I am going to try my hand at a mini trip report. We were looking for a vacation within driving distance from NYC and that wouldn't break the bank for 3 day 2 night vacation. Much to my own surprise we needed actually fuguring out and doing a great trip that met that criteria. So here goes:
Besides needing to be within driving distance of NYC it needed to be appropriate for young family with 5 and 3 year old boy and a 12 month old baby.
I didn't really have a starting point until someone my wife works with told her about Edaville USA. Since we saw a total of 0 frum jews there on a major vacation weekend I am assuming the word has not gotten out about this place yet. It was an old small amusement park that they have rebranded into a Thomas (the train) themed park. Since my boys love Thomas we decided to try to center the trip around that especially bc we assumed my 5 year old will grown out of it soon.
Edaville USA is located in Carver, MA. Looking at a map I saw that it was pretty close to a number of options to base around. I could choose from Boston providence and newport. I nixed Boston right away because as it is Carver was really farther then I wanted to drive for such a short trip and I liked the idea of cutting some time out of the drive back by basing out of Rhode Island. A look on ddf and TripAdvisor pretty much ruled out Newport for a trip with my kids so I started looking at providence.
I had 2 free marriot nights from the Marriott CC (1 extended from last year and from this year). I was nervous that I would have availability issues labor day weekend but that was not an issue at all. I found good reviews for the residence Inn providence-coventry and they had availability. I called them and there 2 bedroom suites were wide open so I had a very good chance of getting the upgrade but I would have to wait until the day of to know for sure. I was taking some what of a risk bc if I didn't get the upgrade it wasn't going to be much of a vacation.... but I took the gamble.
Next I looked for things to do there. I found on trip advisor good reviews for the providence children's museum and realized I may have free access with my LI. Children's museum membership a drop of research and confirmed free day 2! ( I did have to pay $9 for one kids bec they only give 3 passes through the reciprocity program... so basically free). While researched I discovered that there are a number of good beaches near providence and i figured our 3rd day was Tuesday after Labor day when all public schools start the beaches will be empty. So our plan was fitting into place perfectly. Sunday edaville usa (only day they were opened) Monday the museum and Tuesday beach.
In terms of food it seemed that there was no reliable kosher places and we had a full kitchen so we just brought a large cooler filled with cheese yogurt pasta tuna etc... and so we made do with that.
More to follow...