Spoiler alert: The New London Ledgelight lighthouse’s ghost turned out to be a legend based on legend, not a real person. Although I did get a pretty good picture of him:

REAL PICTURE I TOOK of Ernie the Ghost (replica)

Even an unhaunted lighthouse is better than no lighthouse, and a lighthouse built on a shelf out in the middle of the harbor is awesome. We got to go as part of a charity auction I talked my very drunk husband into bidding on (along with the rest of his command) but it turns out Ledgelight actually allows tours several times a week through Project Oceanology – although kids under 6 aren’t allowed so we won’t be dragging Evan and Caroline out there just yet.

Basic facts: Built in 1909, the light was manned by civilians, then taken over by the Coast Guard. They left in 1987 after installing an automatic light and foghorn and since then a private charity has been working to preserve the building. Tons of information about Ledgelight here on their website. They have managed to fix up the second floor and put in a TV to show the film about the light created by this guy:

Todd Gipstein and his wife were just two people who loved the light and wanted to do a little to help. They ended up taking over Ledgelight’s 100th anniversary celebration and now give tours, do hands-on work, manage the website, create brochures and videos and fundraise to continue their mission. (Todd also wrote a book, Legacy of the Light, set on the other super-cool local lighthouse Race Rock.) Although with two kids hanging around all the time, I won’t be able to volunteer as a railing painter or floor scrubber very often, I’m hoping to find ways to support Ledgelight. Because I’m a dork who thinks lighthouses are super cool.

It did not. I was kind of disappointed.

Jeeze lady, that skirt’s a little short for a work even with your husband’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss.

Basement steps. They used to store the coal down here before the light was electric.

Basement floor

Main stairs

Picture of a lighthouse in a lighthouse. So meta.

Plum Island (Have you ever read that book? Great book.)

There was a toilet in this room that works by burning away the waste. It was kind of terrifying.

On top of the world

I dropped those sunglasses over the side as I was leaving. Only bad part of the whole day.

Every lighthouse lamp has a different pattern, so sailors could tell where they were approaching even in the dark or fog.

Ledgelight’s pattern is three white, one red

The people standing up there are all pretty important, but you don’t care.

And if you want more information on Ledgelight, you can like them on Facebook or visit their website.

p.s. While we were out there, Todd was listing ways they were trying to raising money for the light, and he said “And if someone wanted to get married out here, we’d charge them a little fee and that would be totally doable.” So now my new Life’s Goal is to find SOMEONE to get married on Ledgelight. It would be fabulous.

p.p.s. Connecticut allows same-sex marriages. Just saying.

p.p.p.s. Although if we’re still stationed here in 2014, we are TOTALLY doing a 10-year vow renewal on Ledgelight. I will buy a big fancy wedding dress and E will wear his uniform and we’ll wrap the railings in twinklelights and tulle and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, let’s do it NOW.

That title makes me sound sort of like a hooker, but I assure you that is NOT what I’m selling.

A few weeks ago I had a tiny brush with (internet) fame on Twitter when Alli Worthington asked if anyone wanted to share photo-heavy posts with her and I sent her a link to my How To Make Sorbet Out Of Juice recipe. The stars must have been aligned or something, because not only did she say she liked my photos, she invited me to join PichaGlobal, a stock photography site where you can sell photos to…uh…I have no idea. People who need photos of stuff, I guess.

APPARENTLY, people need photos of stuff like this:

Because I sold it! Someone paid me money for a picture I took! I’m official! I made a whole…40 cents. But if you happen to see if floating around the internet you can say “HEY I KNOW WHO TOOK THAT!”

New sellers frequently seek out tips to shortcut the procedure of getting started on classifieds. The marketplace is vast and can be confusing at times. It’s best to begin slowly, learn the terrain, read all the rules, and slowly grow your Shoppok  business or hobby. The more you build your knowledge base, the better able you will be to sort through deals to find what you want to buy.

Ok, so I’m not going to make a zillion dollars off my pictures of leaves or sunsets on the beach or lily-pads or whatever other random shots I take in between photos of the kids. But nature holds still a lot better than they do and I love practicing with my camera and even though I have NO illusions of becoming an actual professional photographer it’s nice to be liked.

Right now, Picha is still in beta but I (think) they’re working on opening it up and you can definitely fill out the interest form. I hope so, because it would be a great way for bloggers to find photos to add to their just-words posts (to make them pin-able! be the next viral hit!) at really low cost (although you can set your prices at whatever you want) and for casual photographers like me to share their pictures and feel momentarily awesome.

(This post is not sponsored, just super braggy and show-offy on my part.)

