Boston: Part 4 (Salem)

I think one of the only things I wanted to do (besides eat everywhere) was go to Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is only a beautiful 30 minute drive north of Boston. Before we got Salem though we stopped at Crane Beach. It was clean and pretty but it was also rather cold out. Drew finally got use to the idea of sand and was eventually able to walk on it.

 and even taste it....

 After Crane Beach we drove up to Salem. It was awesome. Of course now it is a full functioning city, so I was thinking it would be more obsessed with the Salem Witch Trials then  it was but it was still awesome to see during October. There were a lot of Halloween decorations and this house was really decked out. I'm obviously really excited.

 Of course we found another cemetery, and Drew loved it again. Some of headstones said stuff like "Pressed to Death September 1692"AWESOME. The streets were foggy with with the mist coming in off the ocean which made it a perfect day to see the eerie sights in Salem.

Massachusetts was beautiful. It's nice that its pretty close for fun excursions. There's a lot of great cities to see on the East coast and I'm glad we'll have more fall breaks to get out and explore.

Boston: Part 3 (Fenway Park/Cambridge)

The weather started to turn a little more damp the longer we stayed in Boston. One day we decided we would do indoor things like take a tour of Fenway Park. We're not even Red Sox fans and it was awesome! We got to go to every part of the park with a great tour guide.

Drew liked sitting up in the press box in his own chair.

 

We were able to go sit on the famous Green Monster. 

 

Here's Spencer trying to contain his excitement!

The same day we went to Fenway Park we were able to go to Cambridge and check out Harvard. While we were checking out Harvard, Harvard was playing Cornell in an Ivy League football duel. I think Cornell ended up losing, but no one really cares. Apparently hockey is the big sport around here.
Harvard was pretty, but wasn't really what I expected. Cambridge is like really close to Boston and is just as busy of a little city! I think we were expecting it to be more like Ithaca, with Cornell set on a beautiful hill overlooking a quiet city. While in Cambridge we took our friends, the Pattersons advice and ate at Mr. Bartley's Burgers. I ordered the "Mitt Romney"- which was divine.

 Before heading back to our hotel we stopped at another educational powerhouse- MIT. Unlike BYU every bathroom is not equipped with changing tables for babies. So I ended up changing Drew on a little bench in a hall way. If he ends up ever going to MIT we'll have to take him back and say this is where we changed your dirty diaper... there was a cool sculpture outside that Drew loved running around.

Boston: Part 2 (Freedom Trail)

We walked a lot in Boston, it was probably good to try and combat the mass amount of calories we ate. We started one of our days by climbing the Bunker Hill Monument.  I carried the stroller up the 300 stairs which was kind of awkward. My calves were a little shaky after we got down.

After we hydrated we followed the Freedom Trail around Boston. Seriously the freedom trail is the best idea ever. I don't know if other cities have a similar thing (Salem, MA does) but the idea is perfect. You just tell tourist to get on the red brick path and follow it around the city. The freedom trail is about 2.5 miles with nearly 20 historic sites along the way.

 

The freedom trail took us all sorts of places. The Old North Church where the lanterns were to be hung that go with the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" which led to Paul Revere's midnight ride.  The freedom trail led us to the USS Constitution- the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel.

 We hopped off the trail just for a minute to get some delicious cannolis at Mike's Pastry in the North End district of Boston.

 

the place was busy, and the cannolis were delicious.

The freedom trail led us right to a park downtown that Drew figured was the highlight of the trip.

Boston: Part 1

Can you tell that I don't have a computer? My computer broke just before we moved here. Spencer on the other hand bought a brand new spanking computer to take to school for important law notes, while I have been stuck with an iPod touch. It's better than nothing, but by the end of a day of searching the web and online window shopping my thumbs are a little sore :) -- which brings me to the reason for the lack of blogging since we have moved here...

Anyway, back to Beantown...

So Spencer's sister Amy joined us for fall break. She flew into Syracuse and was able to spend a few days with us in Ithaca to see our stomping grounds before we made the drive to Boston. It was nice to have her join us for fall break so that we could have some structure to our vacation. When I travel there isn't really much of a plan except where I plan to eat, Amy however knew of a lot of neat places to see and things to do.

  Exhibt A.
Me driving while Spencer "studies" and Amy keeps Drew happy in the back seat.

Somehow I got between the house on wheels and the lady that drives behind it with the flashing lights. She was pretty mad about it but I thought it was one of the top 10 moments of the 5 hour drive.

Boston is full of so much history. We spent 5 days there and still didn't get to see everything we wanted to (or eat at every place I wanted to)... (I guess that's our excuse to go back) When we got in to Boston after our drive we first stopped at Lexington Battle Green. This is where the British first fired on the militiamen to begin the American Revolution. Drew had a lot of pent up energy and had fun running around the lawn.

The park is just a little piece of lawn surrounded by beautiful New England homes. It smelled like a delicious garlic dinner when we got there and I told Spencer I could picture myself living right there in the Lexington/Concord area. I found out later the price of some of those homes and maybe will have to live a few other places before we can afford something there...

We walked to a small cemetery where Drew was acting like he had died and gone to heaven.... get it?
He was running around the leaning tombstones and falling every 3 feet from the uneven ground. Some of the headstones dated back to the early 1700's.

This tree had completely grown around about 10 of the tombstones surrounding it.We explored some of the visitors centers around the area then found a little local farmers market that was going on. It had some great pastries, maple syrup and chocolate.

We tried to squeeze in one more thing to visit before we headed back to the hotel, however we were a few minutes too late. The State Park closed and the Park Ranger on duty was seriously starving for conversation. He was a nice guy. He told us about his days at Yellowstone, Lake Powell, and every other state park in between. When Drew started to get a little fussy from standing around for an hour he tried to perk him up with showing him the lights on his cruiser. Didn't really work, but whatever.

Fall Break

 Cornell law school offers a full week off for fall break, so we took advantage of the time before Spencer starts studying for finals already and made a trip out to Boston.

 We took a walk Sunday night through Sapsucker woods in Ithaca before we left for Beantown. The colors were so beautiful and the weather was so warm.

We took a lot of pictures while in Boston so we might have to split the trip up over a few posts.
You will probably be able to see our weight gain progession through out the week. get excited.

Drewby

I haven't posted much about what Drew has been up to lately so here is an update on the little muffin. Drewby has been exploring the world of more freedom. More freedom in eating and more freedom in getting around.

 He can't seem to bring enough food on his spoon to his mouth at a time so often he resorts to using his chubby little fists to shovel the food in... I wonder where he's seen that before.....

There's not a lot of food he doesn't like just foods he doesn't eat as fast or as passionately. 

Last week at a surprise birthday party for a friend Drew was being very quiet in the kitchen. I caught him a little too late after he had gotten into the chocolate cake. Lindsey quickly snapped some pictures...

He has adjusted pretty well with our move to Ithaca, although his sleeping is still a little off. Hopefully that sorts it self out in time. It's hard to let a baby cry through the night (I have no problem with it cause I can sleep right through it) But I am referring to the neighbors upstairs, I'm sure they are hoping Drew gets better at sleeping more than we are.

 Drew loves playing outside. Yesterday we went outside and Drew pushed random toys around the parking lot. He has gotten very stable in his running and walking because he tries to keep up with the bigger kids in the neighborhood. Which has resulted in even perfecting his dance moves.

 

The leaves are starting to change and we are beginning to 

 witness what everyone told us about Upstate New York in the Fall. The weather has been nice, the colors are beautiful and there are tons of apples EVERYWHERE.

We are happy. 

Life is good. 

It feels good to say that.