Here are some videos we took throughout the trip.
Isaac jumping into the pool at the hotel in York, Maine
Isaac and Harper talking (taken by Yaya)
Isaac running around the yard and pushing the bunny. (TOO funny!)
Just a little video of us hanging out, naming parts of his face. With a nice smack to the camera to open the scene.
He got so excited when trucks would drive by. Here is a mini version of what he'd do. They were usually much louder and a lot more "ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya" 's
Showing posts with label New England Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New England Trip. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
New England Trip: Day 8 - Boston
The final day of our trip was spent in Boston. We didn't fly out til that evening so we wanted to get some sight seeing in. It was a beautiful day and ended up getting pretty hot in the afternoon. We got up and packed our bags good and tight, took one to the car in the parking ramp, left the other in the luggage storage with the hotel and checked out. We stopped at a little cafe and got coffee and some muffins for breakfast. Then went to find the tour bus we decided on. We went with Old Town Trolley Tours, due to the positive reviews. They were clearly more popular as we were riding on a fully trolley we saw another company tour next to us with 3 people on their trolley. The fact that they had only a 5 minute wait time at stops was our persuading factor. And the ticket store was right next to our hotel. We bought our tickets and headed to aboard the trolley.
Our tour guide was Miles, who was funny and entertaining. He kept pulling the trolley bell, which Isaac enjoyed. It first took us out to USS Constitution. It was a hop on hop off trolley tour, but we planned to just write it to Fenway Park, do the ball park tour, then ride it back to where we got on. If we had more time we would have loved to hop off and on at a few places and explore a little bit more... next time maybe.
Isaac was very entertained by all the fun transportation vehicles we saw. Like this concrete truck.
Here's the USS Constitution
As you can tell from Isaac's red cheeks we were rather warm
Here is The New England Holocaust Memorial; inscribed on the glass structures are 6 million random numbers, one for each Jew who died during the Holocaust.
This is the Christian Science Church, which our tour guide said is an amazing building, architecturally. And recommended exploring it not for the religious side of it but just for the beauty of the building.
The tall building here is the Prudential Tower. It was made to look like computer punch card from the 70's. It is the second tallest building in Boston.
We made it to the Fenway stop in time for the 11 o'clock tour. We bought our tickets with the tour line so we didn't have to meet the 15 minutes prior to tour time deadline. We got dropped off at 10:55 and hurried over to the gate to join the 11 crown. Perfect timing.
They hung this jersey, which says "Boston Strong" after the marathon bombing.
And here's the park.
It was a guided tour, which having a little guy I couldn't pay too much attention to what the guide was saying. But it was still fun to just see the park from all different angles. Like from the top of the green monstah:
Isaac again not wanting to be in one place. He was getting rather tired at this point, way over due for a nap. He managed to stay happy when we walked him.
The only way to access the top of 'The Green Monster' and get home run balls, was to bring a ladder out to reach the 14 foot ladder you see to the left in this picture. Today, there is no use for that ladder. This score board is the only one still in circulation that has men behind the board manually changing out the tiles for the stats. The At Bat, Ball, Strike, Out, Hit, & Error are the only things electric, everything else is manual. Even the League scores. The men behind the board do have free wi-fi which helps them to keep the league scores updated. A series of dashes and dots run vertically down the two center divider columns, under the N, in American League and between the E and P. They symbolize the initials of former team owners Thomas Austin Yawkey (TAY) and Jean Remington Yawkey (JRY) written in morse code. Mr. Yawkey's initials are on the left.
Not so happy here....
There's our trolley stop
We thought it was a 60 minute tour but it was actually 90 minutes. Still looking at the ball park....
Ahhh air conditioning at last...
...in the little museum they had at the end of the tour.
These baseballs had been signed by people who have won world series.
World Series rings from 2004 and 2007
And we had to get a souvenir. We got Isaac a Red Sox baseball.
Standing outside the gate, we watched this car (the one on the left) back up into the one behind it. She was an official of some sort, stopping to eat her lunch. She didn't even realized she had bumped it.
We went to a local little restaurant and had lunch then made our way to the trolley waiting area. We didn't have to wait long, but boy was it hot.
Once we got back on the trolley Isaac was struggling to keep his eyes open. It was rather hot, but we were getting a nice breeze from the window. He did manage to close his eyes for a while and get a few minutes of sleep.
