Boston 2018 - Day 4

Lance and the boys didn't go to PAX on Saturday, much to Spencer's dismay. (I didn't realize how sad he was about this until I saw some of his Instagram posts later. Sorry, buddy. Sometimes you have to spend time with your boring old family! Also, I don't know how well Cole would have done for a 3rd day!)

I had booked a harbor cruise the month before, so we needed to be down at the pier by 10:30. We left the house with plenty of time to stop at a few sites along the way, much to my kids' dismay. Okay, I admit that it was cold and windy. But it wasn't THAT bad while we were in the cemeteries. I had been colder over the last few days. (Walking by the city building, with that big, open brick space? Holy cow, I thought Tess and I were going to blow away and freeze to death!) And also, I guess a cemetery is probably not high on the list of fun things to do in the mind of a kid.

But. I had felt I had been doing A LOT of things for the kids over the past couple of days, and all I was asking for was a measly few minutes at each spot.

Plus, I like really old cemeteries. I think they're interesting.

First we stopped at King's Chapel burying ground. Some of the kids perked up a little at how the headstones were tilted and such - it looks like something out of a movie. This headstone was from the 1600's!

This is the oldest cemetery in the city, and where Mary Chilton - the first woman to step off of the Mayflower - is buried. I thought that was really, really cool. Mary Chilton is cool! My kids did not agree. My kids are punks.

Then, because I love to torture my family and I love, love, love to hear them whine and complain, we stopped at the Granary Burying Ground, which has all sorts of famous people buried there. A guy at the front was handing out folders with the history and descriptions of the famous dead people in the cemetery; I have no idea what his affiliation to the cemetery is, but I figured it was worth the $1 donation I gave him at the end.

During our walk around the cemetery we talked about some of the people, who they were and what they did, what a Patriot was, and why they were important. I don't know how much my kids really listened, but I enjoyed it. Tess and Josh and Cole liked to look for the next grave and find the important names; Spencer played on his phone. Growl.

Here they are with John Hancock.

And here's Paul Revere. The kids were pretty interested in his story.

Actually, HERE'S Paul Revere - the other one is just a memorial.

And here's Samuel Adams...

... and victims of the Boston Massacre. I walked by the site of the massacre several times and never had a chance to go up close to see the circle thingy on the ground that shows where it happened. Dang.

We also saw the graves of Peter Faneuil (of Faneuil Hall fame), the big ol' monument and graves of Benjamin Franklin's parents (the man knew how to treat his parents!), James Otis (Patriot during the war), and Robert T. Paine (Declaration signer). I could have happily spent an hour there, reading all of their histories, but the kids would have none of it.

So we eventually made it down to the harbor and got onto our boat. Where snacks and electronics were promptly brought out. I was okay with the snacks, but not the electronics! We had paid a bit of money for this excursion! I won out for a bit, but not the entire trip. Dang.

The cruise took us around the harbor and out around some of the islands and up the Charles River a bit. We had some spectacular views! Although is was really cold out, and least it was clear.

Here's some old fort out on the edge of the harbor. I couldn't really hear our guide that well while I was out there. Our guide was an old Irish gentleman who had the most lovely, soothing voice ever. I loved it. I wished he talked more. No really, this was booked as a Boston History tour, but I didn't feel like I got a lot of history out of it. (I mean, I learned a lot, but I wanted more!) ((Queue Lance rolling his eyes at me and suggesting I go read a book. Maybe I will.))

As I said. Electronic. Gah! But rather than fight with them I just went outside and ignored them missing out on this cool tour.

After the cruise we headed over the Quincy Market for lunch, mainly because there's this famous  Japanese restaurant that is only in Boston and New York, and I had wanted to go to it the day before but knew it'd be a bad idea with Tess, but also realized they had a location at the Market and while there we could get something for the kids as well. Score!

And what did my precious children choose to order? MACARONI AND CHEESE of course.

What the what!? I mean, seriously. Well, the boys each gobbled there's all up and Tess ate probably 1/3 of hers, and Spencer finished the rest, so I guess it was okay. But still.

We had to eat outside because there was just no room inside. Fortunately, the sun was out and we were protected from the wind in this spot!

While I waited for what felt like forever for the 4 orders of mac and cheese to be done (and I will say this - it was pretty dang good mac and cheese), Lance got our orders from Wagamama. We started with a couple of pork belly buns that were DIVINE. I didn't get a picture because they were too dang good. If I ever get a chance, I'm making a meal out of those, that's how good they were. I had the chicken ramen, and it was delicious! The perfect thing on a cold day in Boston! I know it sounds silly to eat Japanese food in Boston, but it really was awesome and I'd totally do it again if given the chance.

