Boston Day 6: Fenway Park and Harvard

This is the last post about our trip to Boston. I am sure you all are tired of reading about our trip but I wanted to have all of our trip documented for our family blog book. Tomorrow I will get back to our daily posts. On our last day in Boston we spent some of the day in the exhibit hall to look at new equipment for the new office. Since we finished with that earlier than we planned we took the subway to Fenway Park and Harvard.

Kev and Z waiting for the subway....yes we were typical tourist.
On Yawkey Way at Fenway Park
Statue of Ted Williams


Fenway Park from the outfield. They have a cool little pub that is located right behind outfield. Their is a fenced in area of the restaurant that you can watch the game from the outfield. We ate slidders and fries from the outfield. Unfortunately the Red Socks were at an away game but we still enjoyed seeing the stadium. Kevin and Zachary by the John Harvard statue
Hil and Z by the historic Harvard entrance
Being silly with crab hats in a Boston store.
Hil and Z on the Subway. Z thought it was super exciting. Personally I thought it was overcrowded and filled with germs...especially since we were in Boston during the Swine Flu outbreak.

So that is it of our trip from Boston. We had a remarkable time. I could not believe everything we did and saw while we were there. If it was not for Karen and Terry, Zachary and I would have been bored to death in the Westin. Thankfully they took us anywhere and every where we wanted to go. Boston was a wonderful city.

Boston Day 5: Childrens Museum, Aubrey, and Mikes' again

We spent day 5 at the Boston Children's Museum. What a cool place. We have been to several hands on children's museums but none of this size and caliber. It was HUGE and had so much to do. So much that we did not get through half of it.

The bubble room was a HIT for Zachary. We spent a lot of our time in there.




Zachary cooking eggs on the stove in the "ARTHUR" exhibit.
This was a cool exhibit. The entire exhibit was focused around individuals with special needs. They had an area to see what it would be like to be in a wheelchair, an area to see what it would be like being blind and hearing impaired, and an area to practice for the Special Olympics. This bike Zachary is using is similar to what a paraplegic would use in the Olympics.
Here is Z with a pretend seeing eye dog.
This was a hands on room centered around trains. Z loved this room!

Zachary loved this part of the museum too. Who would have thought a weekly task such as filling up a car with gas would have been so cool.
Zachary filling up the car with gas.
Zachary sawing wood in the Children's Museum workshop. Yes he was supervised and yes, that is a real saw.
We had dinner in the North End. Kevin and I could not get enough of the Italian village. Miss Aubrey joined us after a long flight from California. We were so glad we got to see her.
One final trip to Mike Pastries after a yummy dinner. Just what we needed more calories!

At the end of the night we said GOODBYE to Karen, Terry, and Aubrey. It was sad to say goodbye because they took such good care of us on our visit. We had a wonderful time and were so appreciative that they took vacaction days from work to entertain us in the big city of Boston. Thank you guys!

Boston Day 4: Aquarium and Myrtle the Turtle

We spent a majority of day 4 at the New England Aquarium. Kevin was in classes all day so Karen, Terry, Zachary, and I enjoyed all the sights of the aquarium. From the entrance of the aquarium to the IMAX theatre I was super impressed. We saw seals, penguins, turtles, sharks, lots of fish, and a 3D Imax movie.



Zachary on a wooden sea turtle.
The 35 year old turtle named Myrtle.


Watching the marine biologist hand feeding the penguins their nutritional lunch.
Terry, Karen, and Z getting ready for the 3D movie to start.
Z watching the movie. Z totally cracked me up. He kepted reaching out to try and touch the sea creatures in the 3D movie. He loved it until one of the eels jumped out at a prey. Then he latched on to Karen's arm until the end of the movie.
After our day at the aquarium we went back to Faneuil Hall to the food court to pick up dinner. Then Karen, Terry, Z and I went to a public park for dinner. Z was super exhausted so we had an early dinner. As soon as I got Z back to the hotel and in his p.j.s this is what I saw. Man this kid is tired...we are wearing him out.

Day 3: Old Ironsides and a visit with old friends

Because we were so exhausted from our previous days Zachary and I slept in until 10 am. I could not believe it. Fortunately for us, Terry and Karen were exhausted too. Once we got the day started we went to the U.S.S. Constitution , a.k.a. Old Ironsides. We had a very nice tour on the battleship. Zachary was fascinated with all the items inside the ship, including the cannons and cannon balls.


Family photo inside USS Constitution...we are posing with our local 417 magazine with the hopes to make the 417 issue.
This photo is of Zachary inside a front loader that was outside of the shipyard.
Terry, Kevin, and Z wanted to show off their muscles next to some super heavy weights outside of USS Cassin Young.


