The Sweet Road Continues - More Ice Cream in New England

The family that eats ice cream together, stays together.  At least until the next scoop.  Our recent vacation road trip could've been dubbed the "Ice Cream Tour" for all that we ate.  We started in New York and moved up through the New England states.  Catch up on the New York and Boston flavors in this previous post (part 1 of the ice cream tour) and continue on to New Hampshire and Vermont here.

To remind you of the rules of our ice cream stops:

• We’re looking for fresh, home-/hand-made ice cream at independent shops, or at least ones don’t seem to be big-name chains.
• Scoops have to be less than $4, as close to or below $3, if possible.  I’ve noticed some places now charge $4, $5, even $6 a scoop!  For us, that’s $30+ for dessert.  So we did pass up shops that may have fit the independent shop rule, but were too pricey.  I’d like to not break a $20 if possible.
• Good flavors, creative mixes.  Give me a scoop of coffee or chocolate ice cream and I’m pretty happy.  But I’ll definitely try one of those with some nuts or chocolate ripple mixed in.  The kids are cookie dough, birthday cake, mint connoisseurs.
• Exceptions can be made to these rules, as needed. 

Annabelle’s - Portsmouth, NH

This was our one stop in New Hampshire as we passed through on our way from Boston to Portland, Maine.  And if you are ever just driving through, it's an easy 5-minutes or so off of I-95.  It’s located on a small alley street on the water.  The whole little area is a pleasant, walkable tour-book portside shopping area.  I got the Kahlua chocolate chip, which was really more like Kahlua & cream & chocolate chip. My son got the mint chocolate (his favorite flavor), but unlike most mint ice cream, it was not green, or even white with mint flavor, it was chocolate with mint flavor.  It was really good, like an Andes mint.  Price?  $3.65 for a single, which was actually 2 scoops; and there was a smaller, cheaper kid size.

Ben and Jerry’s, Waterbury, VT

Waterbury is up in the mountains of Vermont. A pretty, natural drive.  There was a decent sized crowd when we got there, which continued during our visit.  You have to get a ticket for the factory tour, which lasts a little less than 30 minutes. We had to wait about an hour for our time slot, but not standing in line; you get a ticket then can wander off until the assigned time.  We checked out the flavors at the Flavor Graveyard (all the flavors that have been retired), ate lunch at one of the food trucks parked on the grounds, and – what else – ate ice cream.  I got my one of my favorites, Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz, and tried a new flavors, Hazed and Confused, a hazelnut and chocolate mix.

The factory tour consists of a short film about the history of Ben & Jerry’s, which was pretty interesting, and then an explanation of the ice cream making process from a viewing room above the manufacturing floor.  Since most of the process seems to be in huge heating and cooling vats, it’s actually not a whole lot to see until the ice cream is filled into the pint containers. The day we were there, there was some malfunction with a few lids so ice cream was spilling out across the conveyor belts which amused the kids.  The other highlight of the tour is the exclusive factory-only flavor sample served at the end.  Our day was Meet Me at the ChocoBanana flavor – a banana ice cream with chocolate and nuts.  It definitely needs to go through whatever approval process to get into a store near me.

Of the 12 days we were on vacation, I think we had ice cream at least 8 or 9 of those days (all of our scoops aren’t listed since some were end-of-dinner restaurant served scoops.)  We unfortunately got rained out in Maine and never made it to Gifford’s which is supposed to be really good. But I see that their truck is rolling around our home city every now and then, so maybe we’ll get a taste eventually.  But 9 out of 12’s not bad, right?

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Taking the Sweet Road - Our Ice Cream Tour

One thing our family agrees on is that we all like ice cream. A lot.  Enough so that one of our traveling rituals is to eat ice cream almost every day of our vacation.  (We also walk a lot on vacation, so it kinda balances.  Kinda.)

But we do have some criteria, we don’t stop at just any ole ice cream spot.  A few rules.

