Feel free to imagine someone is playing a ukele.
To the tune of "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet, which I swear I heard five times today.
Didn't wanna pay shipping
I went day tripping
To American Girl Place to get the new doll
Had to run gauntlet
Of a huge Neiman Marcus
Michael Kors, Kate Spade and Louis Vuitton
Chorus:
Yes, I'm taking a trip to the Natick Mall
Going to buy me a Rebecca doll
And it's a pain to drive 495 in the rain
But oh yeah, I'd do that for a doll
Two fifty in tolls
And running the EZPass
I bet that's gonna come back to haunt me
Four dollars in Sales Tax
I must be on crack
This saved me no money at all
Chorus:
Yes, I'm taking a trip to the Natick Mall
Going to buy me a Rebecca doll
And it's a pain to drive 495 in the rain
Now I think
Too much to do for a doll?
Wrong eXit through Lowell
Went back home through Haverhill
Stalled out on that big hill downtown
And now I'm in Epping
%&#(@ Epping
I was supposed to come out in Manchester
Yes, I'm taking a trip to the Natick Mall
Going to buy me a Rebecca doll
And it's a pain to drive 495 in the rain
But it's too much to do for a doll
And it's a pain to drive 495 in the rain
But it's too much to do for a doll
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Fuller Gardens: A Plethora of Cacti
A Greenhouse Full of Cacti
those look like roses but they're not, they're cacti. Isn't that cool?
The leaves on this plant were so huge I didn't know any other way to get it all into the frame
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Rebooted Children's Museum is disappointing
First, a few American Girl doll pictures. Since I figured it'd be better to keep this blog single themed, I opened a new one just for doll pictures.
Anyway
On Friday I went to visit the new location of the Children's Museum, because my mother was doing a story on it.
I LOVED the old version, but this new one, situated in a snazzy brick building in downtown Dover, I'm not all that enamored of.
Now, maybe that's because even someone as childish as I am is still too old to get very excited about equipment I can't and shouldn't, be using even if I wanted to. Not having brought a child with me anyway, all I could do was walk around going "well, that's new and interesting". But I was not impressed anyway. It starts with the fact that unlike Portmouth's easy and picturesque Park adjacent version, Dover's stupid and inefficient traffic setup means you're already cranky by the time you manage to actually get into the parking lot. I can't imagine what that'd be like with an overtired/over hyper child under the age of eight, especially when you get to the part where you try to get *out* of the parking lot after.
And the inside, well, it's just not the same. There are a couple of new, cool things like a "train car" and a weaving station (complete with examples of Victorian textile factory spools) but aside from one extremely awesome exhibit, it was all pretty disappointing.
The old version...maybe I was just more easily entertained back then but it had a different feel. The museum was housed in an old schoolhouse, complete with bell tower, rising up on a hill in the Historic Dockside of Portsmouth, just down the street from Strawberry Banke. It was such an airy building, for a start. The ceiling was epically high, the windows were huge and let in an extrordinary amount of light. The background colors were largely white and blue, with a touch of seafoam green. The rooms were huge too-at least the way I remember them but bear in mind the last time I was there I think I was twelve. The rooms were big enough-there were about three large exhibit areas- that you could find a quiet corner, lay down on some fish shaped pillows and just relax.
The exhibits rarely changed, but that's okay because they were *great*. Not "Boston Children's Museum Giant Dollhouse/Teen Tokyo" great but for the budget you could expect they had, the exhibits were pretty cool.
The exhibits at the old one included:
A child sized "spaceship". You could climb up inside all on your own and do pretend space missions.
Baba Yaga's House in child sized form (they had a lot of Russian stuff back then for some reason, and it's all gone now)
A wooden "post office", the old fashioned kind
An old fashioned telephone operator's system
A gigantic "submarine" structure, which was the crown jewel of the entire building. This was almost two stories high, and contained three or four small rooms, including an engine room with a periscope, and a set of Navy style bunks built into the walls. It was probably one of the greatest pieces of indoor playground equipment I've ever seen.
Maybe these things were too much to maintain. It's always possible they were too expensive and difficult to move to the new place. Or maybe they were exhibits seen as too out of date and not relevent to newer generations. But I hate the fact that I wish there was a museum for old museums. The only thing that survived the move was the "Post office" set up, lame "Dino Detective" alcove and the "Four Seasons" masks on the walls.
There's a new submarine set, but it's smaller and more open-you can't play out elaborate seafaring adventure fantasies and you certainly can't hide in there or anything (par for the course in the Helicopter Parenting Era, there's hardly a single place in the exhibits where a child will be out of sight of their parents and none of the children were playing unattended- when I used to go to the old one I can't remember any time when either of my parents actually followed me around to the different play stations, my mother might as well have not even *been* there-if I was a child right now, growing up in that environment, I'd probably snap and do something desperate).