Here we are crossing the Harvard Bridge.
There in the distance you can see the Longfellow Bridge and The Zakim bridge in the distance. The barge there in the water is filled with explosives ready for the fireworks celebration the next day.
We crossed over into to Cambridge for one stop, saw a little of MIT, then headed back to Boston. Here is the home of the famous 'Boston Creme Pie'
Oh and the tour guide happen to be the SAME one we had earlier. Good thing we enjoyed him. He was on a new trolley now.
Getting closer to our destination, we are back on Atlantic Ave.
Once we got back we wanted to get the car out of the ramp as we didn't want it there over the 24 hour time period. We decided we'd drive the '18 minute' to Cambridge and maybe visit the Curious George store.... but we got stuck in traffic. Since Storrow Dr was closed for the 4th celebration the next day it was a bit nuts. But we did get to see parts of Boston close up for a long time as we sat still in the car. Oh and Isaac was getting a good nap in so we really weren't bothered with it.
After 2 hours in the car (to go gps 10 mintues) we decided to abandon the idea of going to the Curious George store and seeing Harvard. (even though we were 4 blocks away). Who knew how long it would take us to get the car returned and to the airport. So we made a right and headed toward the airport. Went a ways without traffic then as we needed to get through Boston again to the other side where the airport was we hit some again. Luckily the tunnel exit for the airport wasn't the main attraction and we got away from the traffic by heading toward the airport.
It took us almost no time at all to return the car and take the shuttle to the airport. It was so fast in fact that we were THREE hours early.... and in-case you were wondering, SunCountry doesn't have anyone to check you in that early. So we waited..... an hour.... at least we weren't alone. One gal was there before us, then we started to see the crowd for as we all waited to check into our flight.
Once we got checked in and through security we grabbed some food... which Isaac shredded his muffin all over the place since they really had no kid friendly food. After that stress ball of greatness, we took turns chasing Isaac around. Well he found some friends that chased him around, we just stayed close.
After being at the airport ENTIRELY too long, we finally boarded our 8:55pm flight. We all got seated, they told us to turn off our electronic devices and buckle up. Then the captain came on (here it is, we thought we might get away with no airport drama) there was something wrong with the balance software, even though the plane is secure and balance the software thinks otherwise, they were waiting for it to get fixed in order to start the plane.
Then the sweat began, an hour and a half later, after we were all practically melted and Isaac was probably the most patient on the plane, we were ready for take off.
Isaac did great on the plane again, we didn't even have to break out the iPad. He was so tired he was asleep as soon as we were in the air and the plane cabin had airflow back.
This obviously delayed our landing a bit. My friend was keeping Harpo and luckily she works the evening shift like me so she's not one that is early to bed. We picked up Harpo about 1am or so and headed home straight for bed.
Our tour guide was Miles, who was funny and entertaining. He kept pulling the trolley bell, which Isaac enjoyed. It first took us out to USS Constitution. It was a hop on hop off trolley tour, but we planned to just write it to Fenway Park, do the ball park tour, then ride it back to where we got on. If we had more time we would have loved to hop off and on at a few places and explore a little bit more... next time maybe.
Isaac was very entertained by all the fun transportation vehicles we saw. Like this concrete truck.
Here's the USS Constitution
As you can tell from Isaac's red cheeks we were rather warm
Here is The New England Holocaust Memorial; inscribed on the glass structures are 6 million random numbers, one for each Jew who died during the Holocaust.
This is the Christian Science Church, which our tour guide said is an amazing building, architecturally. And recommended exploring it not for the religious side of it but just for the beauty of the building.
The tall building here is the Prudential Tower. It was made to look like computer punch card from the 70's. It is the second tallest building in Boston.
We made it to the Fenway stop in time for the 11 o'clock tour. We bought our tickets with the tour line so we didn't have to meet the 15 minutes prior to tour time deadline. We got dropped off at 10:55 and hurried over to the gate to join the 11 crown. Perfect timing.
They hung this jersey, which says "Boston Strong" after the marathon bombing.
And here's the park.
It was a guided tour, which having a little guy I couldn't pay too much attention to what the guide was saying. But it was still fun to just see the park from all different angles. Like from the top of the green monstah:
Isaac again not wanting to be in one place. He was getting rather tired at this point, way over due for a nap. He managed to stay happy when we walked him.
