Indonesian Digital News Archive

Agricultural Fairs 2009

Taking the family to a fair is a great time. The rides are, of course, a treat for the kids, but there are so many more activities that most of these events offer, such as petting zoos/4H animal displays, horse or oxen pulling competitions, etc. Your kids will get a chance to hear music and dance. For me, it's exciting to turn my kids on to their first fried dough, first candy apple, first cotton candy, ferris wheel ride, pumpkins bigger than they are. I had a New England childhood filled with the fleeting sights and delicacies that define our seasons.

Tell your kids in advance exactly how much/how long of everything that they'll be getting so you don't get sucked into a "one more _____ (ride, treat, chance to behave...)" Decide what's best for their ages - maybe getting rides out of the way will deprive you of a bribe - or maybe it will allow your kids to focus on everything else that the fair has to offer. Many of these fairs have parades associated with them also.

I've included many fairs on my calendar posts, July 2009 Events & August 2009 Events. More will be listed for September 2009.

Here's my post on our visit to the 3 County Fair in 2008.

I'll also do a post on the Belchertown Fair (my local and the best around!)

A great list can be found at: Livin' in the Belch

Here are a couple of links that list Massachusetts Fairs:

Fairs in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Fairs Association

Lookout Farm, South Natick, MA

Let me begin by saying that my visit here was several years ago, and since then the operation has been revamped and changed it's name from "Marino Lookout Farm" to "Lookout Farm."
The train that runs through the orchards is a delight for the kids. You can board/reboard however many times you like - getting off to pick a particular variety of pear or apple and then hopping back on the next time a shuttle comes by.
At the end of the train ride is a playground including a tree house, hay bale maze, and a bee house with plexiglass viewing windows. They offer other attractions, such as a petting zoo, seasonally. The petting zoo was open at the time of our visit, but little can be drawn from so far back.
In short, this is on my list of places to return to, and we had a WONDERFUL time the first time around. If anything, I suspect that the grounds have been improved.

Lookout Farm

Ribbon Tree

I had the kids select a good sized branch and enough stones to "plant" it in a small bucket we had. I cut lengths of ribbon, string, and pipe cleaners for them to use to decorate their tree. This was good practice tying knots. The end result was interesting. Several people, including my husband, found it creepy - maybe because some of the ribbon we had was grayish-black. I thought it was festive. Half way through the boys asked me for sparkly things, so the craft expanded to include glue and spangles. They glued the spangles directly onto the branch, and also on to ribbons which they then attached to it. They did this 100% outside, which was good for me, and they cooperated nicely on it - seems like a project that lends itself to multiple kids working toward one outcome. The older helped the younger with tying, for instance, and the younger one introduced the spangles.

Boston Children's Museum, Boston MA

This is a wonderful place. The location is both a blessing and a burden. My dad's office used to be down in this area, and parking is very expensive in the private lots that surround the waterfront. I suggest parking at a T station and taking the train in - this is what we've done in the past. The T is easy-peasy (though the time we took our stroller was a little hairy) and once you arrive at South Station you are about 3 blocks from the museum. The museum's website has really good directions. In the coldest winter, on the waterfront, this walk might be unpleasant, but in anything but the most bitter cold it's a nice walk. The kids have been fascinated by the busy waterway and the seagulls.

The museum has so many exhibits that we've never seen them all in a day. The large climbing structure is a sibling to the one at the Holyoke Children's Museum, and goes up three stories. There is usually a staff member posted half way up the stairs to make sure that children don't exit there without parents and become lost. Lucky thing.

There is a large toddler/infant area that we've never spent much time in - but I anticipate using this area with my youngest the next time we visit. There is a large and complex water play area (the photo above shows the toddler water play table, but there is a much larger water system with canals, etc), a "city" including stores, barbershop, streets, etc., a construction area with full scale construction vehicles to sit in as well as various child-height tables with roads, ramps and underpasses which serve as a playscape for toy construction vehicles. On the ground floor, a physics exhibit has kids pedalling bikes to power light bulbs and tugging on a pulley to send a tennis ball high into the air. Plus more. These are the ones that stand out in memory.

