So here's a little of Boston:
1. I can spend hours and hours in the old cemeteries. There were a few in our party who could not spend hours and hours. So we didn't. But there is something so peaceful about these places in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city.
2. The boys were more into the street performers. What a life.
3. Relaxing at the hotel before we venture out.
4. In the evening, Jeff took the older kids to see Blue Man Group. Patrick and I hit the bagel shop and book store, and then headed back for a bath and bedtime. Cookies and milk were delivered (a perk of the hotel apparently) and we had our own little special event.
5. Of course we walked the Freedom Trail. Towards the end there were a few kids who were losing it. Not the younger ones. Older boys have their own idea of fun, and I don't think that included a historical tour.
6. Harvard Yard...Andrew was really into this chess game we came upon. Winner takes a dollar.
7. Jeff wanted to see Harvard Law. Nice students took our picture.
8. Funny kids.
9. Funny, sad kid who felt left out, hence the face.
10. Riding the subway might have been the highlight of the trip.
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1. Then we went on to Cape Cod. Here's a house near where we stayed. It's called the Hydrangea Walk. It was lovely. Apparently it has been renovated to the tune of $20,000,000 or so. I asked about it at an art gallery...I wanted some inside information. It has had new owners who renovated it, bought adjacent property and knocked a house down that was blocking the view of the ocean, and put on several new additions. I liked it more before I knew all that. It's not the house's fault though, right? It is probably a bit embarrassed by all this ostentatious behavior and just wanted to live with the quiet admiration it enjoyed previously.
2. I can't get over the hydrangeas. They are everywhere and gorgeous and I have to be at peace with the fact that nowhere else will they grow more beautifully.
3. Here's the cute cottage where we stayed. Cute cottages, houses, mansions are a dime a dozen here. I love the shingle style.
4. The hit was the swing in the back.
5. On Martha's Vineyard at the Big Dipper.
6. My favorite part of the trip is when my friend Pam came to visit us for a day. We met at one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been on, and of course I have no pictures to show you. The tidal pools went out for at least a mile and we just sat and talked and talked and talked while the kids played. She has the nicest, sweetest kids ever. Here are a few of them, back at our house, on the hammock after pizza. The kids had so much fun together.
7. My kids loved the huge waves...and Jeff did too. He went out and bought a man-sized boogie board and fins, what a dork.
8. Here I am...on the last day the waves were scary big. I couldn't relax a second watching the kids. They had so much fun though, getting tossed around and knocked over.
9. Isaac and Matt love skim boarding.
10. Andrew spent every minute in the water. That kid is a fish. Here he is warming up just to go back in.
And at the end of it all, I loved coming home.
I always do.
There's no place like home.
