We rode a train downtown and checked out the Boston Public Library first. When I told Tess we were going to a library I don't think she was that impressed. But that changed when we stepped inside.
"WOW! Woweee wow wow!" was her exclamation, as she walked in! It was super cute.
The older section of the library is more of a historical building than a library now. I would say 99% of their collection is in the modern wing now, and the rest is just for show and meetings.
It really is an impressive building!
Excuse the hat hair. It was COLD while we were there, and a hat was a must. I got more use out of my winter hat those few days in Boston than I have since Lance gave it to me for Christmas!
This is the part of the children's library in the modern wing. It was really impressive and FULL of moms/nannies with toddlers and babies all dressed to the nines in name brand, pricey clothes. The aisles were full of $600 strollers. It was a bit ridiculous.
Then we went over to Trinity Church. Once again, Tess was VERY IMPRESSED. It's quite a big church. Of course, she only lasted about 15 minutes before she got bored, but that was okay, because the Vatican has ruined me. I liked Trinity Church, but it was hard to be that impressed. (Am I a church snob now? Must be!)
By this point Tess was pretty worn out already, so I let her choose where we'd eat lunch. She chose Panera, of all places, but whatever. Her choice. She ordered the Mac and Cheese Kids Meal, which started a stupid trend of her ordering mac and cheese and not eating it. Seriously, she kept ordering it for lunch and dinner and then wasting it. I'd tell her she couldn't order it, she'd cry and beg and promise to eat, and then she wouldn't. That dang child.
She did, however, eat her brownie. I even offered to just buy her a brownie and let her eat that for lunch, but she insisted on the mac and cheese. GAH! Can you tell I'm a little worked up over this nonsense?!
After lunch we braved the cold and walked around Boston Public Garden and the Commons.
It was sunny but it was WINDY. Coming off of that water, the wind is brutal. Also, I'm not sure how Boston does it, but it seemed to me that no matter which direction you were facing, the wind was in your face!
We visited the Make Way for Ducklings statue and discovered they had Easter bonnets on. Cute!
And since we were in the neighborhood, I couldn't not stop and take a picture of this famous 80's icon!
We actually found a sunny spot in the garden where the wind wasn't so bad. So we sat for a bit while Tess ate a snack, and watched what looked to be a photo shoot for the upcoming Boston Marathon. Maybe they were making ads or filming human interest stories? I dunno. But one of the runners had a prosthetic leg that enthralled Tess, so that was fun to watch! (I didn't take a picture - that seemed creepy.)
Every local we talked to claimed they were having a really cold spring, and that it was usually much warmer than this. Dang. Out in the park you could tell it'd been a rough winter, but things were just on the verge of greening up. The tulips were just coming out of the ground and the grass was starting to grow. Another week or two and it'll be gorgeous.
We wandered around town more and found ourselves at Boston Public Market, a fun place with lots of little shops and food stalls selling overpriced food and items to hipsters. One stall sold $3 doughnuts. As in $3 per doughnut. Crazy.
We got to see some live lobsters! Tess took one look at them and claimed "Those things are weird." She's not wrong.
We decided chocolate ice cream was in order, since it was in the teens with the wind chill outside and all...
By this point Tess was really ready for a break back at the condo. But I knew I'd get her to do one more thing - I promised a trip to the top of a big tower, and we'd get to ride in an elevator, not have to climb steps! She was sold.
On our way to the Custom House Tower we found the Holocaust Memorial. It was really interesting.
On the sides of the glass were etched numbers of concentration camp inmates. There were also quotes from survivors. It sparked a lot of questions from my curious 6 year old, and I discovered it's hard to answer some of those questions at a level that won't confuse or scare the living daylights out of a very sensitive little girl. Sometimes parenting is tricky.
We finally made our way to the tower and the views were pretty great!
Once again, Tess was impressed!
It felt weird taking a selfie like this without Lance.
Finally, Tess had had enough. I knew if we were going to meet the boys at 7pm for dinner, we'd have to head back to the condo for a bit.
This is where I learned that Tess didn't like the subways as much as I did. "I wish we had a car! Why didn't we bring a car?" was something I heard quite often.
We recuperated back at the condo for a bit and then ventured out to find dinner. I like Boston because you can be in the midst of all these really big skyscrapers and then BAM! Historical building.
We stopped at Quincy Market and bought a snow globe for Tess and a hoodie for me. (Fanueil Hall was closed for renovation. Dang.)
We also found a shop that had secret decoder stuff from the spies of the Revolution, which is what Josh is doing his History Fair project about.
Unfortunately, the decoder was $25!! I think we'll be making a replica out of a toilet paper tube instead.
So several websites claimed that Antico Forno was one of THE BEST restaurants in Little Italy for families, so I made a reservation there. We had to wait a bit for a table to free up - it was very, very busy! (A good sign, right?!) The boys were so excited to tell me all they had done at PAX that day. But they were also very, very tired and hungry.
And while the food was DELICIOUS (I had a pistachio pesto pizza with sausage), the restaurant was not very kid friendly at all. Oops.
And we ordered way too much pizza. So I ate it for breakfast the next day because food is so dang expensive in this city, and I refused to buy more $6 boxes of cereal. (Yes, we spent that much on a box of cereal! And milk was another $6!) My kids thought I was weird, and I wondered where I had gone wrong in parenting them, because that leftover pizza was far more delicious than Coco Puffs.
Josh was super fun during dinner. And by super fun I mean he basically had a tantrum because his lips were chapped, kept whining and crying, and then accidentally broke a plate and then really started crying. We wanted to leave him at the restaurant, but instead left a very generous tip.
While dinner was something of a bust as far as behavior goes, the whole day was actually pretty great. Cold and long, but great.