After we were all filled up, we hoofed it up to the Paul Revere house. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was about what you'd expect: dark rooms, lots of wood, old furniture, that sort of thing. They had a few original pieces of Revere furniture that were really quite pretty. Fun fact: when Paul Revere bought this house it was already 90 years old. Also fun fact: Paul Revere had two wives, and each wife had 8 kids. SIXTEEN KIDS. And 11 survived to adulthood. They said on average there were 5-9 kids living in that house, plus other relatives, at any given time. Crowded.

Final fun fact: all the heavy carbs eaten at lunch destroyed Josh; he could hardly function. And Tess fell down the stairs in the Paul Revere visitors center and I was outside and could hear her howling (with Lance) from inside. Fun times.

As we walked from the Revere house to the famous Revere statue, we stopped at a 7-Eleven on the way and got everyone a Slurpee. It was a wise move, and everyone brightened up after a good dose of sugar! (Or caffeine, in the case of my Diet Dr. Pepper!)

A nice girl took our picture in front of the statue, and while we look great it looks as if Paul has a horse head.

Then we walked over the the Old North Church. I am loving those pew boxes. Think of how easy it would be to contain children in one of these during Sacrament meeting?! I'm talking to the bishop about this next week... ;)

The kids thought it was pretty cool, too. Okay, maybe not cool, but funny. They were in good moods and got a kick out of this odd (to them) church.

It really was quite pretty inside.

Next, we went next door to some famous chocolate shop. Well, it called itself famous, I had never heard of it. We got to see how colonists made chocolate and what they used it for, and we got to taste some of their spiced drinking chocolate and it was SO GOOD. But not $22 good, which was the price of a canister of the stuff, the size of which would last approximately one morning in my house.

Okay, so for the past month I have been teasing Josh about the Great Molasses Flood. He had been trying to come up with a topic for History Fair and I wanted him to choose that, but he just wouldn't. Well, I secretly found out where the flood actually happened and learned there was a plaque there to commemorate it. And when I realized we were only .3 miles away from it, there was no way we were not going to visit.

I didn't tell him that's where we were going, so it was fun to watch his reaction when he figured it out. Hah!

This was right on the water, so it was pretty windy and cold, but the kids really wanted to play on the playground for a bit. Then Josh HAD to go to the bathroom RIGHT THEN. But the nearby public toilet was broken. So we started trekking back to the subway.

But, for most of that day I had seen people walking around with Mike's Pastry boxes. Like, lots and lots of people. And I got the feeling that Tess and I really missed out on something the day before when we popped in for that dang cookie. Since Mike's was on the way to the station we decided to stop in for some cannoli, which is what they're famous for.

REALLY famous for. The line was out the door! But a local kid who was in front of us told us it was worth the wait and that it wouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. So we decided to stay and wait and maybe find a bathroom for Josh. Only, once we got inside we discovered there were no public bathrooms. Dang it! So Lance was sent off with Josh, Tess, and Spencer to find a bathroom, while Cole and I waited to order our cannoli. The bakery had all sorts of fabulous looking desserts and pastries, and although it was super crowded it was also fun to watch everything that was going on. All the women who worked up front had heavy Italian accents, so I'm assuming that means it was all authentic, right?

We finally got our box of 6 cannoli and met up with the rest of the gang and headed home for a little rest before dinner. We actually didn't eat the cannoli until just before bed.

Tess didn't care for hers, but everyone else liked them. I had chocolate ricotta, and it was so yummy!

For dinner that night I found a place called The Back Deck. It wasn't too far off the beaten path, they had a decent kid menu, a great looking adult menu, and it didn't look like it would break the bank. It turned out to be really good! No pictures, but it was fun inside, decorated like we were on a deck, and we sat on nice patio furniture. And guess what - they didn't even have mac and cheese on the menu and no one died without it. Hah!

That night the kids were really wound up on the way home. They had fun running through the empty tunnels on our way down to the subway.

(A bit too wild - we had to keep getting after them while on the platform. My kids don't seem to have any idea that what they do impacts others, and that they need to have consideration and respect for others while out and about. I don't know how many times I had to say "WALK ON THE RIGHT" to those children as they basically made everyone walk around them. Tess almost ran an old lady into the road doing this. My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it. Gah! I'm gonna teach them this if it kills me. It is killing me. Oy.)

We got home, changed into jammies, finished a little packing, ate dessert, and then it was off to bed because we had a super early flight to catch the next morning.

Boston 2018 - Day 3

So the thing about Boston is that most of the interesting stuff that I wanted to see and do was outside. Or required a lot of walking - outside - to get to. This wouldn't normally be a problem in April, but since it was unseasonably cold and windy and yucky, it made planning things a little more difficult. Generally when I travel I have have a set schedule of where I want to go and when. It's totally changeable, but generally I follow that plan so I can do all I want. But with this trip I made a list of the things I wanted to see and each night before looked at the forecast, decided how much walking I was going to be able to get out of Tess, and then decided what we were going to do. It actually worked out better than I expected.