• We’re looking for fresh, home-/hand-made ice cream at independent shops, or at least ones don’t seem to be a big-name chain.
• Scoops have to be less than $4, as close to or below $3, if possible.  I’ve noticed some places now charge $4, $5, even $6 a scoop!  For us, that’s $30+ for dessert.  So we did pass up shops that may have fit the independent shop rule, but were too pricey.  I’d like to not break a $20 if possible.
• Good flavors, creative mixes.  Give me a scoop of coffee or chocolate ice cream and I’m pretty happy.  But I’ll definitely try one of those with some nuts or chocolate ripple mixed in.  The kids are cookie dough, birthday cake, mint connoisseurs.
• Exceptions can be made to these rules, as needed. 

On our recent roadtrip, we enjoyed scoops from these ice cream shops throughout New England.  And we did make one big exception - we ended up at a slightly larger ice cream shop – the Ben and Jerry’s Factory in Vermont.

Mr. Softee Truck – Brooklyn, NY

This may not really qualify as home-made ice cream, but we don’t get one of these trucks in our neighborhood too often and how can you pass up $2 soft ice cream cones?  Ice cream for the whole gang and friends for $12? We couldn’t let this truck roll by.

Dylan’s Candy Bar, Manhattan, NY

Okay, not your teeny mom & pop shop, but not a big chain either.  Upstairs, there’s an ice cream counter and candy bar, i.e. cocktails.  The kids got ice cream which they said was delicious! while my friend and I got candy cocktails. Her’s had Strawberry Nerds in it, mine had a rock candy swizzler. In the middle of walking through the city, this is a fun stop. Albeit, an expensive one. 

Boston turned out to be a big ice cream stop. Who knew?

Churn2 ice cream truck, Harvard Farmers’ Market (on campus)

This is the scientifically made ice cream.  Liquid nitrogen is blasted into a metal mixing bowl with fresh ingredients (milk, flavor, etc.) until it’s frozen.  Each order is made fresh while you watch. The results? Very creamy and that full, round mouth feel.  The process is supposed to make this less fat than regular ice cream, too.  This does, however, break the less than $4 rule. A scoop is $6.25; we got one to share because we just had to taste it.

Lizzy's Ice Cream – Harvard; Boston, MA

We found this teeny little shop while on our way to dinner, then had to make sure we were back before it closed because it looked really good.  Good decision.  I got the Colombia Fudge Avalanche – coffee ice cream with all chocolate and walnuts – which was really good; it was creamy, tasted like coffee, and full of the add-ins.  And the price was right – about $3 for a small scoop, which was really enough post-dinner. There was also a kiddie cone and an even smaller mini-cone.

Christina'sIce Cream – Cambridge, MA

The shop smells like Indian spices, presumably from shop next door (which may be owned by the same people).  It’s a pleasant smell, just not one you’d expect at an ice cream shop.  I got the Bailey’s ice cream, which was creamy, but didn’t really taste like Bailey’s, more like coffee with a whole lot of cream in it (which, by the way, is how I drink my coffee.)  The kids got birthday cake and mint.  The scoops were about $3 for a small.

And now, I'm so full - and hungry.  Let me go grab a bowl of coffee ice cream with some almonds sprinkled in and I'll get back to the rest of the list in part two of the ice cream tour.

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Returning Back Home After Vacation

1878 miles, 12 days, 9 states, 2 countries

6 people, 6 hotel rooms

We’re finally back home.  And this is going to take a little bit of getting used to.

The coffee pot is not in the room, just steps from the bed. I actually have to go all the way downstairs for a cup of coffee to get the day started.  This is reminding me of my plan to install a coffee station in my bedroom, however.

Breakfast, although included and available at this place, is not ready when you get downstairs.  There is no buffet of croissants and pastries, fresh squeezed orange juice, a hot waffle iron, or a dude waiting to make omelets-to-order.  But maybe, I’ll get up one day before school starts and set out a big breakfast, just to throw the whole family off.

