Our 1st Annual Traditions in New England

Our move to New England, will mostly be to create a home, family for our pets and future children, and traditions. Here are some annual places we'd like to go see and some of which we'd like to create a tradition of going to every year, we'll also add lot's of other adventures, and may even have other daytrips that aren't even planned. Here's a start:

 

New Years Eve

 

First Night Chatham or First Night Boston

 

Make a time capsule

 

January

 

The 24th Annual Cape & Islands Orchid Society Show in Hyannis, Massachusetts

 

January 26th 2013 celebrate Edith Whatron's (1st woman to win the pulitzer prize) 151st birthday at her home The Mount (free admission)

 

February

 

February 10th the Cape Cod Bridal show at New Seabury Country Club

 

Celebrate Lincon's birthday by visiting Hildene in Manchester, Vermont

 

or take a trip to Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vemont

 

or go to the Antique Snow rally in Old Sturbridge

 

Go out for a Valentine's Dinner

 

March

 

Daytrip to

 

the Native American traditions weekend at Old Sturbridge

 

Easter brunch at Old Yarmouth Inn

 

April

 

April 19th is Patriots Day. In Masachusetts there is a re-enactment of the battles of Lexington and Concord at the Minute Man National Park.

 

The Freedom Trail to trace the footsteps of our forefathers and other attractions in Boston, Massachusetts

 

Daytrip to either

 

the Louisa May Alcott's Farm (The author of Little Women) and watch the movie Little Women, or

 

the Ralph Waldo Emerson House

 

or Thoreau Farm 

 

May

 

May 1st also know as May Day Family photo for Mother's & Father's Day

 

Daytrip to either

 

The Emily Dickinson Poety Walk or

 

the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts or

 

the Mary Baker Eddy Museum or

 

 the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

 

June

 

June 20th 2013 is our Wedding in Martha's Vineyard

 

June 21st-23rd 2013 is the Newport Flower Show in Newport, Rhode Island

 

Visit a Newport mansion

 

The Long Table

 

July

 

4th of July parade

 

4th of July celebrations at Old Sturbridge, with a fireworks display six o'clock onwards

 

Perhaps take a family vacation

 

August

 

Spend days cycling to the beach

 

Annual family camping trip to Horseneck Beach State Park

 

Go to a Clam Bake

 

September

 

Visit local museums and attractions on The Cape

 

October

 

 Visit the Salem Witch Museum in Salem, Massachusetts or

 

 Cogswell’s Grant the summer home of renowned folk art collectors Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little in Essex, Massachusetts

 

Halloween decorating and trick-or-treating

 

November

 

Family Photo

 

November 10th we send out our Thanksgiving cards

 

Thanksgiving Celebrations by visiting the Plimouth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts

 

Shopping at Colony Place and Village Landing

 

Thanksgiving day lunch and visit with friends

 

December

 

Family photo

 

December 10th we traditionally send out our Holiday cards

 

Christmas at the Newport Mansions in Newport, Rhode Island and

 

The Strawbery Bank Museum in New Hampshire one or

 

Nantucket Noel.

 

December 24th Annual Holiday Party at our home

 

 

Other Traditions

 

 We buy a postcard everytime we go somewhere new for our photo album

Strawbery Banke Museum

I was reading a New Englander blog called New England Living and read Alyson's post about visiting the Strawberry Banke Museum, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

There website says: "Strawbery Banke is about connecting with the past.

It is a place to gather, a place to learn and is a sustainable resource.

Visitors to Strawbery Banke have the opportunity to experience and imagine how people lived and worked in this typical American neighborhood through nearly four centuries of history. Using restored houses, featured exhibits, historic landscapes and gardens, and interpretive programs, Strawbery Banke tells the stories of the many generations who settled in this Portsmouth, New Hampshire "Puddle Dock" community from the late l7th to the mid-20th century."

It was "originally named Strawbery Banke by early (1630) British settlers for the wild berries growing there, Strawbery Banke today is unique among outdoor history museums - tracing 375 years of history in one of America's oldest continuously occupied neighborhoods. The 10-acre site, with its authentically restored houses and shops, period gardens, and costumed role players, presents the daily lives of ordinary people who lived here - from Colonial times to World War II, from the mundane to the elegant, from economic boom to war time austerity - in engaging and accessible ways. Strawbery Banke Museum is a capsule of New England seaport life across four centuries."

  

Now how delightful would it be to visit?