The only way to access the top of 'The Green Monster' and get home run balls, was to bring a ladder out to reach the 14 foot ladder you see to the left in this picture. Today, there is no use for that ladder. This score board is the only one still in circulation that has men behind the board manually changing out the tiles for the stats. The At Bat, Ball, Strike, Out, Hit, & Error are the only things electric, everything else is manual. Even the League scores. The men behind the board do have free wi-fi which helps them to keep the league scores updated. A series of dashes and dots run vertically down the two center divider columns, under the N, in American League and between the E and P. They symbolize the initials of former team owners Thomas Austin Yawkey (TAY) and Jean Remington Yawkey (JRY) written in morse code. Mr. Yawkey's initials are on the left.
Not so happy here....
There's our trolley stop
We thought it was a 60 minute tour but it was actually 90 minutes. Still looking at the ball park....
Ahhh air conditioning at last...
...in the little museum they had at the end of the tour.
These baseballs had been signed by people who have won world series.
World Series rings from 2004 and 2007
And we had to get a souvenir. We got Isaac a Red Sox baseball.
Standing outside the gate, we watched this car (the one on the left) back up into the one behind it. She was an official of some sort, stopping to eat her lunch. She didn't even realized she had bumped it.
We went to a local little restaurant and had lunch then made our way to the trolley waiting area. We didn't have to wait long, but boy was it hot.
Once we got back on the trolley Isaac was struggling to keep his eyes open. It was rather hot, but we were getting a nice breeze from the window. He did manage to close his eyes for a while and get a few minutes of sleep.
Here we are crossing the Harvard Bridge.
There in the distance you can see the Longfellow Bridge and The Zakim bridge in the distance. The barge there in the water is filled with explosives ready for the fireworks celebration the next day.
We crossed over into to Cambridge for one stop, saw a little of MIT, then headed back to Boston. Here is the home of the famous 'Boston Creme Pie'
Oh and the tour guide happen to be the SAME one we had earlier. Good thing we enjoyed him. He was on a new trolley now.
Getting closer to our destination, we are back on Atlantic Ave.
Once we got back we wanted to get the car out of the ramp as we didn't want it there over the 24 hour time period. We decided we'd drive the '18 minute' to Cambridge and maybe visit the Curious George store.... but we got stuck in traffic. Since Storrow Dr was closed for the 4th celebration the next day it was a bit nuts. But we did get to see parts of Boston close up for a long time as we sat still in the car. Oh and Isaac was getting a good nap in so we really weren't bothered with it.
After 2 hours in the car (to go gps 10 mintues) we decided to abandon the idea of going to the Curious George store and seeing Harvard. (even though we were 4 blocks away). Who knew how long it would take us to get the car returned and to the airport. So we made a right and headed toward the airport. Went a ways without traffic then as we needed to get through Boston again to the other side where the airport was we hit some again. Luckily the tunnel exit for the airport wasn't the main attraction and we got away from the traffic by heading toward the airport.
It took us almost no time at all to return the car and take the shuttle to the airport. It was so fast in fact that we were THREE hours early.... and in-case you were wondering, SunCountry doesn't have anyone to check you in that early. So we waited..... an hour.... at least we weren't alone. One gal was there before us, then we started to see the crowd for as we all waited to check into our flight.
Once we got checked in and through security we grabbed some food... which Isaac shredded his muffin all over the place since they really had no kid friendly food. After that stress ball of greatness, we took turns chasing Isaac around. Well he found some friends that chased him around, we just stayed close.
After being at the airport ENTIRELY too long, we finally boarded our 8:55pm flight. We all got seated, they told us to turn off our electronic devices and buckle up. Then the captain came on (here it is, we thought we might get away with no airport drama) there was something wrong with the balance software, even though the plane is secure and balance the software thinks otherwise, they were waiting for it to get fixed in order to start the plane.
Then the sweat began, an hour and a half later, after we were all practically melted and Isaac was probably the most patient on the plane, we were ready for take off.
Isaac did great on the plane again, we didn't even have to break out the iPad. He was so tired he was asleep as soon as we were in the air and the plane cabin had airflow back.
This obviously delayed our landing a bit. My friend was keeping Harpo and luckily she works the evening shift like me so she's not one that is early to bed. We picked up Harpo about 1am or so and headed home straight for bed.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
New England Trip: Day 7 (Rhode Island & Boston)
As I mentioned in the previous post, we got up Tuesday morning, loaded the rental car up and headed off the Cape to Providence, Rhode Island. I have been through RI before, but this was a new state for Kyle. Only about an hour from the cape, it was a pretty smooth drive.
