Fishing

We tried fishing in Grammys pond one afternoon - no luck. But...we dug some more worms and tried again after dinner.

She was casting like a champ!!

After dinner:..success! First a sunny.

Then a bass

Then more sunnies

And more!

By the time we ran out of worms...they had caught 11 fish!! Savannah was casting, hooking, and reeling in fish by herself. All I did was bait the hook and take the fish off the hook. Gage did the same for his last fish - cast, hook, and reel. They did so great!!! We need to do this more often..I loooooove fishing :-)

4 wheeling

Jimmies

After the zoo, we headed to the shore for lunch. Savannah tasted fried clams recently and was a big fan - so she got a big platter for herself!!  Gage discovered that he likes Italian salad dressing! The only minor glitch is that he doesn't like salad. But, he does like dipping croutons and bread in dressing ;-)

We always save all the extra fries, bread, etc. to throw to the sea gulls after lunch. 

Last trip, gage was terrified if the gulls..not this time!! He spent  lots of time running around trying to catch one!

The jetty is now a magnet for these two. Ever since we went to te beach and walked out...they race to them now!

We wrapped up the day by finding tons of sea glass. I love finding it, but it always makes me sad to think about how dirty the Long Island sound must be!

Zoo

We snuck I'm a trip to the zoo with Grammy and great gram Rooney. 

The last time we were here gage was about 9 months old!! He's grown quite a bit!

So has this tall girl!

We also rode a camel. His name was Toby, he was 12 years old, a mischievous teenager, and he liked to eat pizza, fries chicken, hot dogs, and popcorn for snacks!! How crazy is that?!? Those pictures are locked up in Grammys camera because she has no idea how to get the pictures into her computer. I guess she needs a lesson ;-)

Spaghetti cake

Our cousins invited us to watch a kids bank that was playing at a park tonight. 

We almost didn't go because I thought the kids wouId be tired after the beach today...and we had a thunderstorm barreling toward us. I'm glad we did - they had fun!

Beach

We decided today should be a beach day. After all, we need to take advantage of the beach being an hour away instead of 5! So, it was off to Hammonasset we went!  Since we were there by 9:30...we had the beach almost to ourselves for a while.

We dug a hole, made a few sandcastles, found sea glass and shells, ate our lunches at 10:30...and then...the fun began. We walked out to the jetty, and then went to explore the tide pools at the point.

It is such a different coastline than the gulf coast in AL. I forget how rocky the coast is here. 

The best part was finding hundreds of moon snails stuck to the rocks. And...we tried to sit still and look closely at the little tide pools to see if we could find any critters. We found tiny crabs and snails. They loved pulling the snails off the rocks :-)

Savannah also liked prying mussels off the rocks. I should have put them in the cooler and cooked them up tonight!

Gage loved climbing on the rocks. 

And the driftwood.

And I love these marshes...we saw so many white egrets, ternes, and herons walking around as we wound down to Meig's Point.

Back in time

We spent  day at Old Sturbridge Village with our cousins Kristine and Elizabeth.

First up...getting into character with these old cutouts. I love it!

Next up, they tried milking a fake cow. We sadly misses the real milking demonstration during the day. Now THAT wouId have been fun!

They got into character again with dresses and went to work churning butter and sweeping the hearth. Gage loaded the fireplace up with fake wood.

Sturbridge village is as authentic as possible. They had beds made with pillows and straw so the kids could see just how lumpy and uncomfortable beds were a few hundred years ago.

They also got to check out the outhouse and learn about what they used to wipe with corn cobs, leaves, and rags. 

After seeing the stage coach go by they went nuts!! This was a stagecoach that ran between Hartford Ct and Worcester MA. It traveled at 8-10 miles an hour and took 12 hours for the trip!

We had lunch under this gorgeous grape arbor. Gage tried out a tiny sour grape and decided it was "disgusting" :-)

Savannah and Elizabeth - cousins and pals :-)

One thing we loved about OSV is that the buildings are all original and have been relocated to the village. This was the Freeman farm.

The village has workers who dress in costume and act in character. This was a farmer who told the kids all about how children would help on the farm. One of the kids jobs was collecting eggs. So...they got to do that (well, he wrestled the eggs from beneath an angry chicken) and then being them into the kitchen inside the farmhouse.

This is an old covered bridge that was relocated from VT about 60+ years ago. In 1955 it came loose in the flood and started floating down river. Some workers tied it to a tree to save it, and they later skidded it to a new location after the river froze. We took a different horse drawn carriage through the bridge, and then rode on a riverboat. Love this pic of the girls.

Since we were the only passengers, the captain let all the kids take a turn driving the boat. We saw some water snakes and a big blue heron.

We stopped at the blacksmith, the general store, the printer, the schoolhouse, the meeting house, the sheep farm, grist mill, the beekeeper exhibit, watched then dyeing wool, pumped water from a well, etc etc etc!

We even played school yard games, like jump rope, Jacobs ladder, and a bunch of old wooden "catch the ball" type games.

It was a long and full day. And...there was still a lot we didn't see! A great, great day, though. 

Here is my favorite picture of the day...