Monday, June 25, 2007

Think I'll Go To Boston...

Well, we are FINALLY home for a while! After a week at home and a long weekend in Boston, I feel like an 80 year old woman with toddlers. I think the curse of the sinus infections didn't help in the middle of all our traveling but needless to say, we had a great time in Boston.

We headed out Thursday morning (yes, I actually got up at 3:45am!) and got into Boston around noonish. We met up with Kyle & Erin and had the afternoon to eat some lunch and then nap before Jason & Jessica made it in. *Note...if you ever go to eat at Whiskey's in Boston, you are only allowed to order wings at the bar. For some reason, they will not serve you wings in the restaurant part??? Does that make any sense?

That night we had dinner at a great restaurant called Sonsie's....great pizza....followed by a nightcap at an Irish pub that had traditional Irish music.

Apparently the local singers had all their friends there that new all the words to all their Irish jigs. We noticed from the window that there was a hot dog/pizza/sausage/steak sandwich stand that was hoppin' the whole time we were in there. When we decided to head back home, Ryan was curious about all the hype so we got steak sandwich that ended up being awesome! Expensive, but awesome!

Friday, we did the Fenway Park tour. Being the big baseball fans we are, this was a historic ballpark that was a must see on our list. Unfortunately, the Red Sox were in San Diego playing the Padres so we only got to do the tour with no game. The good news is, we will just have to go back sometime to take in a game. The park was awesome. I could not believe how small it was. You would think a park with an outfield nicknamed "The Green Monster" would be massive. The wall, yes, but the overall park, no. I loved all the history of the park and the dedicated fan base that reminded us a little bit of St. Louis. What a great baseball town!

Yes, it rained on us a little bit on the tour...

On our tour...

Such a cute pic of Kyle & Erin!
All the boys at Fenway...

Ryan at the Monster....

We lunched at a place called The Barking Crab...

Lunch was overrated (priced) but this was our view...

...but they did have awesome clam chowder!


... and ended with dinner at Cibo's in the North End. GREAT Italian food!!!!!! Their little stretch of Little Italy was quite impressive and made us long to go to Florence again soon! That night we ended back at The Green Dragon tavern and had a great time there. (Erin & I would highly recommend Sean's Happy Juice...fresh fruit infused Grey Goose!) Heading back to the hotel, we hit the lounge downstairs at the Sheraton and polished off some Wasabi trail mix. Yummy! Then off to bed. *Kyle, I will spare my readers your incriminating pics of the hotel lounge to protect your distinguished lawyer status. Erin, I will be emailing them to you for future blackmailing! Making fun of Kyle for always thumbs-uping the camera...
See what I mean...
Little Kyle loved that Wasabi mix!

Saturday, more sightseeing. We headed up to Cambridge and visited Harvard. I felt any bit of smarts I had suck right out just walking through there. It was summer school check in so we were all intimidated by the 17 year olds all checking in their first day of school who were most likely smarter than all of us combined! We walked around Harvard Yard & Harvard Square and then went to eat lunch at the famous Mr. Bartley's Burgers. A great little hole in the wall burger joint that has great burgers. Mine was the Yuppie Burger with bacon & boursin cheese. It was a good little experience, except for Jason whose burger ended up being a little too rare. We headed back from there, walking through a really cool park where the famous swan boats are. The guys headed back to the hotel for a little nap before dinner and the gals headed for much needed manis & pedis! Best decision we made!
A cool church at Harvard...

An entrance gate to Harvard Yard...

Our yummy, greasy burgers...

One of the swan boats...

Saturday night ended with a great night and meal at Tapeo, a quaint little tapas restaurant. My love of Sangria's was met to the highest expectation! After a nice long, slow dinner, we came upon Lir and stopped in before heading back. Once inside, we were the only ones upstairs. Within 30 minutes, that place was crazy. Ryan likes to think he drew in the crowds. Unfortunately, and possibly still tired from the night before, we were all pretty wiped out and by then it was almost midnight so we headed back to get some sleep before heading home on Sunday.

It was so great to come home and get those babies out of bed! They were fighting sleep so we got to come in and surprise them! If that is only half the look we will see for the next several years on Christmas morning...we are in for a treat! Nana & Papa G looked tired but seemed to have had a blast with the kids. They took them on a road trip to Springfield on Saturday and to their first church pot luck on Sunday. I will try to get some pics from Martha to show yall there adventures while away from momma & dada! Overall it was a great long weekend and we can't wait to our next adventure with Kyle & Erin. After conquering Chicago & Boston, we will have to think of somewhere challenging next!

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Please take a moment this week to check out my uncle's blog. You can get to it by clicking on Geo's Bike Adventures . He is doing such a great work raising money for Arkansas Children's Hospital. He will be riding from Ft. Smith to Memphis this week in one day to raise money for the kids at ACH! He has lots of money raised but they can always use more! Please check out the past blogs on donation information if you would like to contribute. BTW Geo....love the new hair!
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Hopefully I will be back on track this week and can update more regularly! Thanks for checking back!

3 comments:

bethany h said...

two things...
1. you wore the shirt i got your for christmas... yay!
2. thumbs up was definately a theme for the weekend!?

Sarah said...

Melissa, I loved your blog with all the details (especially the food details!) and pictures. I would sooo love to go to Boston one day. There's a conference there next June that I think I reeeeally need to attend :).
Glad you guys had so much fun. You guys deserved a vacation!

Suzanne said...

gosh! jealous..you guys looked like yall had a blast. i LOVE those little mom and pop places! all those neat places to eat..so cool. that's what we miss most about houston. dallas is not near as cool! ;) i digress..

great pics..but that one dude MUST practice his picture taking without the thumbs up!