Boston Trip - Part One

Last year Daniel and I decided to start a tradition of going on one trip every year with just the two of us. We started by going to New Orleans last March (I was pregnant with Henry, and my mom came and stayed with the other four), and we loved it.

Pretty soon after we got home we started planning for this year's trip. We picked Boston because neither of us had ever been, and it seemed like it would be a neat city to visit and explore. Daniel's sister Audra flew into town (along with her little girl, London) a few days before we left and watched all six of the kids while we were gone (thank you, Audra!!!). I was a little nervous (okay, a lot nervous) about leaving Henry behind, but he did really well under Audra's expert care, and he seems to have forgiven me for abandoning him.

We flew into Providence, Rhode Island late Wednesday night, and then rented a car and drove to our hotel in Boston. I could tell it was going to take a little while to adjust to not having any kids with us when I kept checking the backseat to see if our loud music was waking up all the non-existent children sitting back there.

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and then walked across the street from our hotel to the Boston Common (a big park area in the middle of downtown). It was a cool and cloudy day, which felt so nice after enduring the scorching Austin weather all summer. I couldn't believe we could wear pants and jackets in August (the next few days did end up being hot and sunny, but it was still nice to have just one day of almost chilly weather - I had forgotten what that was like). We walked around for awhile and just enjoyed the feeling of being in a new place.


Here's me in the Boston Common:


And Daniel in front of some of the Beacon Hill houses:

After we walked around for awhile we got on the subway and headed down to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game. It was pretty cool to see such a famous ballpark in person for the first time. It was also fun to see how crazy the people in Boston are about their Red Sox. All of the die-hard fans definitely created an exciting game atmosphere.

After the game we decided to just walk back up towards our hotel instead of taking the subway. I never knew there were so many churches in Boston - there are old churches all over the place, and the architecture is so pretty. On our way back we walked through Boston Public Park. I was excited to see the swan boat pond from the children's book "Make Way for Ducklings", and even more excited when I saw the little duck statues they have to honor the story. I had to get a picture to show my family, because that was one of our favorite books growing up. We also stopped in the Boston Common again and played catch for about a half hour - I had taken our mitts and a ball to the game in my purse. We rarely get the chance to do that with just the two of us at home, so that was a lot of fun.

That evening we took the subway over to Cambridge (the city right by Boston where Harvard University and MIT are). We walked all around Harvard Square and loved it. The campus was so beautiful and green with big trees everywhere, and it actually was pretty peaceful and quiet (students haven't moved in yet for fall semester). Both Daniel and I had thoughts that it would be so much fun to be in college again. But that only lasted about 2 seconds, and we decided that maybe we just really like walking around on college campuses.

Here's Daniel on the steps of the Harvard Library and in front of the John Harvard statue:


We stopped for dinner at a little place in Harvard Square called "Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage." They have gotten all sorts of awards for having the best burgers around, and while I can't really confirm that, I will say their veggie burgers are awesome.

After that we headed back to our hotel and that was pretty much it for day one. We could already tell that Boston was going to be on our list of favorite cities.