The Best Nautical Museums on the East Coast

Growing up near the water, I have spent many a day both IN and ON the water in a boat. Over the years, my family has enjoyed learning about the sailing and the boating industries. There are many ways, and places, to explore all types of boats throughout the Northeast. Here are 11 spots we love and 4 more we’re hoping to visit in 2021:

Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Behinds the Scenes Tours Kids Will Love

I’m “back” from all of our virtual tours from the past month- we figured it was safer to stay home and explore places online than in person. If you missed them, here are the links to our curated lists of virtual tours for National Parks; art museums; children’s museums, zoos, and aquariums; and Disney related activities.

While my family is still staying home as the country slowly starts to reopen, we’ve been reminiscing about past trips and many themes have emerged. We’re written themed posts before, like our posts on Indoor Fun in New England, East Coast Cities with Nearby Neighbors, Private Homes We’ve Toured, Sports Halls of Fame, and Free Things to Do in New England. Some new themes have recently emerged and today we’re sharing a post on “inside scoops” of famous locations and companies. We love learning about how a place works and seeing the behind the scenes stuff that most people don’t get a chance to see. It has recently become more popular for places to share behind the scenes access, even if guests cannot physically go inside the manufacturing plant or production studio.

Read More
, , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Art Museums With Virtual Activities for Kids

You might be surprised to learn that my family, children included, like visiting art museums. Art museums have come a long way from just “silently standing and looking at paintings some old guy or girl made a million years ago.” Today, so many art museums are finding new ways to engage children and welcome families into their galleries. We wrote about the many benefits of taking children to art museums last year in this post featuring the Guggenheim in New York City. A huge bonus? Most of these museums, and other art museums, offer FREE admission for children, usually ages 16 and under.

Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

20 New England Places to Visit in the Winter

New England is my home. I love it. Every trip I take outside New England is wonderful- and a wonderful reminder of how much I love where I grew up and where I now live with my family. New England is known for its beautiful beaches and ocean water in the summer, stunning foliage in the fall, countless places to ski and skate in the winter, and open spaces to enjoy the outdoors in the spring. However, if you’re prone to sunburns, frostbite, and allergies, consider these places to visit for plenty of indoor fun (and yes, they’re just as great in the summer too!)

Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2019 Year in Review: 65 Highlights

2019 was a year for the record books. We travelled over 25,000 miles from TopSail, North Carolina to Gloucester, Massachusetts and a ton of places in between those spots. We had a few common themes (you’ll notice them below) and no matter where we travelled, we found friendly locals, rich history, and tons of fun. We’re keeping it short and sweet here with the highlights, but feel free to click on the links for the full scoop and tons of travel tips!

Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

14 Private Homes We Toured in 2019

2019 has been a busy travel year for us. We’ll have a full recap of highlights at the end of December, but when we started thinking about all the places we’ve explored, we found some common themes. We’ve explored 15 private homes since January of last year and we’ve loved every single one. You’ll notice two other themes- we covered most of the Revolutionary War and Civil War this year, and we love visiting National Park Service sites (read why here!).  Here’s the list with some travel tips and the “coolest” things our children loved about each spot. Click the links to get more details and travel tips from our visits. 

Read More
, , , , , , , , ,