We started our day trekking out to Cambridge. I had originally planned to start with Harvard, but since I knew we'd be too late for the 10am tour (the subway ride was a bit longer than anticipated), I figured we stop off at MIT first. MIT's campus is spread out and doesn't seem to have a central location. (Not that I looked that hard, but still.) But the bits we wandered around by the train station were interesting!

I especially liked the molecule bike racks.

Tess was in a good mood and happy to pose anywhere.

We even passed by Google's offices! It was like seeing a celebrity! (Hah.)

Tess and I talked about what engineers and scientists do. She was impressed to learn that the very first video game was developed at MIT. (She's her father's daughter alright.)

Tess claimed that she likes science and stuff, but she likes English and art more. (She's also her mother's daughter!)

Fun fish statue at Legal Seafood. Okay, Legal Seafood is a big, fancy chain of restaurants around Boston, but I think it's such a weird name. Legal? As opposed to the less expensive, illegal sea food?

We wandered MIT's equivalent to the BYU Bookstore, which was fun. I was tempted to buy an MIT water bottle (not picture) for Cole since he had lost his at PAX the day before, but the $27 price tag put an end to that. Sheesh!

"Hey! We saw those ducks yesterday!"

Then we hopped back on the train and headed up to Harvard. Much of the area surrounding Harvard Yard is under construction, so it was a bit disorienting and hard to find my way around at first. Here's the famous Joshnston gate that everyone takes their picture under. I'm kicking myself for not getting a better picture of Tess, but I thought we'd be back to take a better one. Oops. Also, Tess refused to take a picture of me. Mean.

So we finally found our way to the tour center, only to discover they had just barely filled the last slots for the 11am tour, but they had room on the noon tour, would we like to join that? It was 10:30ish. Nope. There was no way Tess would wait that long, and I was beginning to doubt whether she'd last on an hour long tour. (She'd be fine if it was something super fun and exciting for a 6 year old, but I doubted this tour would be that for her.) So I opted for the $2 self-guided tour map.

On the way back to Harvard Yard we stopped at the famous Mike's Pastries for a little snack. (Only I didn't know it was famous. More on that in the next post.) Since it was Friday I told Tess she could pick any cookie she would like. She chose a sugar cookie and was happy as could be. That plus a hot chocolate (it was super cold and it helped keep hands warm!) cost $6!! Boston is expensive.

So, we wandered Harvard for a good hour, Tess putting it up with it all because she had a cookie and hot chocolate. (Which she spilled a good portion of on herself. She got SO dirty on this trip! I swear by the end she looked like a little homeless kid.) ((Don't tell her that. It makes her mad.))

In front of Matthews Hall. It's too bad Spring was so late in coming this year - the campus looked pretty dull and sad. I'm sure it's much prettier when the grass is green and the trees have leaves!

Massachusetts Hall - 2nd oldest building on campus, and housed Continental Army soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

Harvard Hall - old and stately!

We saw far more tourists on campus than students! (Except from about 10:50-11:00, during class change. But still, I suspect most students avoid this part of campus if they can.) Tons of tourists in front of the John Harvard statue, and I wasn't willing to wait in line to get a close up with him. They call this the "Statue of the Three Lies" because the inscription says "John Harvard, Founder, 1638." However, there aren't any known portraits of John, so they based this statue off of a distant relative of his. Also, John Harvard didn't found Harvard, it was only named after him because he donated a bunch of money. And finally, Harvard was founded in 1636. Oops times 3. Still, makes for a fun story!

The Memorial Church is pretty. The bells started chiming at 11am and the first one made Tess jump out of her skin! But after the initial surprise she really liked it.

Still working on that cookie.

About 3/4s of the bottom of this photo are cropped out. I had asked Tess to take a picture of me with lots of the church. We're working on her photography skills. ;)

Widener Library - the biggest library on campus, and supposedly pretty impressive on the inside. I wanted to check it out, but Tess was resistant and we still had hot chocolate that I didn't dare take inside. (This proved to be a well-founded worry later on.)

It was cold, but not too cold for selfies!

We walked out of the yard and passed by the Science Center; I didn't take a picture because, quite frankly, it's kind of an ugly building. As soon as you see it you think "Yep, that's a science center". Anyways, instead we walked over to the Memorial Hall.

This is a building dedicated to the Harvard men who died in the Civil War. It's really quite beautiful inside, but dark and hard to photograph. Tess was pretty impressed. I carried the hot chocolate, much to her dismay as she pranced and bounced around, happy to be inside somewhere warm!

At Holworthy Gate, only she wanted a picture at "the little gate" on the side.

There was still a bit I wanted to see, but it was getting colder, a storm was blowing in, and Tess was anxious to get to our next destination - the Boston Children's Museum!

