Here is the list of who is participating in the Make Something Cool Every Day in April Challenge thus far. Go check ’em out!

I was out of town all weekend, visiting Boston on a quick trip to drop off my artwork and the Museum of Science. It was a lovely, if hectic, trip–with both The Boy and Handy Hubby in tow. Loved the MoS – though we certainly didn’t see it all. My son really enjoyed getting to drive the boat on the duck tour. And I would totally recommend the hotel we stayed in, Hotel Marlowe, on the river on the Cambridge side–cute hotel, great staff, and convenient to the museum and the T. I just wish we’d had more time… we ended up getting into Boston later than we planned and I think I underestimated just how much you can overstimulate a 3 1/2 year old!

A big thank you to Dan at Cahners ComputerPlace at MoS for touring us and making us feel so welcome!

I’m not sure exactly when my art will be up, but I’ll let you know when I know. It’s the Series 1 of Robot World watercolors, and they’ll be displayed on the wall as you walk up the ramp in Cahners ComputerPlace, near another neat set of robot art.

A Poladroided picture of The Boy driving the Duck on the Duck Tour.
My MSCE for yesterday!

If you want to add the list of participants to your blog sidebar or a post, you can just use this html (i think this should work!) If I missed you– or you’re joining late–, just let me know!

Related:

• What the heck is MSCE April!?
• Who’s participating thus far?

The Pioneer campsite was great for our large group. We had 5 tents, a wooden shelter, plenty of room, and nobody else around. Drive up, no hiking into the woods, but you still felt like your were in the middle of nowhere. Disadvantages were that there was running water up the hill, but no shower/bathroom facilities or electricity nearby. Yes, my friends, we had an outhouse. But really, except for when we figured out a car electricity adapter won’t run a coffee pot (oh no, should have brought the french press!), the lack of amenities was doable for a short weekend trip. As I mentioned, they also have regular ‘car camping’ campsites that have more modern amenities, if you’re not into roughing it QUITE so much.

Camping Tips:
1 – Make a list, check it twice. We figured out food ahead of time (hamburgers friday night, low country boil Sat night) and split up needed supplies among everyone, sharing the list using Google Docs so it could all be done over email. That way we didn’t end up with 7 rolls of aluminum foil but no paper towels.

2 – Google before hand and find out what’s close by (where’s the grocery store, any attractions)– and what time they close! –in case you have to make a run for more supplies.

3 – Luminaries – I brought cheap paper bags, and a bag of votive and tea light candles. The kids enjoyed putting dirt in the bags, and they made simple, easy to transport lighting for once it got dark. They don’t put out a lot of light, but at least you can line the way from the campfire to the tents or to the bathroom.

4 – Bring twice as much wood as you think you’ll need. And identify the closest gas station that sells wood in case you need it. Ditto ice.

5 – Toys for kids – Dumptrucks, Tonka construction equipment and sand pails / shovels for collecting dirt, rocks, sticks, whatever, were very popular items. There was also a playground nearby (driving).

6 – Kiddie potty. I brought The Boy’s little potty from his potty training days, even though we didn’t have anyone still potty training in the group. The two 3 yr olds and the 5 year old all used it. I brought Clorox wipes to ensure it stayed clean. It’s also great to have available in the car on the trip just in case you have to pull over to the side of the road for a potty emergency.

7 – If you do go for the no real facilities option like we did, one fabulous idea was a handled little basket stocked with baby wipes, toilet paper, a flashlight, and hand sanitizer. That way you just picked up the basket and had everything needed for trips to the primitive loo.

8 – An oldie but goodie: Juice boxes and bottled water can be pre frozen, and serve to keep things cold in the cooler, but will thaw by the time you need them. We packed them up with the lunch meats and bagel spreads and that worked perfectly.

9 – Useful stuff: Baby Wipes! A propane burner or stove (we had a big pot and did a low country boil, and heated water much quicker than the campfire for coffee and such. Bottled Water (including several large jugs for cooking, in case the ‘local’ water didn’t look too good — it didn’t.)

I’d add more if I think of it! If you’ve got good tips, post them!…

A Trip to the Zoo!
Yesterday found us at Zoo Atlanta, which is a very nice Zoo in Grant Park.
We had friends and 2 three-year-olds with us, so we really only made it halfway through. [We’ve been buying memberships lately, instead of just day passes to places we visit–which i really recommend. They are tax deductible and a pretty good bargain. Since we were already members at Fernbank, they offered $10 off a Zoo Membership. There are also reciprocal programs so if we visit any number of zoos in other cities, we get a 50% discount. It also helps a lot, when visiting with small children, that we didn’t mind that we only made it half way through the Zoo. We’ll just come back another day when they aren’t cranky.]
Pros: Nice atmosphere, the animals look like they live in good environments. And you actually could see them pretty well. For kids (but small additional cost) a carousel, train, and a rock wall. Also looked like a very nice free playground. We saw several Zoo employees walking around with animals so we could get a closer look – the boys loved petting a gecko. Cons: Petting Zoo was not that impressive–Lots of goats, a few sheep, and a few pigs. Parking lot is tiny–So had to park on the street by the park. And as is common in Atlanta, there’s no really close train stops near Grant Park/Zoo. If you don’t have a car, there is a bus option which you can check out on the zoo website.
Lunch:
Grant Park is a really pretty park, and a good option–had we planned ahead–would have been a picnic in the park. But we weren’t that proactive. There are several good restaurants in the area, though. After considering Grant Central Pizza and Six Feet Under, both of which are good, we ended up atDakota Blue for lunch for the first time. Very good and very kid friendly (they have toys you can borrow and take back to the table). Not crowded, and were still serving brunch, with some regular lunch items as well. According to our friends, brunch is really good there, but we were more in a lunch mood so we ended up with quite tasty burgers & tots.

