Boston

Alright I do not have all the pictures I would like for this blog, but maybe I will add them when I can figure out how to get them to my computer. :-) Boston was great, rainy start but the last day was my favorite. I had a hard time leaving because Jake had been home literally two hours before I was off to Boston, and during that two hours we noticed that Waylon was really puffy on his neck with a swollen gland or something.. So needless to say I had a hard time walking away from my boys.

We arrived late on Saturday well early Sunday Morning in a horrible storm. Wind gusts of 40 + mph and rain that had been going none stop for two days already. Then when we arrived at our hotel at 12:30 our room was not available. Luckily, exhaustion had not his any of us yet, and the hotel was great in making sure they made it up to us. By 1:30 we were in a new hotel with a pizza before we headed off to bed.

Because it was still raining we decided to do inside activities so the first stop we made it to was the New England Aquarium. There was some amazing animals here including a 550 pound sea turtle named Mertle and several sharks, eels, and well over 600 animals and fish in this tank. It was truly amazing to see. As you walked through this huge aquarium there were 100's of exhibits of other ocean or aquatic life too. My battery was dying and I did not get many pictures here. :-)

Day 2 Pam had her class to go to so it was just Larry and I. We went to the Museum of Science on this day because again it was still horrible rain and wind. Again this was another huge Museum 3 levels and about 4-5 hours of time that we spent at the different exhibits and we did not even do ALL of them. We also did not do all of the extra shows and things, so there is really a lot to see and learn here. My battery was working, although I must have been to in to reading the exhibits and did not take any pictures here either. I should have though, I have a mental picture of Larry's face at this one exhibit that shows how your face is symmetrical, anyway it was just a hysterical little exhibit..wish I had pictures of it...that will always make me laugh.

Day 3 My FAVORITE and I took lots of pictures!!! It is amazing how when the sun comes out so does the camera. On this day we did what is called the Freedom Trail, which is a 2.5 mile walk along 16 different historical sites in Boston. We started at Bunker Hill a lot of great stuff here. No we did not walk to the top here, we could have but glad we did not. Some students that had just come down from this 200 something step monument had shaking legs because of the steps...Ummm no thanks especially at the beginning of this 2.5 mile walk. Here are some pictures from the museum that was also there at Bunker Hill too.

A few of the other stops were some very old cemeteries that they had. Most were from the 1700's. It was fun to read what was on them and how they are all coming out of the ground, It looked like a movie or Halloween or something. We even saw Samuel Adams grave and some of the first victims of the Boston Massacre too.

A few other highlights that I enjoyed were Paul Revere's House. Although you could not take pictures inside of his house. I can not seem to find a link to the inside of it either..but it was amazing. A lot of letters from him to his family and just to be in the house itself was pretty incredible.

Another was the Holocaust Memorial. Not only was this amazing but I got a great picture here to. This memorial has 6 glass pillars and on these pillars are numbers of victims from the holocaust. Each column has 1 million different numbers (or people) on them to represent the 6 million lives lost.We ended our walk at the State House which has a gold dome on the top. Its most distinct feature, once made of wood was later overlaid with copper by Paul Revere. It was covered with 23 karat gold leaf for the first time in 1874 and painted black during World War II to protect the city from bombing attacks. The State House dome was most recently gilded in 1997.After a very long walk back to the hotel we then met Pam after her class and took a cab to Harvard. We walked around the campus and around Harvard square to finish up the night. All in all it was a great trip and I am very grateful that my in laws were wonderful enough to not only invite me but to have me join them on this trip. Thank you both very much I had a great time with you!