Here's a video, if you'd like to know more

And yes, it's Strawbery with only one 's'.

Lets Get Educated

 

Do we have children?

 

No. Not yet, but we hope to start a family after our wedding next year.

 

And since we plan to move to The Cape in 2013, and settle for at least ten to fifteen years in one home, we do have to think to the future.

 

So, we looked at the schools surrounding Hyannis Port, and compared the public ones to the private ones. And since we hope to raise our children to understand all the worlds religions, so they can be tolerant, we opted out of the uber religious private schools.

 

For the first time ever, we also researched homeschooling.

 

We discussed it, researched it, and slept on it and decided on doing both.

 

Crazy, I know.

 

We'll enrol our children in public school, where they will learn to socialize with all sorts of children, and we'll spend one to two days a week during the summer teaching the basics of the curriculum they'll be learning the following year.

 

Also, we'll start basic, baby education when there old enough.

 

If we raise children who are aware, not just of themselves, but the world in which we live, then, and only then will we feel like we've done our best efforts in educating our children.

 

As you can see, we both value a good education, and continue learning all the time...I hope to pass down that passion, I guess we'll see. 

Horseneck Beach State Park

 

Examiner

Do you remember those annual family traditions? One we'd like to start is an annual camping trip. Where better than Horseneck Beach State Park?

 

Damian Musello from the examiner says:

 

"Horseneck Beach: 5 John Reed Road and Rt.88, Westport, MA

I almost don’t want to write about Horseneck Beach State Reservation because it is popular enough—one of the most popular facilities in the State—and I fear letting more people know about it. It is hands down one of the finest beaches in New England and possibly the East Coast because it combines a southwest facing 2-mile long beach and an extensive estuarine system with the most voluptuous dunes to create a stunning swimmer, sun tanner, bird watcher, wind surfer, heaven. I have had some days at Horseneck that were such a fabulous concoction of sun, soft breeze and lovely clear water that I entered a dazzled fugue state in which the day simply slipped away. Suddenly the sun is sinking low in the west and one is forced to call an end to the reverie.

 

Horseneck is a part of the Massachusetts State Park system and one of the best run. Last year a brand new shower house and over-dune walk was were opened and another is being renovated. There is a paved walkway which runs parallel to the beach behind the first set of dunes making the carting of coolers and beach chairs a lot easier. The beach is granular loosely packed sand and moderately sloped, even as the tide goes out. There’s a volleyball net set up and always in use. If you want more privacy you can walk westward towards Horseneck Point. On this part of the beach are the steep dunes where you can shelter in a swale if the wind picks up. It’s a good 20 minute walk to the point but worth the trip to see where the Westport River scours a channel through the barrier beach into Westport Harbor. To the east, behind the dunes of Gooseberry Neck—a rocky headland—is a 100-site campground.

 

Horseneck is a classic barrier beach and behind it is a mature dune system with some classic swales scoured to the water table. Further inland beach vegetation has evolved to woodland.
 

The beach does have it’s bad days though and it is always advisable to call ahead and check on conditions. I’ve driven down from a sweltering Boston right into the most dense fog bank I’ve ever seen….it began right at the beach parking lot and never ventured further inland. Green heads are sometimes a problem but the most common trouble at Horseneck is the foul red mung—seaweed torn up from beds offshore—that makes swimming impossible. Call ahead, ask about fog, mung, green heads and water temperature….the beach personnel are reliable.

 

From Boston: Rte. 93 south to Rte. 128 north. Follow Rte. 128 north a short distance to Rte. 24 south. Follow Rte 24 south to Fall River and the intersection with Rte. 195 east. Follow 195 east to exit 10 and Rte. 88 south. Follow Rte. 88 south 11 miles to the end and follow the signs."

Newport Mansions

About an hour and a half away from the Cape is Newport, Rhode Island.



David Astudillo

 

Newport, is home to many mansions taken care of by the The Preservation Society of Newport County.

 

There are around ten homes to tour, and the larger homes have many events throughout the year. Antique shows, a garden show, Christmas celebrations, lectures, servant life tours and so much more.

 

Here are the homes featured on their website:

 

The Breakers

 

 

Marble House

 

 

The Elms

 

 

Rosecliff

 

 

Chateau-sur-Mer

 

 

Kingscote

 

 

Isaac Bell House

 

 

Green Animals Topiary Garden

 

 

Hunter House

 

 

Chepstow

 

 

I look forward to visiting someday.