Meigs Point Nature Center

Meigs Point Nature Center

Hammonasset State Park in Madison, CT is Connecticut's largest public beach park and less than 15minutes fro where we are staying.  Growing up in this area, my husband remembers coming here when he was younger for going to the beach and riding his bike on the many trails available.  Saltwater swimming and fishing along the coast is complimented with camping, boardwalks, walking and biking trails, and even a nature center which is free for patrons of the state park.  Luckily for us, everything was free in the winter months, and donations are welcome.

Live reptile cages

There are three rooms on the first floor with live turtles, lizards, snakes, frogs, and more - we were like kids in a candy store!! There were also many taxidermined animals on display to see like a black bear, bobcat, white tailed deer, beavers, and many local animals as well.  Down the stairs was set up for kids to explore local ocean wildlife with multiple fish tanks, a touch activity table and a large touch tank.  One of the lobsters was super friendly and even reached up to touch your hand if you put it close to him!  The other lobster was a little shy and the crabs seemed to skitter around, but the fish schooled over and the friendly lobster created lots of giggles for all of us!  Back upstairs, it was feeding time for all the turtles and since we were surprisingly the only people visiting for the morning, our little Keiki got to help feed the hungry tortoises.  What a fun treat!  I highly recommend visiting!!

Meeting a bearded dragon

Ooo, the excitement!

Shaking hands with a very friendly lobster

Winter Snow Storm

This weekend was a blizzard that hit the U.S. east coast pretty badly. It brought in 2 feet of snow in states south of here but luckily New England states were spared.  After last year's blizzard of 2015 where we had over 3 feet of snow in January we were happily reminded why we sold our MA home and are thanking our lucky stars that now without a snow blower, we were spared as renters who still have to shovel our own snow.  The one thing we are not used to  being close to the ocean in this rental home is that the snow storm brought harbor swells in with possible flooding across the street (left picture above) and by Sunday, the water receded quickly as the storm was cleared up (right pic above).  If we ever bough a home by the ocean, we learned a quick lesson on the importance of needing sand dunes!

Cleaning snow off our cars for the first time in 6 long winters...
We were nicely spoiled with two car garage in our first home in MA

Weekly Activities

Smile!

Only one day this week has been above freezing temperatures so we took a walk down the street to the path to the beach.  The reeds are great for protecting us from the ice cold wind once we got down to the snowy path.  There is supposed to be a snowstorm this coming weekend so it was nice to scope out the sand and shells before covered in a blanket of white.  Feeling like kids in a candy store, every trip is like a new scavenger hunt for both of us!

And speaking of candy stores, what an amazing display of candy jars at Fresh Market!  There is a new specialty store in Guilford, CT that just opened up that sells all natural and organic foods. It also has isles of trail mixes and candies, a bakery filled with fresh pastries, and even their seafood counter is amazing!  It's hard to not want to buy every last goodie in the whole place!  

The local Clinton, CT library is a sense of humor when checking out books - priceless!  Spanish class for toddlers is offered on Tuesday mornings which was cute for different language exposure while singing known nursery rhymes.  Being a much smaller town then we are used to in Massachusetts, there is usually very few other children at this library which actually nice because then our little Keiki isn't overwhelmed by child-chaos and more encouraged to make new friends during story hour. But I am surprised that there aren't more parents getting their munchkins out of the house in this frigid weather and utilizing all the warm and cozy library's in the area have to offer.  Maybe there just isn't that many children?  Maybe there are other fun things to do in the area that we need to investigate?  Either way I'm still a big advocate that parents should utilize their local libraries for enriching and entertaining children, especially in the winter time so we can all get out of the house and rid our littles ones of all their pent-up balls of energy!

Playing with the puppet theatre and grocery market

And lastly, all this crisp air leading up to this forecasted snowstorm is lending to crystal clear skies over the ocean.  After incredible sunsets filled with rainbows of colors, we are lucky to see deep navy blue skies littered with a blanket of stars!

Town Beach Sunset

Town Beach

At the end of our street is the start of a short beach path walk.  It starts through the reeds and walks along the tide, leading you to the town beach. It's barely long enough for a 10 minute stroll, but you could take a lot longer to enjoy the small waves that wash broken seashells and debris ashore.  Having kept more shells then I ever know what to do with from Sanibel, Island, FL I choose to just enjoy what I found along this walk and leave the beauty for someone else to gather.  I found shell remnants of welks, moon snails, and horseshoe crabs.  

Walking alone the ocean is always the most peaceful way to clear your head when so many life decisions need to be made.  And who says any planning even needs to be done right now?  Not when I'm enjoying the warmer 40*F weather and a nice quiet walk on the beach with my faithful dog companion. Doodles had a field day sniffing out all the seaside treasures.

At the end of our walk we met up with my husband, who had brought our daughter Keiki to the town playground at the beach.  It was built just right for tiny tots like her!  Not only is the surface under the play elements squishy rubber, but if a munchkin trips and falls while running around, there is beauty sand to catch you.  We only stayed about 20 minutes because the wind was icy off the ocean.

And speaking about the"ocean," I'm beginning to wonder what to call this water because when looking at a Google map, it isn't clearly labeled.  It's definitely salt water, and moves drastically in-and-out with the tide.  I want to assume it's the town of Clinton Harbor?  But since we are in Connecticut, there is not what I would consider open ocean since the coast is along Long Island Sound.  But are we close enough to Block Island Sound instead?  I'm not sure so I wonder if I can find any local town maps while out on our adventures one day.