The only place to buy food at the museum is an Au Bon Pain that is attached. If you bring your own lunch you can eat it at one of the picnic tables outside by the water - or I think you could bring it into the restaurant's seating area. Our experience at this particular Au Bon Pain was pretty terrible - think of many people standing around while you look at the empty sandwich counter and wonder why no one is making an $8 sandwich for your bawling children. When we got the food it was good. But by then I was almost crying with anger and frustration so my taste buds were compromised.

Admission is FREE for members of the Springfield Science Museum, so I'll have to repeat my harangue that this membership is a WONDERFUL VALUE. You'll gain admission to Boston Children's Museum, Boston Science Museum , the Ecotarium, as well as the Springfield Museums. This has been a great membership for our family and I highly recommend it.

Boston Children's Museum

Boston Museum of Science, Boston MA

We've visited this museum several times, and keep discovering pockets that we missed before. This is a large museum with exhibits that will fascinate kids from 1 on up. The youngest visitors will probably spend lots of time in the Discovery Center. Though only a corner of this enormous building, it has two floors of preschool age activities: a vacuum tube, various building materials, a strong blower, a water table, a bee hive, animal costumes, live woodland animals and insects, animal bones, hiding spots... those are the elements I can reel off without even thinking about it. Not comprehensive - so you can get an idea of how much the Discovery Center offers. The exhibits in the rest of the museum are too numerous to count. An electricity show is free with admission and is exciting. I still remember the climax of the show from my childhood, when lightening is created right in front of your eyes. The last time I took my children there, my oldest, at 4, did not have the attention span for the show so we'll try again next time.

Parking is extremely convenient and usually costs us $11. The garage is attached to the museum itself so even in winter weather it works out great. There is a large cafe with tons of food choices and copious seating. We choose to bring our lunch and then supplement with buying a treat there. It's really expensive. The other huge advantage is that by bringing your own food you are skipping the whole line experience. There are often large school groups, and it is always crowded. Once the kids' tummies are full they are ready to go.

If you are a member of the Springfield Science Museum/Springfield Quadrangle, your admission is FREE. And you don't wait in line, just continue on to the turnstiles, show your membership card and you are in the museum. That's it. Through the Association of Science and Technical Museums, the Springfield membership will privilege you to free admission at the Boston Children's Museum, the Ecotarium, the Boston Science Museum, and many more museums in other states. We have been members for several years now- our annual fee would be paid for in visits to the Quadrangle alone, never mind the aforementioned additional places.

Museum of Science

ADC 2 Updates

Since the announcement of Android Developer Challenge 2 in May, Android phones continue to be deployed in countries worldwide. Android phones are currently available in over 20 countries, with more on the way. As I've mentioned earlier, we'll be including real-world users of these phones to help review and score your submissions. It is important to remember that your apps will be reviewed by judges around the world on actual devices; thus, be sure to make it extremely easy for users/judges to access your apps with minimum setup.

Some of you have been asking for clarifications on what we mean by "open only to applications that have not been published". To be specific, applications that are available on Android Market before August 1, 2009 will not be eligible to participate in the contest. Users have already been providing comments for apps that are currently available on Android Market, so it wouldn't make sense for them to "judge" the same apps again in this contest. In addition, apps that include or that are based on open source projects are fully welcomed, as long as the application itself is not on Android Market until August 1, 2009.

If you want to find out more details about ADC 2, you can find everything at the ADC 2 page along with the Terms and Conditions. For the moment, the most important thing to know is that ADC 2 submissions will be due August 31. I can't wait to see what you all come up with this time.

Happy coding -- and good luck!

Peaked Mountain, Monson, MA

What a wonderful hike! There are two parking areas, one at the Miller Forest Tract and one at the Peaked Mountain Tract. The second was our choice for our walk. We picked up a map, unusual for us but serendipitous as there are a lot of well networked trails. They are blazed but also numbered at key intersections, which was great. We first headed to the "Valley View" area, and after taking in a snack and a lovely vista, headed to the "Peaked Mountain" area and climbed around quite a bit taking in the view from many directions. A marker indicated the mountain's highest point, and a mailbox jutted out of the side of a pine tree. A journal inside contained memories left by hikers past. A new volume is needed, so if you take this hike you could bring a notebook with you to leave there.

