Doing the Local Thing

Ah the dilemma of all travelers, how do you eat good food on the road? As folks that don’t eat at fast food restaurants, avoid processed foods and meat that wasn’t raised by someone we have met, but still requiring the caloric intake of busy on the go (nursing) folk, we seem to struggle a bit with on the go eating. I long sometimes to just give my kid candy to bribe him to behave in the car, small boxes of breakfast cereal on the go and other easy food, boxed mac and cheese, the conveniences of the road.

The benefits are so much more rewarding though and as we sought out local food for our family, we embraced our ethical eating and living and discovered common friends while we journeyed. A food coop in the oddest of places in our mind, down the road from Bubbie and Poppies home in New London CT provided us with local meats, cheeses and organic produce and beans for our camping trip. A young farming couple was inspiring and like minded.

And oh, some of the food, we ate high on the hog as they would say. It is awesome when the local menu serves up lobster, fish, mussels, clams, crabs and oysters. We typically abstain from seafood in here in the Midwest, and this trip only proved better reason for it, it isn't good. But wow, when the water is clear, the fish is fresh, the seafood is good.

Asher and River were thrilled with the new things on the menu.

Lobsters explored and given thanks to.
and then chomped in to.Mussels as the harbor from the fry shack.Crabs at the shore.And ice cream from as many local ice cream shops that serve the real deal as we could find.And we embraced the local culture- after being typical tourist and getting to much sun at the beach the first day. The Niantic Children's museum was perfect. I have been traveling to a lot of these lately, and don't get me wrong, I love them, i love the creative play my children and I enjoy, but from Bloomington, IL, Iowa City, IA, The Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, they are all pretty much the same, cookie cutter though localized by local restaurant sponsors (in most cases, please touch was MCDONALDS, maybe another post) and other local sponsors. But this museum, they definitely have talented staff and volunteers that have great pride in their place. A fish market to play with, a boat and a place to rake clams. Not to mention the awesome tree house designed by kids, simple water elements and awesome music making.

Then there was the Carlise day, Ben was off fishing the LeTort Spring Run, we hit up the local coffee shop and found a great park to spend our time at. It made me truly realize that all the fun we need travels with us everywhere we go as a family.

And as far as coming back home, we are glad to be back. It is the place where our family belongs and while we dream of living in other places, our trip only led us back to this place. Ben summed things up well over here.