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!