The fact that this park is borded by a wildlife sanctuary (and endless miles of woods) showed itself in the forms of many frogs, croaking away and leaping among the reeds of a small pond we encountered. A larger pond was visible from the top of the mountain, located in the Miller Forest Tract of land. A magical encounter with a fawn was the highlight of our day. For several minutes my family clustered at the edge of a trail, whispering with excitement and peering into the eyes of this graceful and solemn little guy. None of my photos came out, naturally.

This summit was a long hike for our boys, who are quite hardy. I wouldn't choose it for kids who are starting to get used to hiking. But it wasn't too long- we'll do it again in a minute!

Peaked Mountain

Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, MA

On the grounds of Hampshire college sits this unusual building with it's enormous windows and gnarled apple trees studding the lawn.
There are several areas inside to explore. The staff and volunteers at the museum are very friendly and knowledgeable.
In the art room, children are invited to do a project. They can also choose to color on a papered table. If they are not interested in, or too young for, the project, they can play with a variety of toys in an attractive play area.
In the library, board books, toys and puzzles are available for play. Thousands more picture books line the shelves.

The gallery has some great exhibits, but we usually skip it. It is best seen with a 1:1 child-parent ratio.
The cafeteria is a large sunny room equipped with high chairs. There is no longer any food served there, but there are several vending machines with drinks, snacks, and lunchy items from Atkins Farms. I'm sure the food is good, but it's also quite expensive.
The movie theatre is well appointed. We have seen a couple of shows there.
The gift shop looks lovely, but I've been telling my children for years that it is off-limits to children. I've never really looked around.
The outdoor space is beautiful and we always spend time out there when the weather is nice.
The restrooms are immaculate, cute, and each has a child size potty. Best restrooms ever.
Parking is copious, but there is no shade in the lot.

Eric Carle Museum

Strawberry Picking

Here's a short list:

J.M. Pasiecnik Farms, 207 River Road, Whately

Koran's Farm and Gift Stand, 160 East Hill Road, Monson

Lakeside Strawberries, River Road at Warner Road, Hadley

Nourse Farms, 41 River Road, Whately

Sapowski Farms, 436 East State St. (Route 202), Granby

Teddy Smiarowski Farm, 487 Main St., Hatfield

Val's Berry Farm, 81 Parker St., East Longmeadow

Meadowbrook Farm, 185 Meadowbrook Road, East Longmeadow

Dickinson Farms, Rt. 202, Granby

Recent Article

West End Creamery, Sutton, MA

Just down the road from Purgatory Chasm, a visit to this creamery/entertainment center was a nice ending to our day.

We ate ice cream on the deck overlooking a beautiful lazy river, varied fields, a mini golf course that looked really nice from a distance.

I didn't see the "Farmyard" or the mini golf because I didn't want to open that can of worms when we were worn out from hiking. We steered clear. The barn houses various farm animals. According to another patron there it's not exactly a petting zoo, but you can visit with cows, horses, sheep, etc.

Before becoming an entertainment center/ice cream shop, this establishment was the milk purveyor for the area. My father grew up nearby, and remembers the half pint bottles of West End Creamery milk that he drank during snack time at school. Somehow it lent our ice cream an "authentic" taste - we learned that authenticity is creamy and delicious, and sometimes comes in a cute little mini cone.

West End Creamery

Purgatory Chasm

Purgatory Chasm (my post)

Quabbin Hike, Belchertown, MA

After checking to see whether the viewing tower had reopened (it has not), we headed down one of the trails that snakes down the hillside.

In the aftermath of severe weather, we found massive trees downed, jagged trunks and limbs, dripping sap from a severed pine, and twig litter all over the path.

The trail had no spectacular view, save for the top of the hill. It wound through beautiful old forest, was lined with soft mosses, and offered glimpses of that gorgeous pink Quabbin rock. We ended up at a road and decided to turn around, as two juice boxes would barely get us through the climb back up.

Quabbin Reservoir (DCR site)

Quabbin Fishing Area (my post)

Quabbin Viewing Tower (my post)

Winsor Dam (my post)