Day 16

We started this day by meeting at the train station with just a little bit planned.  Little did we know we would be mentally and physcially exhausted by the time we got home!

We hopped on the 9am train headed for the Boston Museum of Science anticipating a couple hours learning and playing and a late lunch. We didn't plan anything for the afternoon as we thought we would probably just fill in with something on the list we hadn't gotten to or perhaps do a little shopping.

After a short walk by one of Boston's many enormous hospitals, we walked into the science center and all our chins dropped. This was a 3-story monster of a building. We hit the ground running starting off at the green exhibit on wind farms and nano  technology. Laney is 1.4 billion nanometers tall and Ryan come in at just under 1.33 billion nanometers tall. That girl has got some growing to do!

                                     
There was a small space section in the museum so the girls played in an orbiter which they said was very uncomfortable!  I guess space travel can be a little difficult!

           

Ryan and I headed to the dinosaurs next where we learned a bunch about Triceratops fossils and models. This was one of their back feet!

They had tons of cool fossils all around the walls too!

After a short crawl through the sewer complete with rats, garbage and painted turtles, we headed to try to engineer a hydroelectric dam for a community.  It was way more difficult than it looked to make the community, the fish, and the kayakers happy!

  


We headed to the collections room which made Ryan ecstatic next. She is most absolutely our collector of all things. This section was an amazing collection of things in nature and we had so much fun looking through everything. Unfortunately, Ryan got a bunch of new ideas of things to collect! We all had a blast playing a game similar to Guess Who with shells.

Next up was a physics area where the kids learned about all kinds of forces, motion, and speed. I bet Ryan and Brayden raced a clock for at least 20 minutes while Laney zipped around trying all the activities. Ryan loved spinning until she was beyond dizzy.

While we were looking at some optical illusions, Brayden spotted an animation talk coming up so we sat down and enjoyed a fun, historical look at animation with a little bit of illusion thrown in. Laney even volunteered for a super neat demonstration with animated lights.  The final moment we all enjoyed was when two volunteers from the audience were able to animate the Van Gogh "Starry Night" painting using their bodies and an xbox.






After walking around about another 20 minutes, we sat down for another fun demonstration the girls spotted on lightning. The enormous room had two Van De Graaf machines that were at least 3 stories high. The educator taught us all about electricity, lightning, and lightning safety.  We all covered our ears as she demonstrated an awesome electrical display.

   

The tesla coils were the kids' favorite as they recognized the Super Mario song they heard the coils play. It was deafeningly loud, but so fun to watch.

                       

After another 30 minutes spent playing with electricity, probability, angles, and calculus concepts, I finally talked the kids into heading to the gift shop. We finally walked out of the museum just before 5pm with tired feet and heads full of science. And we still didn't get to see everything!

As we said goodbye to Boston from the train, the kids decided on returning to our breakfast place from the day before for dinner. I am pretty sure they were counting on delicious desserts after their delicious breakfast and they were right! Lots of sugar and ice cream for all the little people.  I honestly don't know how they sleep after all that, but today I think it might have been sheer exhaustion.

Day 14

We'd decided the day before to try to make the 8ish train into the city in hopes of missing most of the morning rush trains the hour before. We got up early and ended up making it into the city a bit early for the Boston Tea Party experience. I enjoy the clash of old and new in a big city.





Before long, we were ushered into a meeting room to somewhat reenact the events the night of the uprising. We were all given roles with Laney being the newspaper journalist, I was a young man who had just been released from prison, Ryan was my brother Nathaniel who was to look after me this night. Our sister Sarah, was one of the people who dressed and painted the men. Brayden was Ebenezzer, a Boston south end gang leader, and Grammie was the youngest person present at 14. She had broken out as her boss had locked her up in a room so she wouldn't participate.

Samuel Adams inspired us with his speech as we booed, hissed, and huzzah-ed with outrage against the tax on tea. Before long we were making the walk to the ship more angry than ever and ready to destroy more than 300 crates of East India Company tea.

                                                      
Although they will not admit it to you today, there were three children who were caught hefting the tea overboard in an act of treason. Should you see these children, please let the King or his men know.

