Trip To Boston

A couple of weeks ago, Dustin and I took a trip to Boston during Spring Break.  We had never been before, it had been a long time since we had taken a trip together, and Nicole and Matt are living there right now (but won't be for much longer).  We thought we better take the chance to get out there while we had family to visit.  We took an overnight flight on Tuesday, and got into Boston at 5:00 in the morning (which is 3 AM our time!!).  Needless to say, we were a little tired that first day.  Nicole came and got us and we got a nap at her house in the morning, after seeing her cute kiddos, and then we started right in to sight seeing.

We took most of that first day visiting Lexington/Concord.  Because we were there in April and missed their tourist season by a week, many of the sights hadn't opened yet.  We were still able to see pretty much everything that we wanted.

There was a small visitor's center at the North Bridge, which we explored with our niece, Edith.

This coyote totally tricked us!  We were so amazed at the wildlife!  Until we got a little closer and noticed the wildlife hadn't moved at all.  I think it was supposed to be scaring away the geese, which must not have been very effective since I was totally stepping in goose poop at that moment.

Edith also got tricked.

She may be licking his head right there.

Ivy woke up from her nap in the car, so Nicole joined us at the North Bride (what wasn't covered in water), the place where the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired.

We ate a delicious lunch in Concord.

I made those awesome glasses out of some sticky wax strings that the restaurant gave as entertainment.  And boy, were we entertained.

A cute little cemetery and a cute little baby.

One place that was open was the Louisa May Alcott house.  We are big "Little Women" fans at our house, so this was fun to see.

And, the cemetery where she is buried (and other famous authors, like Emerson, Longfellow and Thoreou)

This is where Paul Revere was captured, during his famous ride.

And, another visitor's center.

That night we left the kids and went with Nicole and Matt to see a Boston Red Socks game.  It was absolutely freezing!  But still fun.

Famous Fenway Park

The next morning Dustin and I got up and despite the rain, headed to downtown Boston to explore the Freedom Trail.  This is Acorn Street, in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.  These are original river stones.  This must have been right before we watched a really nice Lexus almost get high centered on this street.

Such beautiful architecture.

Our guide, telling us about some of the people buried in this cemetery.

This is the old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time, where the Boston Massacre occurred and where many meetings were held.

Some really good fish and chips.

Faneuil Hall 

The Old North Church, where Paul Revere saw the sign that he had to do his famous ride.

Paul Revere's house-the oldest residence in Boston.

Walking across the Charlestown Bridge.  We're looking at the churning water below.  It was SO windy and rainy and cold!  Nicole lent us all their rain gear, or we would have been miserable.  As it was, it was kind of a fun adventure!  And, a benefit of the weather was that there were hardly any tourists out with us.

I was nervous.

On the USS Constitution-the oldest, seaworthy, commissioned Naval Vessel in the world.

Nicole and her girls actually met up with us at the USS Constitution, but as they had seen the boat before, and it was about 30 degrees and raining hard, they stayed in the visitor's center while we toured the boat.

Bunker Hill Monument

On our way up the 276 steps to the top of the monument.

We made it!  I was sore the next day.

That night we went with Nicole to the Boston Temple.  It was beautiful and peaceful.

The next morning we saw our first Blue Skies since arriving!  We had scheduled a Whale Watching Tour for Wednesday, but because of the bad weather it had been cancelled Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday we got a call saying that it was on, but they gave us a pretty strong warning that the waves would be quite large and there was a chance of it being turned around.  I kind of thought they were bluffing and just trying to scare us off because it was a pretty full boat after two days of cancelling.  They weren't bluffing.

See how beautiful and calm it started out?

Leaving the harbor.

The waves were beginning to pick up a little bit as we started getting out of the harbor.  It was about this time that we forgot to take pictures.  We were a little preoccupied with the huge 5-6 foot waves, the screaming 7th grade girl's class every wave we went over, the half of the boatload of people that were throwing up all around us, and the nausea that we were fighting ourselves.  Even though it was kind of disgusting, it was also a little comical how many people were seasick.  People were throwing up constantly.  Others were laying, almost passed out, on the floors and tables.  By the end of the trip they were asking for anyone with medical training to help because one girl had hypothermia and another lady had dehydration and broken blood vessels around her eyes from throwing up.  As the lady we made friends with (whose husband was one that was passed out on the table) "This is what it would look like if people had the plague again."

After 1 1/2 hours, they turned the boat around.  And low and behold!  Back in the harbor, we saw whales!  We were allowed back out on the decks of the boat and we could see them surface and blow air out their blowholes.  We still got a free ticket to come back because of how lousy the trip was.  But it made for some funny stories.

We met Nicole and Matt and kids in Cape Cod that evening.  There were beautiful beaches, lighthouses and lots of seashells to be found!

Ivy didn't mind the cold sand!

Dustin and I stayed in Cape Cod that night.  We ate dinner at the Squeeling Pig, in Provincetown, right on the very tip top of Cape Cod.  Dustin had to get the Lobster Roll.  He didn't love it.  I thought it was good.

Saturday morning we left Cape Cod and headed to Newport, Rhode Island, to meet up with our good friends, Aaron and Camile Parson.  They moved to Connecticut a few years ago, and we have missed them.  It was so fun to reconnect!  We had lunch in the oldest tavern in America.

Then we toured a couple of the Newport Mansions.  They were huge and beautiful!

The Breakers-the biggest of the mansions.

We got one beautiful, sunny day-the Sunday we went home.  After church we took a walk around MIT, where Matt goes to school, and Harvard.

We played with the kids for a minute longer, and then it was off to the airport and back to our own cute kiddos and real life again.  It was a whirlwind of a vacation (as ours usually are), but so fun to see a different part of America, one packed with history.  And so fun to see Nicole and Matt and their kids.  We had so much fun!