Maple Swamp Conservation, Sandwich Ma
It’s the first day of February break, are your kids already telling you they’re bored? How about you, are you already overstimulated by how these little Tasmanian devils can dirty up their 1st pair of clothes, dishes and playrooms all before 9 am??
This year we are doing a staycation, which I swore we wouldn’t do after last February vacation, but here we are! Thankfully the weather forecast doesn’t look terrible and today the sun is already shining!
To help keep you and yours busy this week, I’ll be sharing a few fun day trips, hikes, playgrounds and science experiences that we’ve been doing together.
The first day trip takes you down Route 3 and across the bridge to Sandwich, with a few fun stops along the way.
I woke up the other day feeling like sometimes all I do is say No to the big kids, so on this day I decided to make it a YES day! Everyone got two choices to pick from and whichever one they selected we all would do it. First up was our oldest, his choice would take us to either the trampoline park or the indoor inflatable playground. He selected the second option so off we headed to The Big Bounce Party in Kingston. The Big Bounce Party is located inside the old Kingston Mall and has 5 large bouncing areas including a giant obstacle course. My oldest LOVED it, my daughter though was a little small for a few of the structures but she did really enjoy two of them (plus the enormous jumping pad and ball pits). Reservations aren’t required but I would suggest getting there when they open. There were two birthday parties going on when we were heading out and it was starting to get pretty busy.
Next up was my daughter’s choice and she wanted to do something outside, so she chose a hike instead of the playground, thankfully since we basically were just at one. After some searching I found one that looked like they’d enjoy it down in Sandwich. It was part of the Maple Swamp Conservation which has about 500+ acres to explore, so make sure you know where you are headed when you go! We decided on the Sam Nyes Mountain Overlook trail and it did not disappoint. This hike is just about two miles round trip with about 180 feet in elevation. Once you get to the top it has an amazing view of the water, you can even see the tip of Provincetown! There are a few different trails that you can take from the parking lot but keep in mind, this area is a mountain bikers heaven, in fact the New England Mountain Bike Association, are the ones that installed the Overlook at the top which includes benches and a bike rack, making it the perfect place to enjoy your lunch. Once you make it to the top you can chose to continue on to some other trails along the back side or you can head back down where you came from, we decided to head back down, this time we took the black diamond trail, since we look the blue square on our way up. You can see our path we took down below! The hike was a little over an hour total, I just forgot to put my tracker on until we were already on our way up 🙂
Our final stop for our Yes day was somewhere that my husband has been really wanting to try, the new Treehouse brewing location! If you’ve visited Cape Cod during the summer months you know how busy it can get down there, but this day we were able to get right into the Brewery and even got a perfect seat by the window to enjoy the water. Along with their delicious beer menu they also have a little lobster hut out in the parking lot which has one of the BEST lobster rolls we’ve had! Definitely a must try if you’re heading that way!
So if you and your families are looking for something fun to do this week while you’re on break, hop in the car and take a ride over the bridge! I promise, there’s fun for the whole family this trip!