     

   

After a quick tour of the ship we were led into the museum which was one of the best parts of the experience. Photography was not allowed unfortunately, but this was definitely my favorite part of the experience.

Next we made our way to Boston Common to check in for the Freedom Trail walk. Everyone was excited to hear a bit more history with an interpreter from the time period. Our guide was a former slave who lived next door to Paul Revere and worked in a local tavern. She did a great job connecting the different buildings we walked past and telling stories about John Hancock, Peter Faneuil, and Samuel Adams from the perspective as a woman of color in that time.

                                                          

After spending some time in the sites where those men are buried, we ended up at the King's House where the Boston Massacre took place. The kids were amazed to be standing in the spot and in awe as she told the story.

We made sure to get a good view of the North Church where the lanterns were hung for the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

After finding a quick lunch we headed to the only place Ryan wanted us to make sure we would stop on the trip - Paul Revere's House. She had developed an interest in him early in the year so we've read many books and studied him quite a bit. The kids all completed activity books while we were there learning about the house and the time period.


                          

Our last stop of the day in the city was the Sky Walk. The view was spectacular as we walked around the top of the "Pru" and heard about the buildings below us.

And of course I had to get a picture of Fenway Park.

We found a quaint spot back in our little town for dinner with absolutely delicious food. Ryan entertained the table with some of her best impressions, bringing me to tears at one point. The kids were delighted to have their own lava cake desserts. After all that sugar, I threatened to send them all to the campground while Grammie and I went to her cottage while she threatened to leave them with the waiter.

With full bellies, the kids with me almost fell asleep on the way home as they brushed their teeth in the car. We were completely wiped out and all fell into bed to rest up for another busy day tomorrow.

Day 13

The majority of the night was filled with sprinkling rain so I wasn't quite sure when we'd be able to make it out without getting muddy and soaked. When I first woke up the air was still so I checked the weather only to find out the rain would be returning in 40 minutes. I quickly got everyone up and we raced the 300 yards (I didin't do to well with this reservation!) to the bathroom and back to start packing. We had an assembly line of packing going with everyone pitching in to try to keep everything somewhat dry, especially us! The kids have gotten used to the routine of packing by now and knew exactly when to step in and take on a job that needed to be done. As I was putting the key into the roof cargo box, the sprinkles started - such perfect timing.

The kids were starving so I dug through the laundry bag for clothes and we headed out. We were trying to find a quick breakfast place, preferably local, but once Ryan saw the Cracker Barrel they all *had* to eat there. At least it would be filling for our busy day ahead and I could beat the kids in checkers.

We were finally on the road to meet Grammie! We'd agreed to meet at the station around 9:30 in hopes to grab a train in and explore. We arrived at the station around 9:35 with only 2 other cars in the parking lot. I'd talked to Grammie so we knew she was on the way so I got my backpack ready and we headed to the platform. Brayden noticed the train was coming in 8 minutes so we were timing this perfectly again. I checked the Sunday schedule and it looked like the next train wasn't coming until almost noon.

We waited and waited for Grammie rooting for her to make it. Brayden was stressing us all by loudly announcing the countdown as each minutes ticked off the board. 4 minutes. 3 minutes. C'mon Grammie. The kids squealed as a truck pulled into the parking lot. Not Grammie. I started to figure out what we could do to fill the 2 hours before the next train. 2 minutes. C'mon Grammie. 1 minute. Brayden screams he can see the light of the train coming. Racing through the parking lot, of course, in her little Jeep rental here she comes.

We are all violently waving her over trying to explain we need to go. I see her shake her head and say there's no way she can get ready fast enough. Ryan is jumping up and down and the other two are trying to grab her to go. As the train pulls up to the platform I turn around and see her half in the car pulling out things she'll need for the day. The ticket guy comes out calling for those who want to go to Boston. He sees me and I motion back for Grammie to hurry. He's getting impatient trying to keep the train on schedule. Finally, we all climb on board and collapse in our seats. Grammie looks at me with the "what just happened?" face and we explain the craziness of the last 10 very stressful minutes.

Once we recover and realize we're good, we give hugs all around and sigh relaxing that we're together. We figure out parking and the ticket guy ends up helping us so much explaining tickets, giving advice, and offering stories of the city. We silently hope that at least most of the people we come in contact with will be that kind.