While we were visiting my parents in Northern Virginia, we had an opportunity to visit the Reston Zoo. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Fairfax County since I graduated high school a dozen years ago so I had no idea it was even there until I read about the zoo on my friend Emily’s blog back in May. Then I had the good fortune a winning an admission in her giveaway so we had no excuse not to go!

It was seriously cool. Two thumbs up. Here’s a zillion photos.

The petting zoo was full of gentle sheep and goats. They were awesome at getting the food out of the kids’ hands without biting at all.

There were a couple of school trips and a lots of moms with kids around Evan and Caroline’s age but the zoo never felt crowded (even though it was small enough to do without a stroller)

Medium sized ginger with a tiny baby goat

I WANT ONE

Pushy but gentle

You can buy bottles for $1.50 to feed the babies

YES OF COURSE YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN BABY LAMB

Curly sheep, I want to knit you

No I absolutely did NOT consider stuffing a tiny pig in my purse

 And that was just the official petting zoo barn. There were plenty of other animals to see outside.

Some sort of grouse or partridge with omg fluffy chicks

Adorable little foxy thing that Caroline was dying to cuddle

Tortoise

Parrot

Caroline REALLY like the monkeys. I suspect she thought they were little hairy babies.

Prairie Dog

Evan and MorMor. Don’t worry, that’s not a real lion.

Llama llama was very friendly to Mama

Man, I have seen WAY too many alligators in the past week

Tiny adorable deer who was in with the geese and ducks

Budgie enclosure – just like at the Mystic Aquarium except that the sticks only cost $1 and the birds were SUPER friendly.

Even Caroline could feed the birds. Although she also kept trying to pet them.

And then there was the wagon ride to see the bigger animals, including a camel, antelope, deer, zebras, buffalo, and wildebeest (I cannot hear the word wildebeest without thinking of The Lion King) . Evan was probably more excited about the tractor than about any of the animals, but it was REALLY neat.

We weren’t supposed to feed the zebras, but they didn’t come close anyways. I suspect they are not super friendly.

That’s my 3 year old feeling a BUFFALO. A buffalo! I pet him and his wool was just as soft as I imagined based on how expensive buffalo yarn is.

Caroline really liked the animals, as long as someone was holding her.

That’s a watusi. CRAZY huge horns.

I don’t even remember what this thing is called.

Evan feeding a giant beast. He was so brave!

I think this is going to be a regular stop when we visit my parent’s house in Virginia. The kids really enjoyed it and I can only imagine they’d like it MORE as they get older and can really appreciate what a rare experience it is.

(Someone commented on my previous post where I mentioned our plans to visit Reston Zoo to say they had been charged with animal cruelty. Obviously I don’t want to visit somewhere that is mistreating their animals so I looked up the charges online. It appears to be an isolated incident involving one person and one sick animal reported to the police by one source rather than an ongoing investigation into the zoo’s practices. While I was there I saw nothing but well cared for animals and helpful, polite staff. I’m not dismissing anyone’s concerns, I’m just letting you know I made an informed decision to visit despite that news story.)

It’s kind of hilarious that this post is sponsored by Connecticut Tourism, since my entire blog could pretty much be seen as a commercial for Connecticut Tourism. Between trips to the aquarium, the seaport, parks, and various bodies of water all I do is post about the fun we have living here. I’m constantly amazed at how much there is to do in an hour radius of my house. I’ve lived here 7 years and I’m still discovering new places and activities all the time!

A few months ago, my friend Erin said “Hey, so I’m getting four days off over Memorial Day weekend, would it be cool if I came up to visit you?” and I say “It would be THE COOLEST.” I warned her two kids kind of put a damper on the crazy, carefree, childless life she was used to but she assured me she loved my ginger babies and would be happy to hang out doing ginger baby-friendly stuff. Luckily, we managed to do plenty of things that were fun for EVERYONE – although I needed 18 hours of sleep and a diet of nothing but carrot sticks to recover from SO MUCH FUN.

Here’s a quick (but extremely picture heavy) rundown of all the things we did over Memorial Day weekend. I PROMISE it’s worth at least scrolling through so you can check out the giveaway at the bottom: Saturday morning we drove down to Mystic where we walked around looking at shops, watched the drawbridge go up and down and ate delicious ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream(I highly recommend the lemon custard with shaved chocolate).

On the way home we stopped at two local vineyards – Stonington Vineyards and Maugle Sierra Vineyards– for wine tastings. E kindly volunteered to make wise choices and be DD so Erin and I could try all the wines. I came home with three bottles, include the most delicious Riesling ever.

