement parks and museums and cities and zoos, and one of the places I have vague memories of is Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, Mass. This week we went up to check it out during the day trip portion of our summer vacation, since it’s only about 75 minutes away.

What I didn’t remember is that it’s a private zoo (I’m not sure I even knew that was still a thing?) and that it’s in the middle of nowhere. Our GPS took us down what I swear was a 3 mile driveway to a grass field…that turned out to be the parking lot. But the inauspicious entrance didn’t mean the zoo was a disappointment – in terms of animals they had more variety than our much-beloved Roger Williams Park Zoo. Plus they had the deer forest. I love the deer forest. We all love the deer forest, even E, although after I discovered how much he loved the baby goat farm I’m not sure why I’m surprised.

Southwick’s Zoo had a really nice military discount too (E was free, the rest of us were half-price) so it is definitely worth the drive for us. My tips: show up right at 10 am, park close to the entrance, and pack a picnic lunch in your car so you don’t have to buy zoo food. Let your kid pick ONE ride each (Evan picked the Skyfari, Caroline took a pony ride) and don’t waste money on the other tourist trap stuff. Bring lots of quarters for deer food. There are a ton of hills and it’s surprisingly big (my Fitbit said we walked 4.87 miles) so wear comfortable shoes. Wearing Linc was definitely a better choice than pushing a stroller up the huge hill at the end of the day would have been.

The tiger had a huge enclosure but was hanging out RIGHT next to the building. It must have been feeding time.

She saw an ape swinging from some ropes and was AMAZED.

It was clear they’ve done (and are doing) a lot of improvements/updates to the zoo, which were really nice. Zoos sometimes make me a little sad, but conservation and awareness seemed to be a big part of their program (for the record, this isn’t sponsored or endorsed, I just liked it).

Not tall enough for anything. Yet.

You’re not allowed to put the corn in a plastic bag, so we used the hat Lincoln refused to wear.

We couldn’t give Linc the corn to feed the deer because he kept eating it.

IS THAT NOT THE FAKEST-LOOKING DEER YOU’VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE? I’ve seen taxidermied deer that look less animatronic.

This is our fifth year in this borrowed beach house, but only the second time E has been able to come. Technically he was there for 24 hours last year, but I did the 2 day drive by myself so that doesn’t count as being there. He drove this year, the whole way, and I got to sleep and hand stuff to the kids in the back which is the perfect start to vacation. It turns out Linc is an amazing road tripper and his presence barely slowed us down, so the driving was well worth the end result.

Kiawah is amazing. It’s an incredible vacation just because of the setting, but the key to a true dream vacation is to have more bathrooms than you have adults. Never having to wait for a bathroom or use a bathroom on the same floor where everyone is eating or worry someone is hearing you in the bathroom or having to take a cold shower because everyone else used up the hot water is an amazing luxury. It’s why rich people are so much happier than regular people. Bathrooms.

Bathrooms are especially key when the main sources of beach house entertainment are eating and drinking and drinking. We’ve gotten pretty good at our menu and consolidating our shopping down to two big trips and then only a few smaller trips for emergency supplies (like limes, and another 5 pound bag of sugar since we managed to use the first one up in less than 36 hours). There was cake and more cake and an apple crisp and Lowcountry Boil, which is seafood and corn and sausage, and Bo Ssam, which is huge plates of pork with rice and lettuce and ginger sauce, and one thousand cocktails, which is the appropriate number of cocktails on vacation. We ate until we could barely move and then we played cards, because even though we were on vacation we are all responsible adults now and can’t get falling down drunk at 2 pm. I like cards better than throwing up anyway.

I took thousands and thousands of pictures, culled and edited them down to several hundred, and I uploaded exactly 100 photos for this post. I know that’s a ridiculous number and I ought to feel bad about my self-indulgence, especially because even though there were 7 adults and 6 kids at the beach house 99% of my pictures of just of my children. But I don’t. While we were in the kitchen, trying to remember specifics from previous years, one of my friends pulled up pictures from a previous year. I was surprised she still had them on her laptop, but she said actually she didn’t, she just looked at them on my blog. So it’s my duty to document this glorious vacation for posterity. Or at least so I can show the kids in a couple months and remind them that they are some very lucky children.

Previous years: 2011 2012 2013 2014

There is a hair in my lens. It makes that shadow in the top right and the line just left and below center. If I print anything I will take the time to clone it out, but for now I don’t care enough. It ONLY shows when I photograph landscapes/sky at 28mm.

I am at the beach, where time means nothing, so I totes forgot to do this post yesterday. I’m not even sorry.

Sunday:

Grandpas are popular

My vacation started early because I went to Target alooooooone

That looks like poor choices

Monday:

Evan and Caroline were REALLY excited about Linc’s birthday presents.

Oil change

Pizza crust is his favorite food

Tuesday:

Soooooo much driving

WHY DOESN’T MY TARGET SELL WINE?