We arrived at Katie's apartment and she gave us a little tour, then we went for a small driving tour through Providence
ending at her school: Providence College. We got out and got a little walking tour.
Katie apologized for there being so much construction going on around her campus, but there were no apologizes needed because Isaac LOVED it! We had to stop a few times to watch the trucks work. He was so excited!! Pointing with both fingers, it was so cute.
We hopped back in the car to head to the 'Little Italy' of Providence. Katie is fluent in Italian and is also dating a REAL Italian ;-) he lives in Italy now. It was a super cute little area and Isaac loved the water fountain. Here's our first attempt at getting a picture together:
Then we got him to at least sit with us. Saying "where's dada?" to get him to look at the camera.
Then saying "Where's Katie?" heehee
We had lunch at this amazing little place
and I had to try a latte, it was A.mazing!
And what did Isaac do as soon as we left the restaurant? Run to the fountain :)
We stopped in the little deli to look for some soprassata. Got to see a guy making sausage.
And I found THIS there:
Katie had one in her apartment. It's a stovetop espresso maker. Fun to use, I've been using it everyday since we got home. We are in the market for a 'real' espresso maker but this one is fun and cute, and we could even use it camping. Only wish I had it when the power went out, I could have made my latte's in the morning.
We ventured down to Roger Williams Park with the help of the hand of God because our GPS was being ridiculous! I had found that there was a park there online, made by Hasbro as they are based in Providence.
We let Isaac play around the park for a while and get nice and worn out.
The swings almost lulled him to sleep
There was even a CANDY LAND path!!!!!!!
Isaac giving Mr. Potato Head a high five:
We dropped Katie off at the mall for work, then headed on up to Boston for the evening. Only hitting a little bit of traffic on the out skirts of Boston.
Heading into that crazy tunnel again
Unfortunately Kyle was driving again, last time he said he was going to have me drive through it... but since I wasn't driving I got to take pictures :)
There are EXITS in the tunnel!
We learned on our tour the next day that this tunnel was set to be budgeted at 9 Billion dollars, but ended up costing 20 Billion!! It is called the Big Dig and took the highway that went through town and put it underground creating a great green space above (which our hotel was right by). This site has a lot of cool facts about it: The Big Dig Facts Figures
We had booked our hotel a few days earlier so that was nice to not have to worry about that. We were thinking if we could go straight to Fenway Park we could make it to their last tour of the day at 4:00 (since they had a game that night). But we didn't end up getting there early enough to get tickets and they were sold out. So we headed straight to the hotel after that, we were tired of being in the car at this point and Kyle needed get away from the city traffic.
We unloaded the car completely at the hotel, since we were flying out the next day it was our chance to get everything organized and put into the bags we had. Kyle dropped us off and took the car to the off-site parking ramp a block and a half away.
When we researched the hotel online it said it was out of all the king bed rooms with no view, but when we booked our room on the phone she said they had one. It was cheaper and we didn't care to have a view, since the 'view' was just of the atrium. And besides it ended up being nice because nothing woke Isaac up the next morning. Anyway here is our room:
(took this picture in the mirror so you could see the other side of the room)
Once we got our bags dropped off and feeling a little more settled we headed off for a walk around the city. The hotel was at State St. & Atlantic Ave so we were right in the middle of the city. Only a block from the Harbor.
Isaac liked riding over this cobblestone sidewalk.
We made a loop and ended up by Faneuil Hall.
and Quincy Market
I liked this building, reminded me of the Flat Iron building in NYC.
Old State House. (Isaac not liking to stop, every time we stopped he wanted out, but while we were on the move he was fine)
We continued on our own little walking tour on the Freedom Trail.
We stopped to watch some street performers, Isaac was very amused.
We then made our way through their 'Little Italy' on the search for garlic knots, which they only made on the weekend we found out. We didn't leave totally empty handed as we grabbed a couple beers to take back to the hotel.
We ended at a playground in Columbus Park. Isaac got to go to TWO playgrounds in TWO states all in the same day!!
We picked up dinner at a little place next to our hotel, went back to our room to eat and hit the hay. We put Isaac down to bed, enjoyed a beer, while researching what tour bus we should do the next day. Excited for the beautiful (non-rainy) day ahead of us, our last day.
