21. Go on a family vacation. Part three: Boston!

Our Boston adventure actually started northwest of Boston... in the Concord area at Minuteman National Park. This park is pretty much the road that Paul Revere famously rode to warn the citizens that "the British [were] coming." This road has now been converted into a lovely walking/biking path with informational plaques and historical sites along the way. The whole path is about 5 miles long so we got check to out the first mile-ish. On that short stretch we saw the capture site of Paul Revere as well as other building remnants and grave sites.

On the opposite end of the trail, the part actually in Concord, is the North Bridge. This is where "the shot heard around the world" was fired.

While driving around Concord to see these sites we also drove past some neat homes. For example... here is the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Shweet!

Our next stop was literally only a few miles down the road... the Boston Temple! We took turns doing some temple work while Peter ran around outside, attempting to fall down every stair he could find.

After having a lovely time in the temple we got all checked in at the hotel and headed afoot into Boston. Boston is awesome, we were constantly running into cool stuff and really we could have stayed busy for a whole week checking everything out.

One of the main things that we did in Boston was the Freedom Trail. This trail is literally a red painted line that takes you from one revolutionary war historical site to the next. Along this trail we saw...

The Old North Church...

the Bunker Hill Monument...

the U.S.S. Constitution...

this sweet cemetery... as well as some other neato sites that we didn't get pictures of. (:

Another very important part of our Boston experience was, of course, the food! I had a lot of friends recommend some awesome places. Some of our favorites included...

Mike's Pastry (we went twice it was sooo delicious),

Regina's Pizza,

 and Sam LaGrassa's.

Outside of being patriotic and eating awesome food... which is also a patriotic thing do haha... we also checked out Fenueil Hall, Quincy Market (same thing??), Boston Commons, and Beacon Hill. Unfortunately we did not locate a Beacon Hill cookie on Beacon Hill... but we did get a pretty delicious chocolate meringue that fit the bill.

Here's Todd with, as he claimed, "quite possibly the best college basketball coach... ever."

The sweet bridge over Charles River that we got to walk along to get back to our hotel.

Riding on the swan boats at the park.

Some #coolglobes at Boston Commons promoting green hippy stuff. Like recycling, garden roofs, car pooling, etc.

Acorn street, as recommended by the lovely Ashley. It's such a cute place! Too bad there aren't any ya know... yards. We like yards.

After our trek around Beacon Hill we hoofed it to the other side of Boston to conclude our adventure with crab cakes on the hahbah. Only a two hour drive, one hotel stay, and two flights away from being home. 

What. A. Vacation. We were sad to be done with our adventure but we were ready to be back in our own beds, eating our own healthier food, and most important back with our friends.

Thank you Todd for making this vacation possible... without all of those point-boosting-not-so-fun business trips we absolutely would not have been able to make it out East.

Next stop: umm... grad school??

21. Go on a family vacation. Part two: Portland

This... is going to be a long post. Like... really long. So bare with me. I tried really hard to narrow down the pictures to just the highlights... and there are still a million. We just had so much fun! That being said... let us begin our Portland adventure. This adventure actually started the day we flew in. We had a few hours to kill and a rental car in our hands so we checked out everything that was out of walking distance from our hotel. This meant visiting lighthouses down the coast for a few miles as well as a very necessary visit to Len & Libby's.

After landing and getting settled in we were on our way. We saw this little tiny light house at Bug Light Park. Clearly Peter is more concerned with devouring his father's face. Or giving him kisses, we haven't totally figured out yet what he is trying to do.

And this light house... Spring Point Ledge Light. This one was a lot of fun to walk out to because you had to literally leap from rock to rock in some places.

And the oldest of them all (commissioned by George Washington, himself)... the Portland Head Light.

Our Len & Libby's trip took place on Monday after our day trip to Acadia National Park. Yes, that is a moose made out of chocolate. If you ever go... the chocolate dipped Twinkies and Oreos are amazing. Yes, we tried a lot of the real chocolates, ya know... the less "fatty fat fat American" chocolates... but the red-white-'n'-blue in me just loved the Twinkies and Oreos the most.

After returning our rental we started our walking adventure through the streets of Portland. Along the way we saw lots of cool things. Like this beached ship memorial,

this wall mural across from the observatory,

this fence,

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home,

this wall, 

this wall (you can't really tell but the page that is peeling back is the blueprints for the building),

and this wall. I even got to write on this one. (:

We also ate some awesome food at some awesome restaurants. Duckfat was probably our favorite place in Portland. Here we have Todd sipping one of their house concocted sodas called "Bark, Sticks, and Leaves." It was the most unique root beer I have ever tasted. At Duckfat we also enjoyed doughnut holes and fries, both deep fried in duck fat, or course. Yuuuummmmm. Other restaurants of honorable mention include Wannawaf, where they serve very unique and delicious waffles, and Lisa's out on Peak's Island, where you can buy some awesome cinnamon rolls if you go early enough. We didn't make it for the cinnamon rolls but we did get some excellent sandwiches and potato salad.

The next morning we got up at the bumcrack of dawn to go on a sunrise "cruise." A.k.a. the paper run/commuter boat. The ride was advertised to have lots of wildlife and such... we saw one seal at the very end playing in the harbor haha. Oh well.

Fortunately we did enjoy a very neat sunrise.

Peter didn't get to run around on the boat, for obvious reasons, and he was not happy about it. Look at that scowl haha.

And again... he was ticked.

Luckily he has an awesome daddy that kept him entertained...

and warm.

This isn't the seal friend that we made after our cruise... well I guess it could be. This little guy showed up during lunch and put on a little show for us the whole time we were eating. It was great!

Our second neato event on Tuesday took place at the Portland Museum of Art. It was beyond excellent. We saw all sorts of amazing art work by Picasso, Degas, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, Rodin. Matisse, and so forth. These three were my favorite...

Degas' "Two Dancers"

Matisse's "The Musketeer"

And a piece that I can't find the name of... nor the artist.

Wednesday was our last day in Portland and it was Peter's first birthday! Woohoo! We celebrated by taking a ferry over to Peak's Island for a few hours.

On said island we got some aforementioned sandwiches and went to the beach to chill out for a bit.

Peter just loves that sand. Gross.

"I know the way back, see you guys later."

We also attempted to check out this civil war museum... until we found out it was five bucks a piece. Sorry guys, we just saw some pieces of art by the most famous artists in the world for that same price. At least we got a picture of the outside, yea?

We did make it into the Umbrella Cover Museum though. And let me tell you, this lady was awesome. Believe it or not, she wasn't totally crazy. She was just having fun collecting umbrella covers and playing her accordian haha. I should also mention she holds a Guiness world record for most umbrella covers under one roof. Way to go lady.

Peter being a goof on the ferry ride back to the mainland.

For Peter's birthday dinner we enjoyed lobstah. Peter ate fries and Cheerios haha.

Fries, Cheerios, and a slice of banana cream pie back at the hotel (thank heavens for the Residence Inn evening socials!)... because all of the bakeries and cupcake shops were closed. And we couldn't get Peter a birthday "cake." Woops... bad parent award goes to us. Don't worry, he got his cake once we came home... another whole post on that to come, I'm sure.

Our last activity in Portland... birthday swimming! Peter LOVES to get in the pool. He seriously screams with joy the entire time... as well as splashes and laughs like a crazy. Haha maybe he'll be the swimmer his daddy could have been...

Next stop... Boston!