Trip to Boston - 2015

Kara has talked about how much she loves Boston for a long time.  I have been wanting to take her for years, but it's never worked out.  This summer, right about the time I was thinking that we needed to take a break and reconnect, Southwest announced cheap one-ways to Boston, starting in July.  I booked flights the day they announced.

The goal was to make it a surprise.  I kept it to myself, arranged child care and dog sitting and house sitting and asked Kara to schedule her work around that weekend because "we were going to do a few fun things around Indy for her Birthday".   That morning, my mom showed up to take the boys, and I told Kara to pack her bags.  We headed to the airport, and were off to Boston.  She SAYS she was surprised, but I'm not convinced.  Either way, we got to jet off on a trip just the two of us, which I really value.

We had an absolute blast - we stayed at a VRBO right off of the T, near a local university (Roxbury Crossing), which ended up working really well - easy to get to (10 min ride on the T from downtown), a great place to relax, and less than half the cost of hotels in downtown Boston.

We spent a lot of time on our trip in the North End, which is the old Italian sector of downtown Boston.  We ate two fantastic meals at small, family owned Italian places that were both great.  La Summa, which we had on the first night there, was my favorite, and is shown below.  They had fantastic food, but even beyond that, this place stands out to me because it was a nearly 3 hour dinner where we shared a fantastic bottle Chianti, and talked until late at night about our lives, our kids, and this wonderful little corner of the universe that God has blessed us with.  Very fond memories of this place.  After that, we headed to the infamous Mike's Pastry, for a Cannoli.  I still don't know what a Cannoli is, but whatever it was, it was dipped in chocolate and filled with an oreo cream filling that blew my mind.  It's worth the wait in line, no matter how long the line is.  :)

After our great dinner in the North End on Thursday, we actually headed back towards the center of the city, to Boston Commons, where we met up with Kara's Aunt and Uncle.  They live about an hour from Boston, but were in the city that night to catch Shakespeare in the Park, and so we met up after it was over.  The four of us went to a nearby pub and visited until the early morning hours, talking about what life is like on the east coast and hitting on some favorite crazy Kresl family stories.  We had a great time - thanks so much to Janet and Doug for hanging out with us!  

The next day, we headed out for a walking tour of The Freedom Trail, which hits historical sites in Boston and talks about the city's importance during the American Revolution.nding our country.  We had beautiful weather the whole weekend - sunny and high 70's, which made for an awesome day to walk around and visit historical sites. The first stop, shown below, is the Massachusetts State House, which we learned was the first in the country, and became a model for many other state houses -  I know the one in Indianapolis looks a lot like this.  

Other stops included the Park Street Church, which is one of the oldest churches in the country (pictured above in the intro), and the Granary Burying Ground, which is a cemetery downtown where John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Ben Franklin are all buried.

 

We also saw the Old State House (which is where the Declaration of Independence was first read), the site of the Boston Massacre, and Faneuil Hall (where countless revolutionary speeches were given).

We had a blast on the Freedom Trail.  I was fascinated by the history that we received, and our tour guide (who was a professor of history at a local college) was amazing.  So glad we did this.

The Freedom Trail ended at the Bell in Hand Tavern, which claims to be America's first pub, and was started by the first Boston Town Crier (hence, the name Bell in Hand).  We sat and chatted about history, and of course tried a sample of the specially brewed Bell-in-Hand Ale, brewed by Sam Adams for that pub only.  It was great!  After Bell-in-Hand, we went walking, and ended up passing Paul Revere's house in the North End, and ending up a the Wharf.

That night, we ate a fantastic dinner at a place called Legal Harborside, which was right on the water.  The restaurant is part of the Legal Seafood chain, but nothing about our food or experience seemed chain-like to me.  We had fantastic seafood, great views of the water on a beautiful night, free live music, bleeding across the water from the Live Nation Concert Venue nearby, and the single greatest Old Fashioned that I've ever tasted.  We had a blast here and would recommend it to anyone.

On Saturday, our last day in Boston, we went to the Boston Museum of Science, and I got to geek out on all kinds of science, physics, and mathematical models and exhibits.  There were so many cool things, but two really stick out as unique.  First, we went to the Pixar exhibit that had just opened, which was a joint venture between the museum and Pixar, and was a huge environment that immersed you into the art, math, and science that goes into Pixar animations.  It highlighted how the creative and technical worlds crash into each other to make the amazing animations that Pixar comes out with.  I could type for pages about this, so I'll leave it at that, but it was awesome, but if anyone is curious as to how Pixar uses parabolic formulas with random-number generated variations on a few key variables to render grass, let me know.  :)

The second awesome thing was the world's largest Van der Graaf generator, which is an electrostatic generator that can be used to create lightning indoors, and has been a mainstay at the Boston Museum of Science for decades..  The show they did was very cool, and even my electrical engineering brain learned a few things.  (If you're one of Kara's friends, please feel free to insert some nerd jokes here).

We left the Boston Museum of Science, our brains swelling, and hopped on the train to head to Cambridge.  Kara and I both wanted to see Harvard Square, and walk through the campus.  Cambridge was a very cool town, which featured some really unique shops, pubs, and restaurants, and reminded me a lot of the culture of a place like Berkley.  Cambridge also features the world's only Curious George store, because the authors of the books lived there for a long time.  (Luke would have been in Heaven!)

While we were in Cambridge, we walked through Harvard's campus, checking out the old buildings, the statue of John Harvard, and the overachievers who went to school there.  :)  The panorama below is of the center of Harvard Yard, and can be viewed better by clicking on image.

We had another fantastic dinner in the North End that night, and then capped the weekend off by meeting Kara's friend Eric and his girlfriend.  This provided for another very long but fantastic night of Boston's finest beers, a killer old-school hip hop DJ, and some very awkward dancing by young parents who occasionally forget that their college party days are behind them.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend away - a perfect mix of history, site seeing, and relaxation that we desperately needed.  It also served as a great reminder of how much I love experiencing new things and seeing the world with Kara, and why she's just the best companion.

We were so excited to come home and see the boys, and are so thankful for all the help and support that our families gave us to allow for this trip.  The boys were in good hands all weekend, as we got flooded with pics of them playing in the pool at Grandmas, at the Zoo with Uncle Joe and Aunt Hannah, and playing with Grammy until we got home on Sunday.

What a great trip.  Even a 7 hour flight delay in the Boston airport on the way home couldn't spoil our fun - especially since we got vouchers for free flights to our next getaway.   Thanks Southwest!

Which reminds me, now that we have free tickets, I've always wanted to try snow skiing....