Once we get to the main station, we start walking to find the main attraction of the day, the hop on/hop off tour of the city. We figured this would be a good, quick exposure to the things we wanted to see and would also hopefully help us get our bearings. The tour guide we ended up with was great keep us all laughing and filling us with great stories of history and culture.

Once we reached the end of the tour, we ended up at The Chart House on Boston Wharf for lunch, once John Hancock's Counting House. While we savored the delicious food, we decided to try the subway to give Brayden an opportunity to see Fenway Park while we were there. After much confusion about tickets, we finally made it to our platform to take us there!

Unfortunately there was some construction so the Fenway stop was closed. We were completely confused about what to do so we just followed the masses and got on the bus. Within 2 blocks, Brayden and I looked up and saw the huge stadium right outside our window. Had we known we could have just walked! We figured out the bus was taking us to the next station so once we got off we walked the five blocks back to Fenway and walked around a little bit. Brayden batted his eyes at me when he saw a $200 jersey, but quickly figured out that wasn't going to happen.

              

Earlier we had decided to try to catch the early 5:00 train back to our cars as the next one wasn't until after 8:00 which would have us setting up in the dark. We navigated the subway back to the main station and made it there with plenty of time for an ice cream snack. It was regular soft serve that the kids enjoyed, but they have definitely been spoiled by all the flavor choices on our trips!

We checked in at the campground and set up quickly. The park was beautiful, nestled in a state forest in the middle of a small suburb of Boston. We usually spend quite a bit of time at the park with rangers and exploring the trails and visitor centers, but with our time focused in Boston I didn't think we'd be able to see much at this park.

After we grabbed a quick dinner for the kids and wifi for me, Laney, Brayden, and I made a quick stop at Whole Foods for some fruit. Ryan would be spending the next 4 nights with Grammie and we were all jealous of her soft bed and dry roof! I was pretty thrilled to have a tent to myself, though, as I spread out my sleeping mat - diagonally across the tent!

Day 26

Over dinner last night, we discussed our options for the day before heading to the next site and the kids were excited to choose the Boston Children's Museum as our next stop.  Brayden would have loved to go see the Red Sox play, but of course they way I planned the trip we have missed every major league game opportunity by days.  He still has his 10yo birthday airplane trip to figure out so he added Boston to his list.

After packing up pretty quickly, we headed to a McDonalds on the way to update the blog and have a mid-morning smoothie.  Within a few hours we were in the big city parked and headed to the museum.  Brayden was excited to tell everyone the story of the Boston Tea Party when he saw this boat!

We won't get to that time frame for history until the 2015-16 school year, so we may need to make a trip back up this way for all this history!

When we first walked into the museum the kids saw a climbing structure similar to one they'd fallen in love with in St Louis on our summer trip a few years ago.  Except this one was a little bit bigger and they were bouncing in the line in anticipation of climbing up!  See them up there - that's 3 stories up!

This museum was a little young for the kids, but sometimes they really enjoy doing this kind of stuff and taking a break from real brainy learning.  Kids should absolutely have the opportunity to play, play, play some days!  And that they did - store, construction, bubbles, dancing, playing with golf balls, making paper airplanes, and more climbing.

You'd think they'd had enough of camping already!

After they were all played out we headed to the parking garage ($36! ack!) and left for The Cape.  What should have been an hour turned into 2 hours with traffic even with leaving at 3:30.

Did you know you can drive in the emergency lane during weekday traffic?  It surprised me at first when everyone was flying by me. I tried it a few miles before my exit and it almost gave me a heart attack!

We arrived at our spot with time to play before dinner.   I thought Brayden was going to jump through the car window when he spotted the basketball goal by our site!  After showers for stinky kids and a campfire we settled in for the next to last chapter of our book!  The kids begged me to finish it, but with it already almost 10pm I thought we'd better crash.  I think we were all out within 30 seconds!

Quote of the Day: "Can we have one of these in our house instead of stairs?" says Laney after climbing the 3-story tower in the museum for the 6th time.  I'd like to see Papa make that one happen!

Day 26 - Sox and Cape