boston, the beginning

 

this spring luke had a conference in boston.  we've stayed home during several of his midwest conferences waiting for a more exciting place for all of us to visit together.  this was it.  it was ruby's first flight (she has been more of a mega road tripper in her little life), and our first flight with two babies.  it went well, thanks to mateo having his own seat and all of us being together.  we've both visited boston in the past but this was our first time to really dig in and we had the best time.

 

we had pricelined a hotel (we are a little crazy about the excitement of bidding really cheaply and not knowing what you will get) and got the back bay hotel - it was right in the middle of everywhere we wanted to be and in a historic old building that used to be the police station.  we arrived to a room with chilled champagne and truffles and a card that said "happy birthday karen!, love mom".  the hotel said we should just enjoy their mix-up, so we did!

 

the next morning luke got up early with the mateo and walked to the boston public library down the street.  he got there just in time for story time (ha!) and said it was really great and really huge and funny because instead of the classic "go sit with your mother/father" commands, there was a lot of "go sit with your nannies" which is a bit different from story time in flagstaff.  ruby and i got ready and we all toured the library together.  it was, of course, classic and gorgeous and we could have spent all day there.  we went to a room with an exhibit on maps and a friend told us not to miss the secret elevator and the room with the miniature rooms, both which were great.

this first day in boston was luke's only day with us so we decided to walk the freedom trail together.  we passed beautiful historic buildings, old massacre sights, cemeteries, little flower stands and newspaper corners.

 

(and pretty boot window displays)

 

we walked through the common and the public garden and saw the classic willows blowing with the musicians playing below.

 

we explored old cemeteries and laughed when we decided to rest for a few minutes and then looked down and saw paul revere's grave at our feet.

we had argentinian sandwiches for lunch, got fruit at a farmers market, and we stopped at a park where mateo and ruby could finally stretch and be silly.

 

they created this game where they would crawl to the middle of the sidewalk when it was empty, wait for the street lights to change so the masses of people would be almost on top of them, and then they would make a mad dash laughing and screaming to get out of the way.

 

we followed the trail to the north end where we fulfilled our touristing duty to eat giant cannolis and espressos.

 (we may or may not have come back here a few times during our trip)

 we visited quiet memorial gardens

and old brick churches where mateo practiced his new winning smile.

just as they were getting crazy and tired and hungry we finished the freedom trail on top of bunker hill, where we could look back and see the city we had just toured in the distance and beautiful homes all around us.

we both kept thinking about how different this day felt for us- exploring the history of the united states - something we always do when traveling or living abroad, but something we haven't done much here.

  we played awhile in the grass and watched the sun set and then went straight back to the italian north end to eat fresh homemade pasta and drink italian wine.