Blogs from Niantic, Connecticut, United States, North America

Bill and I left after breakfast, with me driving Ned and Mom's new Prius, for trip to Giants Neck Beach and Rocky Neck State Park. I grew up at Giants Neck: playing on the beaches and rocky coasts, swimming every day I could, skating on the duck pond in the winter, watching hurricanes blast through, hanging out with the summer kids from Memorial Day til Labor Day... We hiked the beach to the park Pavilion, built in 1935 by the WPA, and then back down the beach to Giants Neck to visit my childhood home and the beaches where I played and swam. "The Ellie Mitchell Pavilion is a Rustic-style building completed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era relief program. Designed by Russell F. Barker and othe... read more

Awe...this is the life. What a perfect day for the beach and that is just what we did!! This morning we had our first Dunkin' Donuts of our trip (and according to my husband -- not the last). Then we made up a picnic basket and headed to the beach. We chose to go to McCook Beach and it's the beach to go to!! Swimming Sunning Building sand castles/turtles Digging deep sand holes Crabbing More swimming More sunning That pretty much sums up the day. Just as we were getting ready to pack up and head out, we heard something. Something chiming. ICE CREAM TRUCK!!! Emma has actually never been to one and promptly picked out a Bubble Gum Snow Cone. We get back to our spot on the beach and it promptly falls onto the ... read more

Well, all the planning is done and we're ready to enjoy this vacation. We drove from Bismarck to Minneapolis last night and stayed with my sister. We decided that Jacob has the Saville bladder and that the kids stayed up too late. As we stood in the line to get past security, I had the fear that I needed the kids' birth certificates...luckily, I was wrong. Things were going smoothly...until we heard the dreaded beep in the scanner. Michael set off the alarm! At the same time that he was trying to get that figured out (duh! metal belt buckle!!), the security guard asked me if "this is your backpack?" Yup, it was Jacob's. There is a suspicious bottle shaped item --- yup...half a bottle of water. After a thorough manual search, we were free to ... read more