After wrapping up our day in downtown Boston, we thought it would be fun to take advantage of "Tax Free Days". We had a coupon for a chain restaurant that was close to where my sister lived, and more importantly, somewhere she could get to without needing me to navigate.
I guess I am not very good at navigating.
Normally, I would refuse a chain restaurant on a vacation opting for more "local fare", but we had a coupon AND this particular chain is not in our state, so it kind of was like "local fare" in it's own way.
This excursion didn't end up so well.
Food wasn't the best I've ever eaten, but edible. However, the worst part was that The Girl accidentally ingested peanuts.
Yes, my daughter who is anaphylactic to peanuts ingested peanuts.
Awesome.
Not really.
The good news is, she knew right away what had happened.
The bad news is, I didn't really believe her. You see we were at a pizza place, and there was nothing on the menu that had peanuts in it.
Nothing.
I thought she was kind of being dramatic to a bad stomach ache.
Now I know. LISTEN TO YOUR GIRL!
Anywho, the good news is she is just fine. We completely drugged her up (per doctors orders) for 24 hours until the food she ate had passed. Also, in other good news, the restaurant that we ate at is now aware that the dipping sauce for their Avocado Egg Rolls has peanuts in it (they were completely oblivious to this prior to our visit). Hopefully, they will now put a disclaimer in their menu for that.
Needless to say, when we woke up (extremely groggy from checking on her every four hours) the next day and saw that it was raining cats-n-dogs, we weren't too disappointed. We were feeling pretty lazy, and The Girl was wiped out from all the Benadryl coursing through her veins. The Little Man? Not so groggy, and not feeling so lazy. So, for a couple of hours we try to come up with something to do while it poured rain and everyone (except him) was tired. We decided to hit up a cheap movie theater and see Rio. This worked pretty well, but for obvious reasons, I did not take any pictures this day.
You're welcome.
We woke the next day much less groggy, the rain had stopped, and we were all done administering enough Benadryl to put an entire block asleep. All that to say, it was a new day!
We thought it would be fun to take in more of Boston's sights and planned to go to the aquarium, take in some whale watching, and then some of the historical sights that I had filed away previously on the Duck Tour. You know, when the dead kazoo duck bill things weren't blowing in my ear. Again, we decided the train option was our best choice. And it was. Oh, it was.
However, when we got into Boston, we found that all the whale watching tours had been canceled. Apparently, the storm that brought us all the rain the day before was making the ocean a little less than favorable for viewing whales. Although we were disappointed, I was thankful that I saved my money instead of paying for a morning of barfing. Anyway, there was the aquarium with an IMAX theater. It was all good.
I think that was the plan of everyone else in the Boston area as well.
To say that the aquarium was a little packed is an understatement of grand proportions. I did get this cute pic of the kids before we went in, though:
Also, we did get to see a very cute movie about orphaned animals called Born to Be Wild. Ironically, The Girl, had mentioned before we came to Boston that she wanted to see that movie. So it was perfect.
After we ditched the aquarium, we thought it would be nice to take in some of those historical sights of Boston. If I had to do the trip all over again, I would have arranged a tour with one of those dudes who dress all historical and talk in an English accent and walk you through the Freedom trail. We thought that would have been too much for the kids, though, since The Freedom Trail is two and a half miles. No, instead we paved our own path through Boston. Sometimes covering The Freedom Trail, sometimes taking detours (and maybe picking up pastries at Mikes Pastry). Instead we trekked closer to SIX miles.
In our flip flops/Crocs/sandals.
Yes, the kids were tired.
Yes, the adults were a little worn out as well.
The Little Man cracked us up when we got back to the "Bungalow" and he said he needed the couch to himself because he needed to stretch out since "His dogs were barkin'". I love that kid.
We did get to see some cool stuff, though:
A little North Church action:
The Little Man and The Girl balancing themselves on The Freedom Trail:
Paul Revere's house:
More Paul Revere:
Inside the North Church in one of the pews. I never knew that the pews back in those days were like little closed in box areas. You used the same pew every week (you had to pay for it) and you could even decorate it like you wanted! How cool is that? Anyway, the reason for that is they couldn't heat a church as big as the North Church so instead people just heated their pews.
Here we are on the U.S.S. Constitution:
Reliving their duck boat driving days:
At this point we decided it would be best to try to get back to the "Bungalow" so we could clean up and grab a nice dinner after all the walking we had done.
Well.
We underestimated how long it was going to take for us to walk the almost two miles we had traveled from the train station.
So, we missed our train and it turned out the next one didn't come until around 7:30 putting us back at the "Bungalow" at around 8:15 and, thus, missing dinner.
So just like the day before, we flew by the seat of our pants, and instead did dinner at a little Mexican place in Quincy market. I'm sad I can't remember the name of the place, but the chips, salsa and the margarita my sister and I split was just what the doctor had ordered. Happiness returned to everyone, and we did some shopping there in Quincy market before we nearly missed the next train. I was surprised at how fast the kids could run. Especially since we had some ground to cover. Again.
Good times.
You can't say we didn't get a work out in while we were gone, though. I just didn't know I would do it in flip flops.
Next up: we take a break again and soak up the beach one more time before heading back home.
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