In the evening, we took the stroller and walked down to the Norwich waterfront where the Rotary Club was having a carnival. My daredevil son enjoyed half a dozen rides while Erin and Caroline and I enjoyed a delicious fried dough.

*That tall thing in the distance is Mohegan Sun Casino*

On Sunday, I took Erin to the Jewett City Flea Market, which is in a huge old mill building. We wandered around looking for treasures and wondering WHO exactly is going to buy something like this:

But we found plenty of cool stuff too:

On Sunday evening our awesome baby sitter came over to put the kids to bed so all the grown ups could get dinner and drinks at Mohegan Sun. We had dinner at Sol Toro Tequila Grill and spiked milk shakes at Bobby’s Burger Place. Then we played craps and tried a few slot machines until we decided we’d lost enough money. I always feel so glamorous at the casino, even if I’m playing penny slots.

black & blue mojito

After sleeping in for a little bit on Monday we went out for family brunch and then walked down to the green where the town was having Memorial Day festivities – and my kids got to see a zillion firetrucks.

Even reliving all that as I was writing it was exhausting. We did a lot! And we only did a TINY bit of the stuff we could have done – we didn’t go out on the boat, or to the beach, or to the Nautilus Museum, or Mystic Aquarium or Seaport, or any of the other vineyards, or go get fresh seafood, or down to Clinton for antiques and outlet shopping.

Which Connecticut destination would you like to visit? Leave a comment below and you will be entered into a sweepstakes from BlogHer to win $1,000 to help you plan your trip! (more…)

I think it’s insane that Caroline is only 17 months old but I give her almost as much independence as her 3 year old brother. She’s allowed to sit in full sized chairs, climb the stairs, walk next to the cart at the store, help with chores, play in the other room by herself, eat grown up food and take a book to bed without my worrying she’ll rip it up. I’d say it’s about 75% thanks to my second-child-fend-for-yourself attitude and 25% thanks to her really-smart-and-capable attitude. No matter what the cause it makes doing stuff with her a zillion times easier than they were with Evan at this age. Not that Evan was BAD, but he was still my BABY. Caroline wants to know if she can borrow the car this weekend.

Her favorite games are Dinosaur Attack Baby, Tickle Tickle Your Face With Her Razor Sharp Nails, Push Me On The Swing Until Your Arm Falls Off, Terrorize The Cat, Hug The Cat, Terrorize The Cat Again, Try On All The Hats, Eat $12 Worth Of Fruit, and Get Naked.

She still takes one long afternoon nap and sleeps about 12 hours a night. She will take a nap even if she falls asleep in the car on the way home, which means I don’t have to sing VERY LOUDLY to keep her awake – although sometimes I just like to sing very loudly. It’s better than another round of Who Can Scream Loudest because NO ONE WINS. She eats almost any fruit, about half the vegetables, and ALL the carbs. She’s still in 12 or 18 month clothes, size 4 shoes and size 4 diapers. Her hair is still more of an auburn than her brother’s strawberry blond and it’s getting a little curly in the back. I am THRILLED.

Likes include hats, animals, swinging, ducks, running, cheese, fruit snacks, slides, brushing her teeth, playing in the garden, her dolly, shoes, anything that looks like a cell phone, her new car seat, water, jumping, somersaults, books, The Fresh Beat Band, sleeping, taking off her clothes, and Daddy.

Dislikes include raspberries, diaper rash, being hungry, loud trucks, and people who don’t share.

I am super jealous of her eyelashes.

WTF is this nonsense? Cinderella was a CHUMP.

I refuse to stop eating long enough for you to take this picture.

Ginger

ROAR!

Happy 17th birthday I mean MONTHDAY Caroline

17 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Uses six words regularly – Mommy, Daddy, hi, kitty, doggy, quack-quack, roar, hat, fish, yes, cheese and shoes are all clear enough to be understood by other people. Then she has an entire babble-sign-arm-waving language for me.
Enjoys pretend games – Pretend cooks, pretend takes care of her baby and pretends to listen to me.
Likes riding toys – She’ll straight up tricycle-jack your kid at the playground.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Feeds doll – She rubbed an entire squeeze pouch of baby food onto her doll’s face.
Speaks more clearly – Do I need to speak more clearly? I think I answered that one BABY CENTER.
Throws a ball underhand – Sure, but she’s much better at hockey.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Dances to music – Sometimes, unless it’s the Fresh Beat Band and then it’s ALWAYS.
Sorts toys by color, shape, or size – I know she knows “blue”, does that count?
Kicks ball forward – Like I said, she’s better with a stick.