Springfield - Dad of Divas

Learning So Much At the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts

June 27, 2016 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

On our recent trip to Springfield, Massachusetts we had the opportunity to visit the Springfield Museums to explore everything from Seuss to Science and more.

When you come into the Springfield Museums you are entering the Science museum and this museum has everything from aquariums to natural history, dinosaurs, and even a special exhibit on “The Scoop on Poop” which my girls loved and brought forth numerous jokes later too.

You have the ability to select any of the 3 other museums to explore. Our time was a bit limited so we chose to go to the fine arts museum as both my daughters are artists and they truly enjoyed seeing and experiencing artwork that ranged from pieces from the 1500’s to closer to present day. My oldest was excited to see a Picasso that was on display, while my wife and I were interested in seeing that the Springfield Museums had a special Kandinsky drawings exhibit that was currently on display.

One of the Springfield Museums that I found the most interesting was the one that was all about the history of Springfield, Massachusetts itself. I could have spent many more hours there reading and learning if we had the time. I had no clue that Springfield was such a hub for so much. From being the place where Milton Bradley started to having many well known munitions companies there along with the Springfield Armory which was the main location making the munitions for the U.S. military for many years. This on top of being the home of Friendly’s Ice Cream, the place where Shay’s Rebellion occurred and the home of Peerless Handcuffs and more. Springfield, Massachusetts was definitely home to many more things that I would have expected.

This included being the place where Dr. Seuss was born and raised for his early years. The last things that we did was visit the Seuss Sculpture Garden. The beautiful sculptures within the garden are ones that you will immediately recognize and are ones that at least for me put a smile on my face. As a family that loves Dr. Seuss, we may just have to come back in 2017 when the Springfield Museums is planning on opening a brand new museum just for Dr. Seuss himself!

The Springfield Museums are hidden gems within Springfield, Massachusetts and definitely worth the time!

Below are a few more thoughts on the Springfield Museums!

My Take on the Springfield Museums

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Visiting the The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

June 25, 2016 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

My daughter plays basketball and I grew up loving the sport. This meant that visiting The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was a no-brainer when we knew that we were visiting Springfield, Massachusetts.

I did not realize the connection of Basketball and Springfield, Massachusetts until I explore the Basketball Hall of Fame and learned about the woman from Springfield, Massachusetts who started womens’ basketball after conferring more with Dr. Naismith himself.

As you are driving up the The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame you will note the iconic design of the exterior and it was this initially that placed a smile on Diva-J’s face, but it was the basketball courts that you first walk into that really got her heart pounding.

As I mentioned as you walk into The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame you walk onto a basketball court. The basketball court has displays of all backboards as they had been used in the past including the original basket made of peach baskets too. You could shoot on any of the baskets to try your hand at sinking a shot. They also had hoops of varying sizes set up to allow you to dunk on the hoops too.

Once we were complete with this we went up to the third floor to see all of the inductees within the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Talk about a very cool list of alumni. These are the greats in all of basketball history and they are all looking down on the basketball court action that is occurring below their gazes.

On the second floor was a huge array of memorabilia, games and more. On every floor though there was a ton of learning that could and did take place. I had forgotten that Bill Lanier, a Pistons great, was the basketball player with the largest shoes size, a size 22!

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was an amazing museum that will give you hours of learning and hours of fun for the whole family. Whether you love to play or just love to watch the sport you will leave this experience with a larger love of the sport and the athleticism that surrounds it too.

Our Thoughts on The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

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Olfactory Overload, Deals and Family Memories at Yankee Candle

June 25, 2016 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Everyone always says that smells can bring back so many memories. What about building memories while surrounded by so many different smells that are pleasing to everyone? Anyone that knows candles knows Yankee Candle. However, I did not know that Yankee Candle started in Deerfield, Massachusetts and their main factory still remains there today.

We got up early today to experience this huge store. It was about 25 minutes north of Springfield but the drive was pleasant and I was amazed to see all of the familiar colleges and towns that I had heard of before including: Smith, Amherst and more.

When we got to the flagship Yankee Candle store we were initially amazed at how large it seemed from the outside. Let me tell you, what you see from the front does not give this store justice as it is tremendously large and you have the ability to go between housewares, food, Christmas or fragrant candles. Add on Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, popcorn, and more and you have a store that is more then a store.

