Boston

Last week we went to Boston!  My cousins asked us to travel with them on their 29th trip to a baseball stadium, Fenway.  The excuse was that we had lived there back in 03-06 and knew the area.

The irony of this statement is that when you live some place, you live there, you don't really tour there.  So while we did go to I *think* one game at Fenway ... the reality is we weren't cash flush and had a 13' television on top of cardboard boxes with no cable and rabbit ears, a computer that I splurged $500 on (a fortune) that sat on the boxes that it came in, and camping chairs until about 2005 when we bought a couch.  We regularly ate what I came to call *emergency food* which is ramen noodles, and spaghetti and meatballs.  These were things that I bought in bulk at the grocer, because you just never knew which weeks were going to be tight.

Which isn't to say we were impoverished.  We both had good jobs.  But we didn't have credit cards or debt and we were trying to get married and make a start.  We were smart with our money.  Which meant cheap beer, nights in, and not a lot of touristy stuff.  And no furniture.  We still don't buy furniture.

We still have that couch in our living room, and the Ikea folding table we used in the kitchen.

Anyway.  I'm off track.

So back in January we agreed to this trip!  And we are fans of AirBNB so we looked up a place and found a really nice one in Back Bay a block from the Esplanade and Charles River, a block from Comm Ave, and across the street  from the Public Gardens.

It was an awesome location.  Staying in a Brownstone blocks from everything?  Yes please!  It's the sort of place everyone who wants to live in Boston, wants to live, but can't afford.  Split between our two families it was extremely affordable (way cheaper than a similarly located hotel, and even a crappy located hotel) and awesome.  3 bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen, living room, couch, dining table, access to laundry ... way, way, way better than a crappy hotel with two beds and a television and one bathroom.  It's increasingly my favorite, favorite way to travel.

We got in Wednesday afternoon and Kenda and them beat us there.  She went to the little corner market and picked up a few things and we met them a couple hours later.  We walked down to Newbury Street and picked a restaurant and walked back.  It poured down rain but I think it made it memorable.

Really, from this Boston *local* who could only afford to live in the burbs of Waltham and Framingham (about 15mi inland) it was really pretty cool to get to stay so close to everything.

And Boston is such a tease in the summer.  Such a tease.  It's hot and muggy and you really need AC about two weeks a year.  It's so beautiful.

But the year we left it snowed Memorial day, and had the base snow for the winter before Halloween.  Nope.  Not for me.

Anyway.  I digress again.

The next day we did a Duck Tour.  Grabbed lunch of Newbury street and went home for naps.  Kenda met Kris at the airport and introduced him to Uber.  Of which I believe he is now a fan.  After we got his luggage situated and the kids got up, we went down to Faneuil Hall and the harbor.  We did the first part of the Freedom Trail (Faneuil Hall, North Church) and then had dinner in the North End and got pastries at Mike's on the way home.

Small aside - the boys loved the subway.  Loved.

The next day (Friday) Kenda and Kris went to Fenway to get their tickets for the tour that afternoon and our family and Emma went to the Museum of Science and met our friend Carrie and her boys!

This was a highlight for the kids too.  And probably our best day behavior, happiness of kids wise.  I don't know if you can tell from the pictures but as I was going back through everything and seeing Julia's face she was just very uneasy most of the activity parts of the trip.  Lots of worried looks and neck grabbing.  I noticed as soon as we got home how relieved she is to be here and I think she was very anxious about not knowing what was happening or where she was going.  It affected her behavior.  That and fatigue.

But at the museum she kind of knew "hey this is a place for me!" and she enjoyed herself.  We had lunch there and then made our way back on the train for naps.

In the afternoon Kenda and family went to Fenway for the game and we went to the parks and ran around and were crazy and then got take out pizza and came home and laid low.  The kids watched TV and played ipad and chilled.

This is one of my favorite moments.  Lewis ordered "their best veggie pizza" for me and when I opened it ... it was a broccoli pizza.  Have you seen Inside Out?  because there's a scene when they move to San Francisco and the first night there they got get pizza and all they have is pizza with broccoli on it.

So the kids loved the broccoli pizza and I got great video of G saying "congratulations Boston, you've ruined pizza!"

In the pizza's defense, it wasn't bad.  Just different.

The next day we got up and went to the last part of the Freedom Trail (USS Constitution and Bunker Hill).  This is where the wheels started falling off.  We walked through the public garden to get to the right train and Julia just had an epic, embarrassing, public fit.  It wasn't her first of the trip (and not her last) and I don't want to shame her or anything ... but she just was having a hard time dealing with all the transitions and everything being different and not getting her way.  We worked through it and she was better.  She rode quietly in the stroller and rested.  Then played at the Constitution before making the walk through the North End back to the Harbor for lunch at Joes.  Which was really good.

Another train ride back to the condo for naps (short ones) and then get everyone up an hour latter to go to the ballpark to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox.  Fun times!

We left in the top of the 9th I think to beat the traffic to the T (we did) and then watched the rest of the game (which went to extra innings and lasted till like 10pm!  Glad we left!) at home.  I laid down with the kids (all sharing a room) until they fell asleep at a time better than they had been (after 9pm) and trying to ensure better attitudes for the early flight home.

The next day, up at 5, airport by 6, on plane by 6:25 ... home in Dallas before noon.  And Lewis had to leave for the airport at 8pm to catch his flight to Houston.  Did I mention he flew home from Houston on Tuesday night late (9:30) and then got up to catch the flight to Boston with us the next day by 8?

It was an epic day.

I have said before ... I loved vacations.  Our family is split up a lot with Lewis's travel.  Has been for the better parts of the last two years.  I live for our vacations.  What's not to love about vacation though?

For me the best part is not having to do laundry.  Even if I do a small load on vacation it is nothing compared to the mountains of it at home.  It's the linens.  On vacation I don't have to wash the linens every week.

Our next trip is Wyoming.  I know, I know ... Stacy ... ya'll are traveling a lot!

Yes.  This is the first year we don't have a lot of family trips planned.  In years past all of our trips were to visit family.  My in-laws in Wisconsin, my parents in ABQ, my sister in Kentucky.  This year is different.  It definitely feels different and like a bit of a one-off.  Not sure it'll ever happen like this again.

Next year Kenda and Kris are seeing their last two ballparks ... DC and Baltimore and we're going to try to go with them then too.  Maybe get an AirBNB on Constitution Ave where I used to live and walk to the Air and Space Museum.  Then, some day soon, I'd like to go with them to NYC because G is *dying* to see the Natural History Museum.  I love that my oldest as a traveler's soul and wants to see things and learn things.  Pray that spreads to my other two.  It's a great trait to have.