Shelburne, Massachusetts – The route we drove this weekend–from Boston to North Adams along Rte 2–has been dubbed the Mohawk Trail. It’s just a rural highway, but it was built along an old trading route that Native American tribes used to cross…
Mass MoCA
North Adams, Massachusetts – Many people (er, grown-up people) have a hard time appreciating contemporary art if it isn’t pretty, or if it doesn’t clearly depict something concrete, or if it doesn’t make sense. Kids, of course, don’t have this…
Mount Greylock
North Adams, Mass – After an inauspicious start to our Father’s Day weekend extravaganza, we had nowhere to go but up. And I mean that both figuratively and literally. On day two, we got an early start and headed straight for Mount Greylock, the…
Hiking in Acadia National Park
This year, the US National Park Service is celebrating 100 years. In honor of the anniversary, Lonely Planet asked eight travel experts (including me!) about ways to explore the USA national parks. Here’s my blurb about family hiking in Acadia…
Fruitlands Museum
Harvard, Mass – One of our local heroes–and certainly a hero of the 19th-century Transcendentalist movement–was Bronson Alcott, a teacher, philosopher and reformer (and incidentally the father of the famous author Louisa May Alcott). As a transcendentalist, he believed that…
Witch City
Salem, Mass – It’s a strange thing, how the city of Salem has turned something so horrific into something so fun. In total, 20 people were executed for practicing witchcraft, while many more were accused and saved themselves by confessing and…
Powderhouse Park
Somerville, Mass – Remember how we spent a lot of money to take the twins (and some friends) to Brooklyn Boulders, but there were only a limited few walls that they could actually climb, so it was kind of not really…
Extraordinary Playscapes
Boston, Mass – I happened on this new little play area in Chinatown Park. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but I was struck by the unique design – colorful, modular pieces that fit together in unusual ways to allow crawling, climbing, slithering, sliding…
Puppets Take the Pops
Boston, Mass – Daddio has always been against the Pops. I understand his distaste for “Symphony Light,” but I am not too cool for the Pops. And the twins are not too cool for anything. So when the BSO sent us a mailer…
Brooklyn Boulders
Somerville, Mass – Our lovable city has been the subject of many recent articles touting how cool it has become. We’ve been in the Boston Globe, the New York Times and even Delta Sky Magazine. And of course, most recently,…