Dinosaurs!

This morning we walked over to Fernbank Museum of Natural History (at The Boy’s request to see dinosaurs, and my request to actually get some exercise) and just made it home by 3:00 after a yummylunch and ice-cream.
Fernbank is another place we have a membership, because it’s close by–and without the membership we probably wouldn’t visit it that much, because there is just not enough stuff to amuse a 3 year old there. But with a membership I don’t feel bad about just going over there for an hour on a rainy afternoon and letting him ogle the dinos or wander around the exhibits. For adults, they also have “Martinis and IMAX” in the evenings some nights, which is fun.
Pros: The dinosaurs and pterosaurs in the atrium. The Sensory area with lots of hands on stuff on the third floor. The rotating exhibit has really varied – we loved the first one after we joined, live frogs from around the world. The last couple have not been as interesting to me. The building is gorgeous.
Cons: The Hours! It closes at 5:00 which makes it not very good for taking the Boy except on the weekends. The ‘kids rooms’ (where kids can just run around and play hands on) don’t really impress me. It also doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of ‘content’ (particularly for kids) as say the Aquarium or the Zoo. And honestly seeing live stuff is more interesting than seeing non-live stuff.
Lunch:
Nothing is super close to the Museum, but slightly less than a mile south on Clifton you’ll find the Candler Park Shops/restaurants. Options there include:
-the Deli at the back of the Candler Park Supermarket – huge yummy hot or cold sandwiches – and a fabulous wine selection in the supermarket.
-The Flying Biscuit cafe – famous cafe with lines a mile long for brunch. Yummy modern southern-ish food – very vegetarian friendly – breakfast all day.
-Fellini’s Pizza – good pizza, by the slice or by the pie. Love their salads. If you have a young one, ask for it ‘kid cut’ to get their slice precut.
-La Fonda Latina – where we ended up today. Cuban/mexican food. I like the fish tacos, or the huge quesadillas, or the cuban sandwich. Good simple kid menu.
..Other slightly further food, but within a few miles: near Emory University (1.5 mi north), Little 5 Points (2 mi southwest), or Highland Ave (1.5 miles west).

I did do a cute robot sketch for illo friday this morning, but i’m going to color it, so it will be posted later. And I also have some crafty stuff to post once I get my act together. But, not yet. So off the subject of arts / crafts, I’ll give you my quick and dirty review of Myrtle Beach, SC. I don’t think I’d been to Myrtle Beach since I was a kid, and my remembrance of it was
pretty vague – an “OK” beach, pretty tourist-trappy. And hey! I think it still is! It’s a really odd mix of old and new – brand new condos next to old retro looking cheapy beach hotels.

The Good: Traveling with a three year old, it’s frustrating that there isn’t usually a lot to do with them, on their level. They aren’t quite big enough for so much of the fun stuff. We did go to Broadway at the Beach, which was mostly a big mall-like outdoor tourist trap (not even on the beach!), complete with a Margaritaville (where yes, we ate an overpriced lunch and had an overpriced margarita). But they did have a bunch of those old carnival rides perfect for that age. Mostly stuff like the cars/boats/motorcycles that spin around in circles, but also a very cool old carousel, which was divine. The Boy was in heaven. They also have a big ‘lake’ in the center with a free watertaxi across it, which The Boy also enjoyed riding. Elsewhere, MB also still has the old amusement park too, over by the beach, which we saw but didn’t make it to, but i expect would be nostalgic fun–big old wooden coaster and ferris wheel. The fact that there were funny mini-golf places on every corner meant there were alot of things to point out to the boy when we were driving, like dinosaurs and pirate ships.

The Bad: mediocre beach–kid friendly and flat, but like many Atlantic coast beaches, brownish sand and just not that pretty. Extremely built up with hotels & condos, crowded Strand (main drag down by the beach) (we drove back down it past the tourist attractions, tons of evening traffic) Not exactly a ‘quiet’ beach holiday. We were staying down at the south end, which wasn’t bad though for traffic.

Bottom line: Was better than I expected. Mostly because the hotel/timeshare the inlaws had was very nice with multiple pools, and we found fun activities for the little one. A lot of options of things to do (if you were staying longer than two days!) with a family–if you don’t mind feeling like a constant tourist!–, but I wouldn’t recommend highly unless you need lots of activities to amuse kidlets. There are much nicer beaches. We enjoyed the Outer Banks of NC more (if anyone’s interested, I can write up a review of that!).

PS: I finally got around to putting up an About Me page.

*lest you think we are wealthy jetsetters, I have flight benefits from my previous job that allow us to fly very cheaply on standby.