We do not have to check to be sure we didn’t pick out a sibling’s/child’s/parent’s shirt or underwear out of the suitcase before pulling them on.  To pack for our most recent roadtrip, I packed half of everybody’s clothes in one of two suitcases so that we would only have to drag one suitcase in to the hotel, instead of five.

There’s nowhere we have to be today.  There’s no sites that we must see because we’re on a 48-hour schedule. We don’t have to figure out how many hours and miles to our next state and decide whether we should eat in this city, the next, or in the car.  We packed and accumulated a lot of snacks (and wine) while out on the road.

We’ll all be eating the same thing for lunch and dinner, whatever that may be.  There’s no option for six different meals to be brought out to each person’s individual tastes.

We will not be in arm’s reach of each other 24/7.  We can go in different rooms, even outside, by ourselves if we want.  So, I might admit that I liked hanging out with my kids and hubby all day. Sure, there was some bickering, fussing, even some tears, but it was good.  Our regular schedule splits us into 6 different directions on a daily basis, so this was nice.

We can wander to the kitchen or our outside in our pajamas and no-one looks at us funny.  We’re home.

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Take the History Tour

It's what makes kids moan about and fear whenever there's a family visit to the city. Any city. Any city with a museum or historical site or old church. Eventually, the parents are going to drag them to somewhere at which they will hear or (gasp!) read something that might be educational or cultural or the least bit intellectual.  They kids know it's coming, that moment when they'll be pulled into some exhibit that one day may be vaguely familiar when a teacher mentions it in class. And as parents, we feel the need to do this, to expose them to culture and history, because, well, just because.

 

We've done a pretty good balance of the historical and potentially educational sites while on vacation. We visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and the kids didn't complain. Whether that was because they were actually interested or knew that this site was something they should not complain about, they were respectful and questioning and exploring when we went.

 

In Boston, we walked the Black History Trail, starting with the 54th Regiment Monument.  Along the route, there were homes where various Black Americans once lived and hid runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad and held abolitionist movement meetings, the first colored school and the first integrated school in the city, the African Meeting House that served as church, community center, political meeting place, and school.  We made our way to the spot that Crispus Attucks died and the Old North Church where Paul Revere instructed the men to hang the lanterns (one if by land...) 

 

"Why do we have to go? It's so hot. All these hills!" The kids whined.

"Because it's important. This was where the Revolutionary War started.  And these people worked toward ending slavery.  You'll be able to talk about it in school," I said.

"We don't even learn about all this in school, we don't talk about slavery," they reported.

"Well, then that's even more reason why we're here. Keep walking." 

 

I knew they were going to complain.  I didn't expect that they would have the same excited reaction as when we went to the aquarium, which is just as educational, in a different way. These are the experiences and knowledge, however, to which we want to expose our children. Seeing the Boston harbor will illustrate the point when they learn about the Boston Tea Party.  Understanding that "Glory" wasn't just a movie (although a great one) emphasizes that there were real, live people willing to sacrifice their lives for future generations' freedom even when they weren't even considered full citizens themselves. And now, having made it to New England on vacation, driving, perhaps it's more evident how long a journey it is from a southern (slave) state to a northern free state, and the distance people were willing to walk to escape slavery; and then there's the poster hanging in the museum, warning Bostonians about a law that would allow slave catchers to capture Blacks and take them back to the south as slaves, whether they were free or runaway slaves.  That may or may not come up in the history lessons at school, but it happened.

 

There's a lot that we want our children to know and understand about our history, culture, religion, world. As parents, that is one of our responsibilities, to teach them and expose them to as much as we can that we feel is important.  Even if they whine and complain.

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Laundry while Traveling

How do you pack for 6 people for a 2-week roadtrip? And what do you do with all that laundry?

 

I packed enough shorts/skirts for half the days we planned to be gone, because really, you can wear those a second time.  I packed a little more than half the days shirts, anticipating getting to a laundry somewhere mid-point.  And enough underclothes for the duration, just in case we didn't.