ETA: I thought about it, and realized that this might be the point. Maybe it was deliberately designed so children could be easily kept in view at all times for safety reasons. It's just that if you're actually a kid, this is a bug, not a feature.
I'm trying not to begrudge them obliterating a childhood memory of mine, but it's not easy. I hate change. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.
It's like someone gave my favorite doll away to a bratty younger relative. They've even changed over from an ocean theme to a Cocheco River theme.
The one good new exhibit is located in the far corner of the second floor. It's a "castle" room, with a faux fireplace and a tiny throne. There are clear windows done in a series of triangle patterns, and underneath there are piles of colored clear gel "stained glass" pieces that you can stick to the windows in various patterns. It's the only spiritual successor to The Glorious Submarine.
And since I rate all museums on some level by their giftshops, I need to say this giftshop is LAME WITH A CAPITOL L.
Anyway
On Friday I went to visit the new location of the Children's Museum, because my mother was doing a story on it.
I LOVED the old version, but this new one, situated in a snazzy brick building in downtown Dover, I'm not all that enamored of.
Now, maybe that's because even someone as childish as I am is still too old to get very excited about equipment I can't and shouldn't, be using even if I wanted to. Not having brought a child with me anyway, all I could do was walk around going "well, that's new and interesting". But I was not impressed anyway. It starts with the fact that unlike Portmouth's easy and picturesque Park adjacent version, Dover's stupid and inefficient traffic setup means you're already cranky by the time you manage to actually get into the parking lot. I can't imagine what that'd be like with an overtired/over hyper child under the age of eight, especially when you get to the part where you try to get *out* of the parking lot after.
And the inside, well, it's just not the same. There are a couple of new, cool things like a "train car" and a weaving station (complete with examples of Victorian textile factory spools) but aside from one extremely awesome exhibit, it was all pretty disappointing.
The old version...maybe I was just more easily entertained back then but it had a different feel. The museum was housed in an old schoolhouse, complete with bell tower, rising up on a hill in the Historic Dockside of Portsmouth, just down the street from Strawberry Banke. It was such an airy building, for a start. The ceiling was epically high, the windows were huge and let in an extrordinary amount of light. The background colors were largely white and blue, with a touch of seafoam green. The rooms were huge too-at least the way I remember them but bear in mind the last time I was there I think I was twelve. The rooms were big enough-there were about three large exhibit areas- that you could find a quiet corner, lay down on some fish shaped pillows and just relax.
The exhibits rarely changed, but that's okay because they were *great*. Not "Boston Children's Museum Giant Dollhouse/Teen Tokyo" great but for the budget you could expect they had, the exhibits were pretty cool.
The exhibits at the old one included:
A child sized "spaceship". You could climb up inside all on your own and do pretend space missions.
Baba Yaga's House in child sized form (they had a lot of Russian stuff back then for some reason, and it's all gone now)
A wooden "post office", the old fashioned kind
An old fashioned telephone operator's system
A gigantic "submarine" structure, which was the crown jewel of the entire building. This was almost two stories high, and contained three or four small rooms, including an engine room with a periscope, and a set of Navy style bunks built into the walls. It was probably one of the greatest pieces of indoor playground equipment I've ever seen.
Maybe these things were too much to maintain. It's always possible they were too expensive and difficult to move to the new place. Or maybe they were exhibits seen as too out of date and not relevent to newer generations. But I hate the fact that I wish there was a museum for old museums. The only thing that survived the move was the "Post office" set up, lame "Dino Detective" alcove and the "Four Seasons" masks on the walls.
There's a new submarine set, but it's smaller and more open-you can't play out elaborate seafaring adventure fantasies and you certainly can't hide in there or anything (par for the course in the Helicopter Parenting Era, there's hardly a single place in the exhibits where a child will be out of sight of their parents and none of the children were playing unattended- when I used to go to the old one I can't remember any time when either of my parents actually followed me around to the different play stations, my mother might as well have not even *been* there-if I was a child right now, growing up in that environment, I'd probably snap and do something desperate).
ETA: I thought about it, and realized that this might be the point. Maybe it was deliberately designed so children could be easily kept in view at all times for safety reasons. It's just that if you're actually a kid, this is a bug, not a feature.
I'm trying not to begrudge them obliterating a childhood memory of mine, but it's not easy. I hate change. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.
It's like someone gave my favorite doll away to a bratty younger relative. They've even changed over from an ocean theme to a Cocheco River theme.
The one good new exhibit is located in the far corner of the second floor. It's a "castle" room, with a faux fireplace and a tiny throne. There are clear windows done in a series of triangle patterns, and underneath there are piles of colored clear gel "stained glass" pieces that you can stick to the windows in various patterns. It's the only spiritual successor to The Glorious Submarine.
And since I rate all museums on some level by their giftshops, I need to say this giftshop is LAME WITH A CAPITOL L.
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