Beantown

We all slept REALLY well, and slept in a bit, too--until nearly 8 a.m. We leisurely got ready for the day, then went out to catch the T to Harvard. Upon exiting to the street, we found ourselves right in the middle of Harvard Square.

We set out to explore the campus, but just a little bit.

There's something very cool about walking around knowing just how old it is. It's a nice campus, but we honestly didn't get very far with it. If we hadn't had Nora with us, we may have considered taking a tour, but we knew she wouldn't last that long.

This statue of John Harvard is clearly good luck, don't ya think? His feet look like they've been rubbed many, many times! This was also clearly a major tourist attraction. I'm shocked that I actually managed to get a photo of it without anyone else in it. Don't let it fool you--there were dozens of people around!

For alums of a small college like we are, it was pretty hard to try to picture going to a school like this. Nevermind the fact that we are nowhere near smart enough anyway. :) There were A LOT of libraries.

One of the things I really wanted to do in Boston was to get Nora a Harvard sweatshirt. I could just picture her sporting one, and figured that a little nudge this early in life could never hurt anything, haha.

It took a few stores to finally find one like I had been picturing. Nora was enthusiastic about it (the girl loves her clothes).

We walked around Harvard Square a little more and then got back on the T to go back downtown.

My phone was a freaking lifesaver, by the way. I downloaded a few kid-friendly apps (mostly by Duck Duck Moose) and Nora was captivated by them. Anytime she got fussy in the stroller, freaked out on the train, or was being otherwise uncooperative, I defused the situation with my phone. Not something I would make a habit of in everyday life, I don't think, but in these situations, it was priceless.

We headed toward Faneuil Hall, and decided to grab some lunch. Michael's dad had recommended Union Oyster House to us, and upon researching before our trip, Michael found that it is the oldest restaurant in the U.S. As such, it is also part of the Freedom Trail.

It has a pretty cool atmosphere inside, and they serve you cornbread upon seating you--which is really damn good, I'd say. Nora was definitely a fan.

They only had about two things on the menu that we're seafood, so my options were limited. And, I must say, I wasn't thrilled with my meal. But I've found that with restaurants like this, that is to be expected. When a restaurant is so good at making seafood, they often suck at everything else. Oh well, Michael liked his meal, so it was worth the stop.

As we left, we decided to try to let Nora walk. That lasted about two minutes, as she still will not walk in a straight line and/or stay by our sides consistently. *sigh* Toddlers.

Up until this point, we had spent most of our time in Boston doing what Michael and I wanted to do, with Nora tagging along. After lunch, we decided to hit up one of the kid-centric destinations--the New England Aquarium.

Despite it being a Friday afternoon, the aquarium was CROWDED. I guess that's what you get on a hot summer day--loads of people trying to find a good place to cool down.

Right when you walk in, there is a large penguin exhibit. They're cute little guys!

We ventured back outdoors to check out the seals.

{Don't judge my ability--or lack thereof--to do a straight part in Nora's hair. This was the third time I had fixed her hair, and she was on the move. My goal went from making it look good to just getting it up and in the ponytail holders. So sue me!}

Checking out the penguins again. I love the pointer fingers!

These jellyfish had visible rainbow colors moving through them. There are some awesome creatures in the ocean, people.

Nora was into it. But if I'm being completely honest, Michael and I were not that impressed with this aquarium. Once we had walked through it, we looked at each other and asked, "Where's the rest of it?" After having been to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and even the one we went to in Charleston, this one just did not live up to the rest. We also didn't much care for the spiral-like layout, as it seemed to force everyone to go in one direction and see the exhibits in the same order--which also seemed to contribute to it feeling more crowded.
But then this happened (see video), and the price of admission proved to be well worth it. Nora's mind = blown. I can't get enough of that video.

The giant sea turtle (seen here from the top of the gigantic tank) was pretty cool, too. Not nearly as cool as the ones we saw in the wild in Hawaii, however. :)

After we made our way through the aquarium once, we let Nora make a second lap through everything--running along the way on her own--to help her burn a little more energy. Then we headed back out into the heat to do a little browsing/shopping at Quincy Market.

By the time we were through, it was late afternoon and we decided to go back to the hotel for a little bit. We were both still full from lunch so dinner wasn't a big priority. We had a few happy hour beers, and Nora watched part of a movie on the iPad--in a super cute position that I've never seen her lie in before:

Gah, how cute is that?

We ultimately decided to head out again for a bite to eat. We ended up at Rock Bottom Brewery (pretty close to our hotel), where Michael and I shared an appetizer--nachos, which were incredibly good. You don't often expect much out of nachos, but these went above and beyond expectations. :) Nora had a grilled cheese, which she seemed to enjoy just as much, and then we called it another day.

But not before stopping to say hello to the bear outside of Tufts. A nice end to another nice day in Beantown.

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I Think I'll Go to Boston

My 30th Birthday.