So we got off the train downtown and found this awesome looking building while I tried to get my bearings. Doesn't it look like a super villain would work there? Also, Boston is a maze and GPS works only sometimes and it seems like no matter what I always started off in the wrong direction because street signs were often hard to find and not well marked. Oof.

But we eventually made it to the museum and It. Was. Glorious! Tess had such a fun time, and I enjoyed wandering from one exhibit to the next with her. I think she really missed her best buddy Cole at first, but soon she was chatting it up and making friends with the kids around her as only a Midwestern girl can do.

It was at about this point that we looked out the windows and realized it was snowing - hard. We had made it to the museum at just the right time!

These lights were really cool - they were actually each little dials that you could turn to change the color.

She played with the magnatiles for a long time (that's her little face at the end of the tunnel) even though we have them at home!

There was a water table that she played at for a long time, too. Despite my pleadings and best efforts, she still got pretty wet, dang it.

It was about 2 or 3 o'clock at this point and I was STARVING. I kept asking if she was hungry, but she claimed she wasn't.

Finally, I forced the issue and we went to the Au Bon Pain attached to the museum. Although I told her we could go back into the museum, Tess was so mad I made her leave! Pouting and scowling and huffing. And she ordered the mac and cheese and swore up and down that she would eat it, although in my gut I knew she wouldn't. I couldn't figure out what her problem was until we finally got our food and she started wolfing everything down. She was HANGRY. After she got a little food in her belly she was a sweet girl again. She gulped her chocolate milk and snarfed her chips and fruit, and ate about 5 bites of the mac and cheese. *sigh* Oh well, it turned out okay because my sandwich was pretty small and the mac and cheese was a perfect side dish.

Also, it was snowing hard still. Also, this Au Bon Pain had Cherry Coke Zero on tap, which I have never seen before and which made the $2.50 price tag a little easier to handle.

So we went back in and spent another 2.5 hours playing and such. Tess had such a good time now that she had a full belly!

All that talk that morning about going to college seemed pretty funny, because what this girl loved best was being the cashier at the pretend grocery store!

What is it about a pretend store that kids love? They certainly don't love the real thing as much!

I eventually looked at my watch and realized that it was 5pm. Oops. We were supposed to meet the boys downtown at 7pm for dinner. Two hours sounds like plenty of time to go back to the condo and rest a bit and then head back in. But this was Boston on a Friday evening. We tried to get on the blue line train, but it was PACKED. We tried to find our way to another line, but I'll admit I got lost. Well, not lost, I just took the long way to find the dang green line. And then once we were there I realized it was the entrance for the wrong way, and for the life of me I could NOT find the entrance for the line out of the city. (Turns out it was kind of behind the Old State House. Growl.)

By 5:45 I realized it was too late to go back to the condo; might as well just stay downtown. Poor Tess was tired and cold and hungry. So we worked our way over to Quincy Market, which was packed, but we managed to find 2 empty seats to rest on. Tess played on my phone and snacked on a few pretzels, and I read about Harvard and people watched. There were a TON of teenagers in our area, and I couldn't figure if they were there on a trip or if this was just the place to hang out. Either way, they were fun to watch. Doesn't matter what part of the country you're in, all teenagers are loud, goofy, awkward, and totally fun. Spencer would've fit right in.

Since dinner was kind of a bust the night before, we decided to try a much less formal, more touristy place: Durgin Park Restaurant. It's a really old restaurant that specializes in New England fare.

Our waitress was super friendly and spent the entire evening trying to get a scowling Tess to brighten up. (She failed.) ((Tess wasn't that grouchy, she just didn't want the waitress to bother her.)) Tess of course ordered the mac and cheese. Did she eat it? No. (Guess what I had for breakfast the next morning.) But she did eat all of her french fries and had 2 Shirley Temples, which came with the meal and which all the kids thought were pretty great. Cole had the mac and cheese, too, and Josh had a cheeseburger that he didn't even complain about! I had the clam chowdah and Boston baked beans, because when you're in Boston that's what you should have!

I know most people would go to Boston and have sea food, but I'm the only one in the family who likes sea food. Sure, the kids will eat shrimp, but that's not what Boston is known for. Also, sea food is PRICEY, especially in Boston. It was safer - and cheaper - to stick to things like this. I was already spending too much money on mac and cheese that wasn't eaten, we didn't need to add $25 a plate sea food meals to that.

Despite it being a touristy place, the food was really good!

And the kids were happy! This restaurant was a lot less noisy than the one the night before, which I think helped the kids calm down a lot.

We ended the meal by sharing a Boston cream pie, which was delicious!

The trip back home was cold, and we were all tired from a long day of wandering the convention center/Boston, but we were full and happy. It had been a great day!