We arrived at Katie's apartment and she gave us a little tour, then we went for a small driving tour through Providence
ending at her school: Providence College. We got out and got a little walking tour.
Katie apologized for there being so much construction going on around her campus, but there were no apologizes needed because Isaac LOVED it! We had to stop a few times to watch the trucks work. He was so excited!! Pointing with both fingers, it was so cute.
We hopped back in the car to head to the 'Little Italy' of Providence. Katie is fluent in Italian and is also dating a REAL Italian ;-) he lives in Italy now. It was a super cute little area and Isaac loved the water fountain. Here's our first attempt at getting a picture together:
Then we got him to at least sit with us. Saying "where's dada?" to get him to look at the camera.
Then saying "Where's Katie?" heehee
We had lunch at this amazing little place
and I had to try a latte, it was A.mazing!
And what did Isaac do as soon as we left the restaurant? Run to the fountain :)
We stopped in the little deli to look for some soprassata. Got to see a guy making sausage.
And I found THIS there:
Katie had one in her apartment. It's a stovetop espresso maker. Fun to use, I've been using it everyday since we got home. We are in the market for a 'real' espresso maker but this one is fun and cute, and we could even use it camping. Only wish I had it when the power went out, I could have made my latte's in the morning.
We ventured down to Roger Williams Park with the help of the hand of God because our GPS was being ridiculous! I had found that there was a park there online, made by Hasbro as they are based in Providence.
We let Isaac play around the park for a while and get nice and worn out.
The swings almost lulled him to sleep
There was even a CANDY LAND path!!!!!!!
Isaac giving Mr. Potato Head a high five:
We dropped Katie off at the mall for work, then headed on up to Boston for the evening. Only hitting a little bit of traffic on the out skirts of Boston.
Heading into that crazy tunnel again
Unfortunately Kyle was driving again, last time he said he was going to have me drive through it... but since I wasn't driving I got to take pictures :)
There are EXITS in the tunnel!
We learned on our tour the next day that this tunnel was set to be budgeted at 9 Billion dollars, but ended up costing 20 Billion!! It is called the Big Dig and took the highway that went through town and put it underground creating a great green space above (which our hotel was right by). This site has a lot of cool facts about it: The Big Dig Facts Figures
We had booked our hotel a few days earlier so that was nice to not have to worry about that. We were thinking if we could go straight to Fenway Park we could make it to their last tour of the day at 4:00 (since they had a game that night). But we didn't end up getting there early enough to get tickets and they were sold out. So we headed straight to the hotel after that, we were tired of being in the car at this point and Kyle needed get away from the city traffic.
We unloaded the car completely at the hotel, since we were flying out the next day it was our chance to get everything organized and put into the bags we had. Kyle dropped us off and took the car to the off-site parking ramp a block and a half away.
When we researched the hotel online it said it was out of all the king bed rooms with no view, but when we booked our room on the phone she said they had one. It was cheaper and we didn't care to have a view, since the 'view' was just of the atrium. And besides it ended up being nice because nothing woke Isaac up the next morning. Anyway here is our room:
(took this picture in the mirror so you could see the other side of the room)
Once we got our bags dropped off and feeling a little more settled we headed off for a walk around the city. The hotel was at State St. & Atlantic Ave so we were right in the middle of the city. Only a block from the Harbor.
Isaac liked riding over this cobblestone sidewalk.
We made a loop and ended up by Faneuil Hall.
and Quincy Market
I liked this building, reminded me of the Flat Iron building in NYC.
Old State House. (Isaac not liking to stop, every time we stopped he wanted out, but while we were on the move he was fine)
We continued on our own little walking tour on the Freedom Trail.
We stopped to watch some street performers, Isaac was very amused.
We then made our way through their 'Little Italy' on the search for garlic knots, which they only made on the weekend we found out. We didn't leave totally empty handed as we grabbed a couple beers to take back to the hotel.
We ended at a playground in Columbus Park. Isaac got to go to TWO playgrounds in TWO states all in the same day!!
We picked up dinner at a little place next to our hotel, went back to our room to eat and hit the hay. We put Isaac down to bed, enjoyed a beer, while researching what tour bus we should do the next day. Excited for the beautiful (non-rainy) day ahead of us, our last day.
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