It started with an early morning wake-up call in the form of our alarm clock. We got up, showered, put the finishing touches on packing, got everything in the car, and woke Nora. She was in pretty good spirits--I think she knew we were going on an adventure. :)

Nora enjoyed breakfast--dry cereal and a banana--on the way to the airport.

We checked in, got ourselves through security smoothly (despite carrying on EVERYTHING, no checked bags!), and arrived at the gate comfortably, but with fairly minimal time to waste. This was the first time that Nora was old enough to be aware of where we were and what was happening. We talked about the planes out the window, and she mimicked the word, "Pane!"

Soon enough, it was time for us to board and find out that traveling with a toddler is A LOT harder than traveling with a still-pretty-squishy baby. HOLY COW. It wasn't long before I knew that we had made the right decision to take a SHORT trip for Nora's last "infant in lap" flight, because girlfriend would not sit still. And needed to touch EVERYTHING. She put the tray table up and down about 45 times before we even took off.

And through trying to distract her with movies on the iPad, we discovered that they didn't hold her attention nearly as well as they usually do since she couldn't hear it very well. Awesome. (I'm now on the hunt for some kind of toddler headphones.)

We pretty much let her be a monkey (without disrupting any passengers around us) and play with any and all of our electronics, until we had to prepare for landing. At that point, we did what any parent desperate to keep their child in one place would do. We brought out the SNACKS. The NEW snacks. Kix was not working anymore, so Nora had her first-ever granola bar.

As expected, she thoroughly enjoyed it. So, the lesson here is to bring not only snacks, but TREATS. Things that you never let them eat otherwise. Take note, my fellow toddler parents.

Soon, we were in Boston, collecting our bags from gate check, and making our way through the airport to find the T. Got ourselves multi-day passes, got on the train, transferred trains, and then very easily found our hotel (Doubletree Boston Downtown, right across the street from Tufts Medical Center on Washington Street). Go us. It was about 11-11:30 at this point, so it was a bit early--but we were lucky in that we were able to check in. Got a little settled, then wanted to go find lunch.

By this point, Nora was overdue for a nap, so I reclined her in the stroller--shout-out for the fully-reclining Chicco Liteway--and we walked. Ten minutes in, and she was out like a light.

We walked for a bit longer down Stuart Street to check out some restaurants, but ultimately decided to do something easy and VERY casual. Slices of pizza at a small place called Boston Kitchen Pizza, right by the hospital. Nora slept through the whole thing.

We tried to make a quick pit-stop back at the hotel to change my shoes (my flip-flops were already hurting me), and Nora woke up at that point. Not a long nap, but oh well, it's vacation. With sexy sneakers now on my feet, we made our way back out with no real destination or purpose in mind. Just good ol' fashioned exploring.

Nora had already spent a good part of the day restrained in some form or fashion, so we wanted to check out Boston Common and let her run a bit (if she so desired). We were making our way over there and were very close when all of a sudden I noticed this woman--who was walking toward us--start slowing her pace and pointing at me. I looked at her and she said to me, "Wait. I know you." If I'm being completely honest, I was thinking, "Nope, you don't. Mistaken identity!" And I almost told her as much. But then she said, "I read your blog!"

Stop the presses. This is the first time that anyone has actually stopped me on the street because of my blog, y'all. Some of you have confessed to spotting me (or us) out and about--close to home, and on our travels--but you've always told me after the fact. No one has ever actually said hi!

So, Kelly, thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you. Maybe others will be encouraged to say hi in the future, if you can attest to the fact that I'm nice and very approachable. We appreciate you saying hi and welcoming us to Boston. And, of course, thanks for reading.

After a short stop-and-chat, we were at Boston Common.

We did let Nora run a little.

We even took her to a playground, but it was SUPER crowded and our girl was mostly frozen in place, overwhelmed by everyone there was to look at.

We stopped by Cheers to take a few pics.

Then we went back toward the green space and checked out the Boston Public Garden. :)

It was a beautiful day, and a very pretty spot. What a great time of year to visit Boston.

More snacks. I swear, they are key for traveling with a toddler. KEY. (In this case, goldfish crackers. Another thing we don't give her at home.)

We walked around more and got our bearings a bit. Found a CVS to stock up on a few things. And then, honestly, by this point, we were just tired. It was mid-afternoon but it had been an early morning for us. We decided to go back to rest up a bit and relax in the hotel room. Michael ran out and bought us some beer.

We had a mini 30th birthday happy hour (complete with sippy cup in the background, woot woot!) while I got to read a million--OK, not a million--Facebook birthday messages and text messages.

Once we were sufficiently hungry again, we left in search of dinner, and ended up at this pub called M.J. O'Connor's.

I got to eat outside on my birthday--something that I love to do, weather permitting--and we enjoyed some time together as a family. We ordered Nora her own meal for the very first time (homemade mac and cheese, which she DEVOURED), had another beer, and some good sandwiches for ourselves.

Happy 30th Birthday to me.

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