Boston

Jared and I had a fun little get-away last week! Jared was taking a continuing education course Wed-Sat. in Cambridge, Ma. and I went along for the fun!

I've never been to Boston and Jared had just been for a day when he went to a Red Sox game with some friends. We arrived Wednesday morning a little after 10am, which means we left Jacksonville at 5am! So, we had gotten about 2 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the airport.

We got checked in The Charles Hotel just before noon and grabbed lunch at Bertucci's Brick Oven Kitchen. It was SO good! We were really hungry so we shared the Three Cheese Focaccia (A house blend of Italian cheeses baked inside crispy focaccia bread, then served with roasted tomato dipping sauce...yummy!) and we shared a huge calzone.

We started looking around at Harvard. The campus really reminded us of UGA's campus, especially all the green areas.

Harvard Law, where Jared's classes were each day.

We walked from Harvard to MIT, which was quite the hike. Surprisingly, Jared was the one that wanted to walk it and I wanted to ride the T (Boston's subway).

M.I.T.

Jared has a friend from UGA, Daniel, who works at MIT, so he walked us around campus and told us some good places to go.

This was the view of the Charles River and across to Boston.

This unique looking building is a newer one at MIT. Daniel's office was in this building.

We rode the T into Boston and walked down Charles Street towards the Public Gardens and Boston Common.

We stopped at a cupcake shop and had a Red Velvet and Oreo cupcake.

Public Gardens

A little excited to be in Boston! Took 2 tries for Jared to catch this one. :)

We enjoyed a lobster dinner Wednesday night at the hotel with Jared's group. So good! We were exhausted and running on 2 hours of sleep in over 36 hours. We crashed early that night!

Thursday morning, I lazed around the hotel and walked around Cambridge a bit. I enjoyed a massage at the spa in the hotel that morning. So relaxing!

I met my friend Kate for lunch at Flour Bakery in Cambridge. The food was fantastic and it was so good to to catch up with Kate!

From there I rode the T down to the Fenway area and took a tour of Fenway Park.

Green Monster

I bet if Arabelle and Bo had been with me, they would have ran to this Mickey!

 Thursday evening, we met Daniel and his wife, Sarah, for dinner. We met at the Boston Public Gardens and walked to Gas Light in the South End. They asked if we liked French food and we said we didn't know what French food was like...ha! Turns out, it's good! Jared had Steak Frîtes with béarnaise or maītre d'hōtel butter and I had the Rotisserie Chicken with sauce moutarde violette & garlic herbes frites. Sounds fancy, huh? 


We walked back to the Beacon Hill area of Boston and had some frozen yogurt before getting on the T and heading to the hotel. Fun night!


Friday morning, I woke up and walked to LA Burdick Chocolate and had a croissant and iced chocolate. I could get used to that in the mornings! Friday morning, my legs were SO sore from all the walking, so I was glad I had planned to take a Duck Tour. It was an 80 minute tour around Boston, hitting the historical landmarks and learning some Boston history.  


Boston Public Library--first public library in the country

I had planned lunch in the North End, popular for their great Italian food, so I hopped on the T and headed that way! I had pizza at Pizzeria Regina, then walked around that area for a bit. The architecture in that area was so neat!

Mike's Pastry was supposedly THE place to stop in that area as well. It was really crowded, so I waited and  got a few things. I did get 2 types of cannolis, which were their big item. Well, I didn't really like them! They weren't bad, but after you've had Grandma's banana pudding or Mom's chocolate cake, the cannoli's are just not that great.

 I did some shopping in the markets behind Faneuli Hall and went back to the hotel to meet up with Jared.

We went back to the North End for supper and ended up choosing Gennaro's Five North Square. It was another good choice! Jared had Chicken Parmesan and I had a Lobster Ravioli.

We walked around a bit, had gelato at Cafe Vittoria, stopped at a park by the river, met Daniel and he showed us several more interesting places, and we went back to the hotel for our last night.

Faneuli Hall

Saturday Jared had class until 3, so I walked and walked, making the most of the last bit of time. We flew out just before 8pm (flight was delayed due to rain) and made it back to Jacksonville (via Atl.) just after midnight. We were exhausted, but it was a great trip!

Obviously, I am NOT a city girl, but I loved visiting Boston! I was surprised that Boston was so small area wise. It was easy to get from one place to another (once I figured out the subway system). I just can't imagine living in a city!

We had fun, but were so ready to get back to the kids! Thanks to Leigh-Leigh and Sambo for taking such good care of them while we were gone!

Summer Fun

Last Tuesday, we had an afternoon of summer fun! Complete with strawberry yogurt popsicles and Reed's water slide!

Cold!

The whole gang!

Toddler Talk

Bo has really started talking a lot these days. Maybe I should change the title of the blog from Baby Babbles to Toddler Talk. ;)


We were in the grocery store this morning and I had both kids in the big part of the buggy. Arabelle was singing a made up song, pretty quietly. All of a sudden Bo starts yelling "No singing Arabelle! Hurts my ears! NO SINGING!!!".  That's the longest string of sentences he's ever done. Of course, Arabelle just started singing louder. ha!


Here's a couple of videos from last week:

We enjoyed some pool time Saturday afternoon:

Arabelle went swimming in the Barbie pool. haha!