Old Sturbridge Village

1.  We've driven by the "brown sign" on the Mass Pike several times and always wondered what Old Sturbridge Village was-til now.  We are members of Mystic Seaport and can get a few bucks off to go to OSV, which isn't bad.  But, Lola's school had a silent auction for their yearly shindig and we were the only people to bid on the OSV tickets!  We got them for a very good price.  I had seen on their website that if you come for a day you can come in the next ten days for free.  So, I called them to ask if we'd get in free the next day, too, with our passes.  I wasn't trying to be greedy, but just trying to plan the weekend.  They were very nice and offered us the second day free without much begging.  When we got there, the woman at the counter knew about us and we weren't given a hard time.  The drive from our home was only 2 hours.  This could have been a day trip, but we decided to stay over Saturday night.  We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Sturbridge.  We read the reviews on Trip Advisor and weren't disappointed at all.  The place was very clean and nice.  They're right behind a gas station with a Subway and Dunkin Donuts and a Cracker Barrel.  The grounds are immaculate and while the furnishings aren't my taste, is still very nice for a night away from home.  Grace wasn't enjoying the car ride so we stopped at a rest area and kicked a soccer ball around.  Then we stopped at Tim Horton's for donuts and lemonade and then got some food at McDonald's.  Yes, this is foreshadowing for a very bad eating weekend for me.  I've been very good during the weeks and on weekends I've started letting loose a bit too much!  We ate in the car and then went directly to OSV.  We spent about 2.5 hours there the first day.  If you've been to Colonial Williamsburg it's along that vein-as well as similar to Mystic Seaport.  It's a gorgeous natural setting and there are costumed people walking around like back in the 1830's.  They have a boat ride, wagon ride and stage coach ride.  These all cost extra.  We did the boat ride as they were having a special $1/ride/person this weekend.  I could go on and on about this place, but suffice it to say it's a "must do" if you have kids and especially if you have kids that are interested in history.  We had the continental breakfast at the hotel and then went in for our second day.  We spent another few hours and then hit the Chinese buffet restaurant down the street on our way out of town.  Speaking of eating, we had Saturday night dinner at Picadilly.  This is a chain restaurant throughout MA.  We had a really good dinner.  It's extremely kid-friendly.  We may make a tradition out of this weekend!

2.  Grace had two really bad nights back to back this week.  Saturday we spent at OSV and then after dinner we went to the pool at the hotel.  We spent about an hour there and in the hot tub.  I guess I'll fess up and mention that we ate donuts for dessert.  I mentioned there was a D&D nearby.  Ugh!  I forgot to mention I also had my favorite apple fritter at Timmy's that morning!  I digress.  The point is that we all had an amazing night of sleep and slept til 8:30-9.  Ok, my sleep wasn't amazing because Lola's feet were constantly poking me somewhere on my body, but it was pretty darn good considering.  We got a suite at the hotel with two double beds and a pull-out sofa.  We thought we'd let Grace have the bed to herself to make sleeping as easy as possible for her.

3.  Tonight we got home and cooked out.  I'm happy to say that I took the propane tank to Stew's myself and got it filled.  $13.99 for a fill is an amazing price!  Don't pay more than that when you can go to Stew's!  I just ate the remains of my New York Super Fudge Chunk and now will try to abstain from all the junk til we go away next weekend!