Massachusetts The Bay State (Boston)

The Mr. and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary in Boston, with the kids of course. In 7 years we have had 2 kids, moved homes 4 times, moved to a new state, been to 26 states together, 5 different countries, and as the Mr. put it in his Instagram post he is still sleeping in the bed. I hate to get all mushy on you all but I don't get the opportunity to share with the world how much I love him often. His sacrifice for his family, his unfailing love, his constant support are just a few things that admire about him (he is pretty awesome lets just put it that way). If there is one thing living in a state far away from all that you know has brought to our marriage it is that we have truly learned to depend on one another. I am beyond blessed to have him as my partner in the adventure of life. Here's to many more Mr. Logan! 

Check out those babies 11 years ago

June 20, 2009

I guess I never really realized how close Boston is to us, but just like everything else it could easily be a day trip. I have to start off by saying, we LOVED Boston. Honestly, I think we like it better than NYC. It feels cleaner, its full of history, and just has an overall good vibe to it. I can definitely see us heading back to Boston during our time here (only a few more states to go before we revisit any previous states). 

Did I mention how close it is? Boston is seriously just and hour and half drive from our home in Connecticut. If you are from Kentucky that is pretty much like driving from Greenville to Bowling Green, or to Cincinnati from Louisville. People that the Mr. works with ask him all the time "Did you travel that much when you were living in Kentucky? You know to like Indiana and all the surrounding states?" While his answer is no, this is all new to us, so we are taking full advantage of the proximity. In all actuality, yes we have been to all the surrounding states, but what I don't think they realize is that we could drive for five hours and never leave the state. The one thing I have noticed is while I have always known where the New England states are (as to probably everyone reading this post) I can't say that New Englanders know much about the great state of Kentucky. I have had the following two crazy statements: "Is Kentucky close to Colorado?" "Oh your from Kentucky, isn't that where that big horse race is? I think its called the Kentucky Derby?" Come on people, really? 

We decided since it was our anniversary weekend we would make a weekend trip out of it, well two days. The Mr. took some time off on Friday so we leisurely made our way north with our first stop being Cambridge, MA home of Harvard University. I know some of you think we are crazy dragging our small children to all these Universities (Elin has been on like 5 college tours in her two years of life), but we are firm believers on it never being to early to start talking about colleges. Plus, right now at this point in their lives we are just dragging them to things that the Mr. and I want to do, making memories! The main reason we wanted to go into Cambridge though wasn't because of Harvard. I have told you all before that New Orleans is by far our favorite place we have traveled to, it lives in our soul! One of our favorite restaurants in NOLA is a little Mexican place (yep, Mexican in the bayou is pretty amazing) called Felipe's. Now Felipe's has several location in NOLA but the only location outside of NOLA just happens to be in Cambridge, MA. Why? I have no idea, I guess I should have asked. Randomly I was on Felipe's website looking to see if it was a chain one year while we were visiting and I never forgot this little bit of information. I have been planning this trip to Felipe's since we moved here. It was just as good as it is in NOLA, only difference the Harvard location just doesn't have that NOLA charm (it lacks a little dirt and beautiful architecture). If you ever visit either city please stop by Felipe's. Our personal favorite is anything with chicken tinga, and we have tried just about everything on the menu (sometimes we eat there everyday for lunch, or late night snack while in NOLA, its that good). 

Sorry but not sorry NOLA Crew (Mallori, Tory, John, Kari, Will, and Macy), we are ready to plan a NOLA trip soon though!

After lunch we did explore Harvard Square (got the t-shirt) and headed over to Harvard's campus. We loved Harvard Yard, it is probably a great place to study or as the Mr. said take a good nap. They had tons of little movable metal chairs in all colors. Of course the dictator needed the Mr. to move all the chairs until she got just the right color combination (blue, purple, pink, yellow, and orange).

We spent a little time on the yard just letting Elin run around and soak up Harvard campus. Its amazing to think that some of those building were built in the 1800s or even earlier. Some interesting things that we learned about Harvard (they are actually lies written on the John Harvard statue) 1.) John Harvard is not the founder of the University (in fact he just donated a bunch of books, no body even knew his name until he was dead) 2.) the statue of John Harvard is just a man, not actually John Harvard (it was the 1600 people, photography was not invented, and John Harvard has no record of sitting for a portrait) 3.) if you read closely on the John Harvard statue it says that the University was founded in 1639, when in fact it was founded in 1636 and was originally called New College, only getting its name changed after John Harvard died and his will was read and he became such a huge benefactor to the University. Just because their Ivy League doesn't mean they tell the truth. However, being a former teacher it was pretty cool to stand on the campus of the oldest insitute for higher education. 

