1. Salem Willows Park

Today for Mother's Day we went to ride our first carousel! We went to Salem Willows Park, which is right on the ocean and covered in two-hundred-year-old willow trees. At one point there were three carousels, but now there is only one.

We have been talking up our the kids for a while, so to say we were excited might just be an understatement. The carousel didn't open until noon and we got there at eleven o'clock. We took a walk around Willows Park, which was really nice. The morning was chilly, but right as it was time to go for our ride it warmed up. It was a beautiful day to start our carousel quest!

Will and Rory get ready to board:

In the picture below, take a look at the little horse next to the chicken. So little! In one of the original carousels the carver made horses in lots of different sizes, much like this little horse and the red horse that Rory is on a few pictures down. These aren't original carvings though, they are replicas made of cast aluminum. The closest this carousel comes to an antique is a claim that its top and bottom are from one of the original three in Salem.

Will, Ryan, and I chose to go on horses that went up and down. Brynn's first ride:

Part of the facade:

A galloper:

Ahhh!:

Some more of the animals:

Our Quest

I was trying to brainstorm a goal for our family to do this summer because I tend to operate better as a mother when I have a plan in place. I have a six year old, a three year old and a baby and we love going out a doing things.

I was aiming for some sort of self-betterment, but it didn't necessarily have to be educational. Just something that would give us the satisfaction of saying "this summer we did _______" (fill in the blank).

Around Easter someone had mentioned going to a carousel on the coast which I had never heard of. I wondered how many carousels could there be in Massachusetts? My first quick search turned up 8 historic merry-go-rounds. After looking some more my list grew to 18, then 19, and now it stands at 22. Twenty-two carousels in one summer was doable. I asked the family if this was something they might want to do - I was pretty sure it was a no-brainer - and they answered a unanimous yes!

So it doesn't provide much self-betterment, but it will give us the satisfaction of goal completion, and there is some history here, so maybe we'll learn something along the way. We are now in the process of finding and riding the 22 carousels of Massachusetts. Please join us as we ride around the state (and please let me know of any carousels in the Bay State in case we've missed some)!