There are other beds, they insist on sharing

Wednesday:

Bleeeeeh

This is the church where I got married! Also, it’s very hot. 

Charleston’s version of a splash park

Thursday:

Caroline loves that the city is full of horses

Mermaid

My husband is very much enjoying his scotch…I mean…vacation

Friday:

I love this house

Lowcountry boil time

Hot Mess

Saturday:

Never leaving

A picture of me in a bikini. Almost.

Hanna Jams and reading time

I’m already late for a 10 am pool date with the kids where I am going to mostly ignore them while I float. Because the beach is amazing and you can do that here.

I’m slooooowly editing the 4000 photos I’ve already taken and will post way too many soon. And then next week I’ll repeat it all over for the lake. My life is not too bad right now.

Summer summer summertime! So much summering going on around here.

Sunday:

When there is a sleeping baby on you, you sit.

I tried to tell him biting an inflatable was a poor choice, but he didn’t listen.

Fruit pizza is my new favorite kind of pizza

Monday:

A++++ WOULD RECOMMEND

He’s becoming a Stage 3 leaner

Big kidding big kidding around!

Tuesday:

Making sure we got enough sticks in with the blueberries

Having big kid friends who can read is cool.

My husband made a table.

Wednesday:

Practicing her name while we wait for car repairs

Blueberry almond cakes

Took a walk ALONE because that’s not happening again for a while

Thursday:

Buying a toilet seat LIKE A BOSS

We picked up a friend from horse camp so Caroline could meet some horses

Surfer Dude

Friday:

Linc smashed it 10 seconds later

Cool kids wear hats

The view from the hill behind my house

Saturday:

Lake…

…Target…

…Ice cream. REPEAT.

Linc turns 1 on Thursday and I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. His party is Saturday, and I have a bazillion things to do before then, including create a menu. I have never been this unprepared to feed my guests. I’m keeping my everything crossed that we have beautiful weather for the party, because I am counting on the bounce house and some bubbles to keep the kids entertained all afternoon. I don’t know what I’ll do if we have to be inside.

If you need me, I’ll be keeping as busy as possible so I can IGNORE THE PART ABOUT LINC TURNING 1.

There’s a commercial they play on the radio all summer proclaiming that Ocean Beach in New London is one of the finest “sugar sand” beaches in the country. Having been to New London a couple times, I was extremely skeptical of that claim.

We have some lovely Fresno beaches to visit, but nothing I would call amazing. It can actually be pretty hard to get to the coast around here, since so much of it is privately owned or controlled by the state. The beaches are also a little boring, since Long Island shelters our coast to the point that there are very few waves. It’s nice for toddlers but not so much for boogie boarding. If I want to pay money to sit by still water I’ll stick to my lake membership where I can also drink beer, chat with my friends and let my kids run to the bathroom without worrying someone is going to steal my stuff.

But as much as I love the lake is not the ocean and I am an ocean girl at heart. The idea of living in a state without an ocean coast is unthinkable – if I ever say I am moving to the midwest someone please have my head examined. If living on a sailboat was a viable option with 3 kids and no money, I would do it in a second.

All that info was the lead-up to me saying: We finally went to Ocean Beach! Although I still can’t tell you about the sugar-like qualities of the sand since we never even stepped foot on it. We did enjoy ourselves though, especially the kids. They do a Cruise Night on Mondays, where people bring their fancy/antique/really proud of themselves even though I’m pretty sure that’s just a 98 Miata cars and the oldies station plays classic music. I like old cars and Frankie Valli enough, but what I really like is free stuff. The parking and admission are free, plus the kid rides have an $11 wristband option, so even including the one ride down the waterslide for Evan our entire output for 3 hours was $25. Usually that’s how much they charge just to PARK.

Just a friendly warning in case you wanted to check it out:- the rides are…questionable. At one point I noticed the carousel was powered by an extension cord that ran into the (slight abandoned??) building adjacent to it through a hole someone drilled in a window. I noticed because I was keeping my eye on the SKUNK that had wandered across the path between rides. Skunk. At the beach. Sure, why not? The rides are exactly the same stuff you would find at a smallish town fair, except they live there at the beach all summer so they’re not in tip-top condition. They still looked SAFE, just not…new. The rust was just on the decorative parts.

Listen though, I am NOT knocking Ocean Beach. We had a really great time. The kids were in heaven. After they rode all the rides without waiting in a single line we walked over to the splash pad and they all got soaked for an hour. We never even made it to the mini golf, but we did take our albatross golf just in case, onto the playground or down to the actual ocean. Just being on a boardwalk where they sell over-priced, over-greased fried seafood that sea gulls try to steal out of your hand is all I need.

Linc spent most of the evening on my back so he didn’t get to ride anything. He did like the splash park though. He was born missing the healthy fear of things that might kill him gene. It can be both fun and exhausting. Mostly it’s fun.