Oh mom!

Just rocking her UK outfit on Harvard's campus, she is considering both right now!

Family Selfie Failure #1

Family Selfie Failure #2, our kids are wondering why they have to be seen with people

After our journey around Cambridge, and no naps we decided to head to the hotel. Elin was hoping for a pool but the Double Tree in the Theater District let her down. We weren't really sure where to stay so we just opted for any Hilton with an available room and landed in the Theater District. We didn't do much exploration in this area so I can't tell you a whole lot other than the hotel was extremely nice and super close to public transit making it very easy to get around the city. 

Friday night we went down to Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Baylor got to experience his first official ride on public transit. Other than having to carry the stroller up a flight of stairs because we took a wrong turn and missed the elevator the T was definitely easy to navigate. 

Is that the city that smells? Or me?

The kids who still had not had a nap were troopers. If you take a look at the picture below you can tell how much they enjoyed the marketplace. They used this excursion as their nap time. It actually worked out perfect that they were sleeping because at Faneuil Hall they have areas with outdoor games that you can play for free. They have a ton of board games but then they also have ping pong tables, chess, air hockey, and pool tables. The Mr. accepted my challenge in a game of ping pong, and of course I lost. I loved this idea, wish more places had things like this. While we were there we saw people of all ages going up and playing the various games. A lot of laughing and memory making. Props to Faneuil Hall for giving people a reason to put down their cell phones. 

Inside Quincy Marketplace are a million restaurants. The Mr. and dictator went with their staple, pizza, and I opted to try a buttered lobster roll (I hate mayo so I'm always searching for a good buttered lobster roll, apparently this is called Connecticut style). Of course we ended our dining experience with Ghiradelli's, which you can't go wrong with. If you are looking for Boston apparel, household items, etc. this is the place to buy it at. If you are looking just to shop, you probably want to head in another direction.

Random fact, McDonald's in New England serves Lobster Rolls and so does Panera

Good night Boston

Saturday morning we headed back down to Boston Harbor. You know me I am always one to find a good craft fair, and Boston certainly didn't let me down. Apparently this fair goes on every weekend so if you do go to Boston check it out, you can't miss it! They also have some really great food trucks in the area. We needed a mid morning snack and stopped at the cookie food truck. We tried three different flavors: salted caramel, peanut butter and chocolate chip, and a sugar cookie with M&M's (I am sure if you know the Logan family you know which cookie goes with which person). 

There were some really cute things here!

We had already planned on doing the Boston Duck Tour on Saturday. If you have never been on a Duck Tour you should try it sometime. The Mr. and I have been on one in Seattle (prior to kids), so sort of knew what it was all about. The duck tour is the best way to cover a lot of ground, see most of the top attractions a city has to offer, learn some cool facts, and have a lot of fun. The Seattle Duck Tour is nonstop quacking, blaring music, and yelling at people on the streets (it is Seattle though, enough said right?), whereas the Boston one was a little more reserved! If you are wondering what a Duck Tour is click the link above.

For only $4.00 you can get this cute little duck quacked that no 2 year old can make quack, she looks cute trying!

The Boston Duck Tour took us all around the city. If you take a look at the pictures you can see some of the sites we saw. I am not even going to begin to try to name the buildings as my memory is foggy (I leave the keys in the door pretty much daily).  Typically the tour goes by Boston Commons but our trip had to be rerouted due to some construction. We pretty much hit all the major landmarks of the city (minus Boston Commons). Boston is definitely a city of many first, and full of history. I am sure you could spend days there just soaking in all the history, but right now our kids don't have the patience for that so we opted for the quick way, Boston Duck Tour. 

Yep, she was bored! Oh, and we take that polar bear everywhere1

 After the Duck Tour, our kids were exhausted and we were ready for a break. Baylor has been cutting teeth so sleep is a word we currently don't know in the Logan household. We still have some things that we want to do in Boston (Boston Commons, Fenway Park), but those will have to be for another day! If you have any other suggestions of things we should go back and do feel free to leave them in the comments below. Overall, it was definitely a great weekend and the perfect way to ring in year 7!