As we walked into the Yankee Candle store we were very impressed by the friendly, outgoing staff that we were introduced to. We were given the opportunity thanks to Yankee Candle to try the different activities that they have for kids such as dipping your hand, dipping a creatures and making a candle ourselves. All three of these activities were SO much fun and even the adults partook in the fun.

Also, there were a number of family friendly activities that were also happening on the day that we arrived because it was the first day after school got out and they do an annual event every year to show the community how much they appreciate them and their kids.

We ended up staying at Yankee Candle longer than I first thought we would and we could have stayed even longer if we had wanted. There also were some very fun other activities in the Deerfield community that would have been fun if time had allowed it.

We did have time to do some shopping and while we did not purchase the whole store, we could have based on the number of things in our cart.

This is definitely an experience you will not want to miss if you are in the greater Springfield, Massachusetts area.

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Setting Off On A Vacation To Remember

June 25, 2016 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Yesterday my family and I packed up the 2016 Kia Sedona that I was provided from my friends at Kia and Driveshop and we started our journey. This is a journey that has been a few months in the making, but it is a vacation that the whole family has been looking forward to immensely.

You see, this past year, my oldest, Diva-J just completed fifth grade. During this year her school explored colonial America. As timing would have it, I had been asked to come and explore Hotel that was making a grand re-opening in May 2016 called the Emerson Inn in Rockport, Massachusetts and with this being so close to Boston and to so many of the important founding places for our American Heritage I could not miss out on this learning moment to reach out and try and plan a vacation.

Long story short, things worked out and this week we are traveling from Michigan to Boston and back in an amazing vehicle, the 2o16 Kia Sedona. Of course Kia would not just provide any vehicle, but they provided us with a top of the line Kia that completely rocked our world and as you can see, the girls were in heaven, especially with the footrests and the reclining seats and DVD player. The amenities in this vehicle really bale a 14.5 hour first day go by very quickly and the vacation go smoothly.

My thoughts on the Kia Sedona

We ended up taking a bit of a longer route to get to our first destination, Springfield, Massachusetts. We could have gone through Canada, but chose to go around the Lake instead which added a bit of time, but that was ok. The Kia Sedona got great gas mileage as we were getting over 24-25 MPG on the highway and I would even try and see what I could do to do even better as we started to get into hills and had more downslopes that I could coast on!

While I have driven in Michigan and Ohio extensively I have to say that I do not have a lot of experience driving through upper-New York and Massachusetts. Talk about beautiful country. The rolling hills and vast expanses that you are afforded are amazing. Unfortunately, much of the trip that we took were on turnpikes so especially in New York this got a bit expensive with having to pay over $15 in all for tolls. Other than that I was surprised to find though that the traffic was relatively light and because the 2016 Kia Sedona was as comfortable as it was, the trip went very well.

When I say very well, I mean it. No fighting between the girls, no complaining about the amount of time it was taking. This is saying a lot when you are on the road for 14.5 hours!

As we finally hit Western Massachusetts, we were amazed at the beauty of the area. The 50+ MIles between the State line and Springfield is mountain-filled which was not expected and so lush with greenery. I have only really been to the Boston area in the past or driving aong the East Coast so this was a nice change.

We are excited about our first day of vacation in Western Massachusetts exploring the Greater Springfield area thanks to the great folks at the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.

We have the pleasure of staying at the great La Quinta in Springfield which is conveniently located in downtown Springfield close to the The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as well as the Springfield Museums whic are two of the main stops for this trip! We also are excited to see one of the Flagship stores for the Yankee Candle company which is located only about 30 minutes north of Springfield, Massachusetts too.

When we arrived at the LaQunita Inn we were impressed, This was a large facility, and it offered a ton of amenities. The girls immediately gravitated to the fact that it had a pool and game room! J-Mom and I loved the fact that it offered a great breakfast. When we got to our room we were expecting that we would have been placed in a regular sized room but found that we had been given a double sized room with 2 beds and a pull out couch which made our stay even more enjoyable!

As you can probably guess after driving 14.5 hours we were a bit tired, so we crashed but we were excited to get up early the next day to start our grand adventure exploring Springfield, Massachusetts.

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