Day 21

We were all able to sleep in a little bit this morning because the tour buses weren't running on weekdays I suppose. The day before there would be a huge bus drive about 20 feet from our heads every 15 minutes or so starting at 5am. We ate breakfast and got ready to meet at the train for our busy day.  I promise we have utensils, but what kid doesn't love to eat watermelon like this!?

  

We made it to the Empire State Building with what seemed like every other tourist as we waited in line after line after line. Just when we reached the end of a line that Disney-snaked all around a room we would make it to another room full of people waiting in line again.  The view was great though from a completely different side of town as the One World Tower with a much closer view of the buildings in the area.  We were able to point out buildings like the Flat Iron Building and Rockefeller Center since we were only 80 floors up.



The kids even spotted the One World Center downtown! We climbed the 6 floors up to the open air observatory  and walked around. Brayden even got the courage up to put his hand through the bars outside.



















Once we had our fill of beautiful views, we headed back down and hopped back on the tour bus for some more history of the city. This tour guide was really great with an obvious love for the city.
I love the architecture of the older buildings with their intricate carvings, statues, and designs. They did these amazing things without power tools and we just build boring boxes now!
       

We hopped off about an hour later for our tour at the United Nations. This was one of the places I was super excited about as I'd never been and I'd read they do wonderful tours, especially for children. They ended up putting us with another group that had already started for some reason so we didn't get to hear the beginning, but we did get to go to the room they'd visited for a quick picture.

We joined just as they were discussing the emblem of the UN that places no country in the center to make them seem more important.

Three of the rooms were gifts from different countries - Norway, Denmark, and Sweden and were finished in a style fitting to them. Each also had some part of their design that reminded the members present of the goal of the UN. It was really neat to see the actual rooms we see snippets of on news reports!

Ryan was asked to come in front of the group and tell the guide her tour was boring to illustrate the human rights articles the UN attempts to enforce in its member countries. It made sense to us that just because that statement might upset our tour guide it does not give her the right to take Ryan to jail for sharing her opinion but that's not what happens in many countries. 

Next she told us about some of the different committees that meet to solve some of the bigger problems in the world.  She talked with us at length about the newly developed goals that were to be reached by all countries by the year 2030.  I was especially interested in a campaign she talked about called ShareTheMeal (https://sharethemeal.org/en/index.html) that would be really easy for us to contribute to and see where the money was going at that point in time with all the needs around the world. I also thought the kids might be interested in sharing the money in their "give" parts of their banks with this program. 

Last up was the huge general assembly meeting room with room for all countries and some of the NGOs that help administer and oversee the programs the UN creates. Each year a country name gets drawn out of a hat and that country's delegates get to sit up front with all the other countries alphabetically seated behind them. There is so much attention to fairness I feel like I'm at home dealing with my children!

Before we left we just had to try on the UN security helmets for a picture! It was a tad too large for Ryan!

  

We hopped on the train back to our little city and had a quick dinner of enormous pizzas and salads. We all snacked on some M&Ms, rested, and took showers to get ready for the show tonight. 

We ended up taking the wrong train into the city though so we had to request an UBER lift to the Gershwin Theater. If you're ever in New York City, find Marvin to get you where you need to go fast! I had to close my eyes a few times, but he got us to the theater with 10 minutes to spare!

Dave had picked out our clothes and shoes to send with Grammie for the show so I was a little nervous about how we would look, but I think he did a pretty good job!  We were all super excited to see Wicked in some amazing seats Grammie scored. I'm really not sure how she does this every time we go to a show!

The show was wonderful and very funny! I do believe it will be all the kids' favorite part of New York City. I got chills every time the main character Elphaba belted out a solo.  What amazing talent in this show!

After the show we hopped in another UBER vehicle and arrived safely back at Grammie's apartment within 15 minutes. The girls and I walked back to our spot laughing the whole way about the different parts of the show we enjoyed. It was late, but a wonderful way to end our day! 

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!