 

Check your next hotel - especially if you are in a suite style hotel. There's most likely a laundry room that you've never paid attention to, and if you had, wondered "who does their laundry at a hotel?" That would be folks like me, a long long way from home.

 

And if you're lucky, it's just down the hall from the bar. Because if you've been on a long journey with the kids, you'll need this pitstop, too. 

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Join the Zoo or Museum or Aquarium: The Benefits of Membership

We joined the Mystic Aquarium on our roadtrip stop in Mystic, Connecticut.  Not that I plan on visiting again anytime soon, I can pretty much guarantee that we won't return in the next year since we live about 6 hours away. But the Membership rate ($189) was actually a slight savings over admission for 6.  This is also the math that has lead me to join the Baltimore Aquarium and the Baltimore Science Center.  It does not really explain why I'm a member of the National Zoo, which is free to the public (although there is a parking fee, which is discounted - used to be free- for members.)

 

Membership versus admission ticket? Here's a few thing to think about when standing in the line of your favorite family attraction or even a place you may never get back to in the near future.

 

Compare the Membership rate to the total of the per person admission. Don't forget the extras your family may want to do - the IMAX movie, the 4d theatre, the dolphin show. Are they included in Membership versus an additional fee with admission?

 

Is membership less than the cost of two visits? If it's a place you'd come back to in the next year, or could, membership may be a better option, even if it's a bit more than a 1-visit cost.  I also found with a membership at the local aquarium for instance, I feel less stressed  to make sure we saw every last fish, because we could always come back.

 

What reciprocal  agreements does the facility have?  The National Zoo, for example, has agreements with other zoos and aquariums so that members can get into those places free or for a discount. So while the Zoo is free, we save money visiting other zoos.  The list of reciprical locations are usually available on a site's website or at the membership information booth.

 

What other benefits do members get that you would enjoy? Early admission, special events, magazines or newsletters, free snacks? Again, compare those that you can enjoy that day, if it's somewhere you're visiting out of town, and the long-term benefits.  

 

Do you generally support the work or mission of the facility? Aside from the financial benefit, you may just really like the purpose, the research, the services of the site. The conservation work of the zoo, the rescue work of the aquarium, the historical preservation done by the museum, etc. This non-monetary reason is just as good as any other.

 

Any places that have great membership programs? Feel free to share in the comments. 

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Questions about the 9/11 Memorial

I debated on going to the 9/11 Memorial while in New York. Would it be too emotional, would it break up the happy-vacation mood? Would it be interesting to the kids?  Landing at Battery Park off the Staten Island Ferry, I decided that none of these were really good excuses. In fact, I felt like it would be some level of disrespect to ignore the Memorial, only blocks away.

 

As I approached the Memorial, even as I stepped onto the curb of the block, this emotional wave hit me - a surprising heaviness. I actually could not speak and respond to my child asking me some question I could barely hear. I slowed down, took a deep breath to try to will my tears back, and shook my head, confused about this overwhelming feeling.  I walked up to the Memorial with my children and stood at the bordering wall, engraved with the names of the people who died there. I touched the face of the stone, and pulled my hand back, shocked that it was cold. I wondered if it was always cold or was it because it was partly shaded there. But it was eerie.

 

"It's so loud," one of my children commented. And it was true. The roar of the water, plunging from the street level to 30' below the surface and then further into a large abyss that you can't see the bottom. It was very loud. It demanded that you paid attention, watched the water, read the names and remembered all those people who lost their lives on that sunny morning.

 

As we observed the Memorial, visiting the waterfalls at the former locations of both the towers, my children had a whole list of questions. I realized that two of my children were not even born on that fateful morning; however, one was born on the day we went to war as the aftermath. That for all of my children, the attack on 9/11 was a Social Studies lesson that they were familiar with, but didn't really have in their active memory. They asked their questions, I did my best to answer. 

 

When?

What happened? 

How many planes?

How did they fall?

What happened to the people?

How did they get away?

Where were the buildings? Right here?

How tall were they?

Who are all these names? 

Why? 

 

For this last question, I had no answer. 

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