Mill Brook Meadow Park, Rockport

Colwyn and Lachlann started an art class today with some fellow homeschoolers.  This is the first time they've done a real drop-off class, so we were all excited.  The teacher, a local artist, was very nice and her home is knock-your-socks off gorgeous.  Now, I'm not going to say that as soon as I got home, I looked up her street on Zillow (because in reality, it was about two hours later), but these are all well-over-two-million-dollar houses.  Boy, did I feel out-classed!  Seriously, though, the teacher was so nice and down to earth, and the boys had a great time.  I'm sure it also helped that their classmates are all good friends of ours.

While the boys got their art on, the littles and I (and the other mommies and their littles) tried out a new park.  It's called Mill Brook Meadow Park in Rockport, and it's a very good thing I spent a ton of time on Google Maps trying to figure out where it is, because it's really tucked away.  But this park is amazing!  There's a quaint little picket fence at the entrance, and just inside is a gorgeous English garden.  This little picture of Fiona and Niall doesn't do it justice because they weren't cooperating, but oh.. so beautiful.

Look at this lovely hydrangea.  Blue hydrangeas are right up at the top of my list of favorite flowers.  Oh, other interesting note.. the artist's street was just filled with blue hydrangeas.. some purple, too.  The kids said it should be called Blue Hydrangea Street.

Given that the name of the park is Mill Brook Meadow, you'd be right in assuming that there's both a meadow and a brook.  The brook is overflow from a pond at the far end of the park and was running fairly high today.  It goes the length of the park and includes some areas bordered with rocks, one area where it widens into a small lily pond, and some 'rapids' that the kids loved.

That little sign in the above picture states that the Rockport Garden Club is trying to eradicate two invasive species of plants and includes pictures.  Goodness.  There are two wooden bridges and a stone bridge over the brook, leading to little nooks and paths that give it a very "Secret Garden" feeling.  There were lots of butterflies and dragonflies flitting around.

We all agreed that the bridges would be a great spot to play "Pooh Sticks" and we thought that next time, we could bring little boats to race downstream.

I read online that there was some playground equipment there - that turned out to be a slide and three swings, which was more than enough given all the natural play areas.  Niall definitely liked the slide.

Across from the playground is a public beach that boasts the cleanest bathrooms I've ever seen.  There are inns all over the place and Bearskin Neck is a relatively short walk away.  But right next to the park is a little place called  Nate's at Front Beach that serves breakfast and lunch, and dinner on the weekends.  We might have to try it out sometime.