After our tour we went over to USS Cassin Young (DD-793), a Fletcher-class destroyer.

Here is Zachary on USS Cassin Young.

Here is a photo of the Boston City Toilet. I had to get a picture of this. You pay 25 cents to enter. Upon entry the doors close. You have 25 minutes to do your business and a warning bell will sound. 5 seconds later the doors will open whether you are ready or not. Foruntately, Z and I did not need the 25 minutes. However after you exit you can hear the entire stall being washed down. It was the "cleanest" public portapotty I have ever seen. After our tour of the USS Cassin Young and USS Constitution we ate lunch at Legal Seafood with Terry and Karen. IT WAS AMAZING! The freshest of fresh and wonderful service too.

One bonus about coming to Boston was reconnecting with Kevin's former classmates from UMKC. Both Matt and Nisha were 6 year students with Kevin, which meant that the three of them spent A LOT of time together during the 6 years of dental school. Matt and Nisha live about 30 minutes outside of the city. Matt so graciously picked us up at our hotel. On the drive to Matt and Nisha's house, Z fell fast asleep in Miss Rhiya's carseat. He was exhausted!
Zachary playing with Rhiya....I asked Matt and Nisha if we could be considered for a pre-arranged marriage. Rhiya is SO beautiful and super sweet. We have to get started on the dowry. They had a wonderful time playing together.

Here is our group photo: (Left to Right)
Hil, Zachary, Kevin, Rhiya, Matt, Nisha, and baby Dylan (4 days before he was born)
We were thrilled to see our friends. It was hard to believe that it had been 8 years since graduation. It was so good to have an evening together to catch up. Kevin and I are so appreciative that Matt and Nisha took time out of their busy schedule to see us.
Zachary saying goodbye to Miss Rhiya

Boston Day 2: 12 miles

Our second day in Boston was jam packed with all the tourist attractions. Terry and Karen picked us up at our hotel at 10 am. We had spoken with Terry and Karen about all the spots that we wanted to visit on our trip. We knew there was no way that we would be able to see all them while we were in Boston but we wanted to have a plan. Terry and Karen were the best hosts because they had everything mapped out and lots of handouts printed off the internet. Terry suggested that we do as much as we could outside today because it was going to be beautiful and it was expected to rain the rest of our time in Boston.

**I have posted links of each of the websites to the places we visited...just click on the bold word. Just in case you are interested in learning more about each spot we saw.

We started at the Massachusetts State House, a.k.a the Capital. From there we took a Swan Boat ride in the Boston Public park.After the swam boats, Zachary & Kevin rode the Carousel in the Frog Pond.



Then we took pictures with the famous ducklings of Boston.

A funny about this part...Zachary hopped on one of the ducklings and yelled, " YEE-HAW". All of the Easterners started cracking up. They could definitely tell we mid-westerners.

We started our walk on the Freedom Trail...the Freedom trail is a trail of red bricks all around Boston leading you to historical sites.


We ate lunch at Dicks Last Resort at Faneuill Hall. The waitress tied a balloon in Terry's hair that said, " I am so old, I fart dust".

Next, we toured Paul Revere's Home and had a snack picnic in the front yard of Paul's house. Zachary was not a fan of Paul Revere's house. He kept saying, "Mom get me out of here, I am scared". Not sure if it was the old smell or the darkness of the house but Zachary did not like it. We had a personal tour at the Old North Church We rode the "Ducks". The highlight was that Zachary got to drive it. On the Duck tour we saw "Cheer's"
After the Duck tour, we ate dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant in the North end. This was the accordion player that really added a lot of entertainment to our meal. We finished the night off at the famous Mike's Pastry.
I hope I am not forgetting anything. It was REMARKABLE. Boston is such a cool city. It had loads and loads of history which was neat to see. Yes, for those of you who really know me, you know that History was not my favorite subject. But this was so much better than reading it in a text book. Zachary was AMAZING. He was such a good boy. By the end of the day, Karen had taught him how to say, "I LOVE BOSTON MASSE-CHEW-ITS!"

I wish I could put into words how awesome it was to have our very own tour guides, chauffers, and concierge. Terry and Karen made our day in Boston FANTASTIC! When we returned to our hotel at 10 pm we were POOPED! Zachary told us he was tired and fell asleep immediately when we put him in bed. When I checked my pedometer at the end of the day I realized we walked 12 miles. We definately walked off those wonderful pastries and cannoli's from Mikes' Pastry. Stay tuned for Day 3!