Summer Stop #3 - BOSTON!! (week 1)

I'm going to have to split this epic post.  Readers beware, it's the first of several epic posts.  We've had quite a summer.

The girls have been begging to visit their "home" ever since we left New England.  We decided that this summer would be a good time to take them back, visit friends, and do horse camp.  David ended up having to work there for a week too, so we really made a trip out of it.

It feels like we were in New England for 2 months.  Really we were only there a little more than 2 weeks.  But, as my mom will validate, time just goes by very slowly there.  I don't know what it is, but the days feel like forever.  That was a good thing, for the kids, because they felt like they really got to stay there a long time.  It was also a bad thing, because it felt like we moved back and had to move again when we left.

Visiting was really good for me.  I have second guessed myself so many times since moving, about whether we made the right decision since it was so hard on the kids.  I am utterly happy in Albuquerque, but they have taken longer to come around.  They are happy here too, but they have really missed New England.  Being back for that long reminded me of all the reasons we really felt like moving was the right decision and then flying into the ABQ airport Sunday night really felt like I was truly home, in the place where, at least I, belong.  I told Grace she can move back to Boston when she's 18 if she likes.

So, where to begin?   To start, as the plane landed in New Hampshire and Grace saw the green trees, she smiled and sighed and said "home, sweet, home."  Way to start the trip with a mommy guilt trip!  I do understand her though.  I felt the same way when my parents moved us as kids.  I wasn't happy with my new home for several years.

I still can't believe how much we did on the trip.  We are totally indebted to our wonderful friends who offered to let us stay with them when they found out we were making a trip.  We were able to stay in 4 different homes with people we adore.

We started by going to our old ward, where, frankly, there are people who just can't be replaced in a new life.  It was so great to see them all and catch up with something more than a facebook post.  We spent a glorious evening with the Bahe family.  We intended to just go over for late lunch, but ended up staying for like 6 hours?  8 hours?  just chatting away.  A great way to spend a Sunday.  It seems we didn't take any pictures with them.  All I can find are the distorted crazy pictures we did while playing with the ipad.

Monday, we decided to tackle some sightseeing.  Sadly, we didn't do enough of it while living there.  Why isn't sight seeing in the place you live part of your weekly schedule?  We had planned to do the Freedom Trail in Boston, but torrential rain storms were forecasted (oh, really?  hmm... sounds like one of the reasons I left...) so we stayed close to home for a while and did Concord and Lexington.  We've been there lots of times, but the kids were so little, they couldn't remember much.  This time was really exciting for Grace, our little history buff, and even Harriet was extremely interested in "the Battle" along Mass Ave as the Revolution started.  We loved exploring the "Old North Bridge" area.

We did go to one new place - Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  We had driven by before, and had even been to the new part of it for a sad, fresh grave, but had never to Author's Ridge in the really old, much more spooky part.  Several important New England authors lived in Concord, and all are buried within yards of each other.  Harriet was SO interested in the cemetery.  She could have stayed there for hours.  She came across a grave with a stone carving of a little girl and sat there until we made her leave.  She's got some interesting things going on in her sweet little mind.

I think Concord, MA is probably my favorite town in New England.  It has so much rich history and is so quaint and charming.

We did head into Boston that day for an indoor outing.  We have been to the Museum of Science one other time, but decided it would be a good stop because the kids love it and we have a membership to the MOS here in ABQ and were looking forward to the reciprocal 50% off since everything in Boston kind of breaks the bank.  Weren't we excited when they told us that they would fully accept our reciprocal membership and we got in for free!  That just never happens in Boston.

Hattie with her favorite dino - Mr. Triceratops

After a couple hours exploring the exhibits, we were off to meet up for dinner with our friends, the Klamkins, who live in South Boston, to meet their new baby and wish them Bon Voyage as they prepare to move to Italy.

Tuesday, we headed to Cape Cod.  Since we had never explored Plymouth before, we decided to make a stop there since it is quite close to The Cape.  Plymouth Rock, is kind of less than exciting, but now we can say we've seen it!  On the other hand, the Mayflower II is pretty cool.  The original Mayflower ship is long gone, so some enterprising people made a replica.  I was expecting some permanently anchored ship model that just hangs out in the harbor and is only useful for educating ignorant tourists.  I was most impressed to find out that the Mayflower II not only looks and works just like the original, but it was also built in England and it made the voyage across the ocean to Plymouth, completely unpowered except for its sails.  Plymouth was also a darling, quaint, little town, but that was the day the heat and humidity started to set in.  Oh dear... I don't want to start adding up the reasons I don't live there anymore...

Plymouth Rock.  

Mayflower II

Can you imagine crossing the Atlantic with your family in a little cubby like this inside a ship?

No matter where we go, Hattie finds a baby bed.  Poor baby who had to sleep in this one.

Plymouth town

Then, Cape Cod, with our wonderful Doty friends.  Oh how we've missed them and how awesome it was to see them again.  The bonus being that we were invited to visit them at their beach house. 

 

Jack, Benjamin, Harriet, Grace

crabbing - catch and release style

Then, back for more sight-seeing in Boston.  Grace did a research project on John Adams in school last year.  She was so excited to learn about this native New England president.  She begged us to take her to all the places she learned about.  So, we went on a little history tour to Quincy, MA.

The day we went to see these homes, where John Adams, and his son John Quincy (pronounced Quinzy) Adams were born, it was 100 degrees with 100% humidity.  Touring homes that are almost 400 years old in that heat is not exactly pleasant.  They have not been updated with any sort of air conditioning so being inside is incredibly uncomfortable.  I can't imagine living like that on a daily basis.  

John Adams birthplace.

John Adams' home (75 feet from the other one) where he and Abigail lived when their son John Quincy was born.

Mansion where John and Abigail "retired."  We saw the chair where he was sitting when he had a stroke and died.  Most of the upstairs was closed due to the heat that day, and the entire national park closed just after we went through because the heat was getting so bad.  We were lucky to see it.

And then, we saw where he is now buried - under the town church in Quincy.

The curator at the church was so nice and explained lots of things to Grace.  He showed her this flag on John Adams' grave that has 15 stars and 15 stripes.  

John and Abigail's graves

John Quincy and Louisa Catherine are buried there too.

This is really one of the things I miss about New England- the history that so tangible - you can reach out and touch it.  Literally.  I regret all the years I spent hating my history classes that seemed to be nothing but memorizing names and dates.  (which they were)  I wish all school kids had a chance to travel to a place they have researched.  It's quite different from looking up information at a library or on the internet - to be in the places where the things have happened.   We hope to be able to do a D.C. trip sometime while the girls are in grade school too.  My high school friend, Orion, sent this quote to Grace when she was doing her research.  I love it:

John Adams in his 1780 letter to his wife Abigail :

"I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have the liberty to study Mathematics and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematics and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Music, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry, and Porcelain."

stay tuned for week 2 adventures.