Now, onto the trip itself. The days leading up to the trip were agonizing as Seth each night would say right before bed - "Dad, get ready for Boston!" and McKayla each morning "is it Thursday?!?!" So finally Thursday morning arrived and they had just a few hours to go before jumping in the car to go hop on the plane and head north! I picked them up at noon, and we made a quick two hour drive to Jacksonville Int'l. Airport, shuffled through security and began the wait to fly. Here are the kids with their wings...
A couple hours and plenty of games of Rock, Paper, Scissors later and we were on our way! I didn't take any pictures in the plane, Seth and McKayla kept me occupied with their homework that they were determined to finish before we got there so they wouldn't be distracted from the trip. We landed in Boston at seven thirty and hopped on the "T" and headed out to Cambridge to our hotel. Once we got there we decided to order some dinner. Since it was our first night and I didn't know what was around, I asked the fella at the front desk for a suggestion and he gave me a menu to an Italian place up the street. I called and got a pizza for Mickee and me, and got Seth some spaghetti.
With our bellies full and eyes getting heavy, we called Jennifer, said goodnight and fell asleep excited for the next morning! On Friday we woke up and I don't think I have ever seen two kids get ready to go so fast in my life! I had no idea that a toothbrush could produce smoke while it was wet, but I swear as fast as they were brushing their teeth I though the alarm was going to go off in our room. Once they were ready, well honestly, I hadn't even put my boots on before they were at the door bouncing up and down - we took off for Fenway. See, they knew we were going to a Redsox game that night, but what they didn't know is that we were taking a tour of the park that morning.
Okay, lots of pictures I know. So, we took the tour and then went across the street and the kids got to pick out some souveneirs which is what the last picture is. McKayla chose a Dustin Pedroia player t-shirt and a hat that had a sparkly "B" on the front. Seth got a Carl Yazstremski shirt and a Ted Williams number 9 hat. They both decided to wear their hats the rest of the weekend, no matter where we went, I think they would have slept in them if I had offered they could. So, after that, we went to a place called the Bleacher Bar (no, they weren't drinking!) for lunch. What was cool about this place is that it is located directly underneath the outfield seats in center field. There is an opening in the outfield wall that you can sit at from the restaurant and see the field up until game time. A really interesting place to eat lunch, there is some interesting sports memorabilia in there from the Sox and Celtics, and there is even a Boston Rugby shirt hanging up in there.
From there we went downtown to a place called Faneuil Hall. It is an outdoor marketplace that has alot of local shops as well as places to eat. We already had lunch, but the kids were very interested in cashing in on some extremely good behavior and get some ice cream. Seth had strawberry with American (red, white and blue) sprinkles and Mickee had some Green Monstah, which was mint chocolate chip ice cream with Fudge stripes.
After the ice cream I asked Seth if he wanted some Macaroni and cheese later, which he first said yes to - until he saw the portions........
The next morning started our last day in Boston and we went to a place for breakfast called North Street Cafe. Mickee had chocolate chip pancakes as big as her head, Seth had enough french toast to fuel him to walk back to Florida and I had eggs benedict with some smoked salmon. It was great! Afterwards we went to Hahvahd. (I think that is the spelling of a college we know down here in the south as Harvard) Call me crazy, but I believe the city of Boston reserves the use of the letter R in their dialect when saying Redsox, Patriots, Bruins or Revere. That last one of course is not sports related, unless the game is riding horseback with one hand while holding lanters in the other.
Here's a few pictures of the visit...
So, there are a few photos of the trip up to Harvard. I do have to say something about that. When you first walk up the ramp from under Fenway into the opening of the stadium, everything is green and it feels like baseball. It has the right smell, the right size being a smaller ballpark, the right colors, the right sounds - everything about Fenway just fits what baseball should be. I've been to plenty of other parks and even if I wasn't a sox fan, I would still say that Fenway should be included in the definition of baseball in the dictionary. I imagine that this is what Harvard feels like to intellectuals. When you first come up the steps from the subway into Harvard square, you feel like you are one million miles from downtown Boston. There is a pace to that area that slows you down and makes you feel almost deliberate, like you are required to take everything in. The kids and I walked past the first couple of buildings on our way to the library as if we were walking in molasses. We were walking SLOW. It was then that Seth reminded me to speed up because I do plan to be back there again. The day that we move him in as a student. It only took him about two minutes to proclaim to me that this is where he wants to go to school! (I believe I heard my wallet whimper in my back pocket at that very moment) So, a few more trips around the campus to make sure they hadn't missed anything, and it was back to the hotel to get our bags and conclude the journey.
The rest of the trip was filled with getting stuck on the T for almost an hour, being followed by a guy in a cruise ship captains hat going "quack quack, need some help? Quack quack, need some help?", walking on foot three miles through downtown to get to the next subway station past the one where the train was broken down and using the grates on the street to listen for the sounds of the trains moving below us in the opposite direction to tell us we were on the right path, and finally arriving at the airport just in time - TO FIND OUT OUR FLIGHT WAS DELAYED BY AN HOUR AND A HALF. We could have spent more time exploring Boston! Ugh! I guess if I embraced technology on my phone beyond Angry Birds and Youtube videos of rain delays in baseball games I probably could have found this out prior to arriving at the gate. That's okay though, all in all, we had a fantastic time in Boston and I cannot wait to go back. I still need to try the chowda....
