We had a great road trip to visit my brother in Massachusetts before he graduated from college. It was fun to see where he has been living the last three years. We really had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to many more of these adventures in the future!
I am going to share the pictures in parts, part one covers our trip out and our time in Amherst.
On the road...somewhere in New York
On our first night, we stayed near Jamestown, NY where my Grandpa Erickson grew up. On our way out of town, we stopped at the cemetery where his parents and siblings are buried. Its amazing to me what a simple and powerful experience it is to visit the grave of a loved one, even one you didn't know. How lucky we are to have this tangible way to remember the ones who go before us.
A huge worm that Gwen found!
I try to pack a lunch for us during our road trips (I stock up on non-perishables, bring our lunch bags and various reusable containers with for the whole week and then we scrounge a little from our continental breakfast to put together a lunch :) and then we find a local park along the route to eat. Our GPS was really helpful in helping us locate county or city parks and we would especially look for ones that were on a river or lake. My parents said I always hated when we did this growing up but now I love it! You always get to see such an interesting side of the area you are in by just going a little ways off the highway instead of just the travel plazas. In New York, we found this really cool old pool that hadn't been used for many years. The picture doesn't really do it justice but you get the idea :)
During our time in Amherst, we went on a hike to the summit of Mt. Holyoke. I was very impressed by the energy that the girls had and it was a perfect amount of challenge and fun for them.
Fun with a big boulder along the way...
He made it!
Taking a little break, not sure what they are doing!
Our little happy camper. She took a nap almost the entire way up. Love the Ergo!
The white house that you can barely see at the top is where we climbed to. Usually you can get food and drinks at the Summit House but it was still closed for the season.
Also in Amherst is the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. As soon as I told my brother that we were coming here, he told us about this museum and I'm glad he did! Being a preschool teacher and a parent, I read a lot of picture books and it was fun to learn more about the authors and illustrators of so many favorites. Unfortunately the Eric Carle Exhibit (which contained some of his original pieces of art which I would have loved to have seen) was closed for renovations. Oh well, the girls didn't know the difference, they loved it!
Sonja with an illustration from her favorite Eric Carle book...Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
My favorite part of the museum was the art room where the kids could go and make art! They were doing a unit on printmaking when we were there so the girls got to make their own foam stamps and paintings with them.
Check out those colors in the window, I loved this! It was just plastic sheet protectors with painted paper in them and then hung vertically with paperclips. It looked really cool.
Magnetic shape wall...I want to make this for preschool!
The only original and permanent art by Eric Carle in the museum are these four large pieces (I don't know why I didn't take a better picture of them!) that he painted when they first built the museum. The girls were in a crazy mood when I took these pictures :)
And finally on our way out of town we stopped at the Yankee Candle Store. What a crazy place that is! You would never think a store based on selling candles could be so incredibly large and fun. Totally worth the trip.
The girls picked out candles and got to dip them in colored wax.
Finished!
Gwen took this picture and loved it because it looks like a star on her head.
Next stop...Boston and New York City!
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