Bahston

Boston! Jared had a Bank of America training for a week, so we decided to have me come visit him for the weekend to finish up his visit back East. I was nervous having to pawn the kids off to Grandpa Lowe and Amanda Taylor, then take the midnight RED EYE flight all the way there...all while my prego belly was churning with nausea and discomfort. I boarded the plane, said a little prayer, took two Benadryl and actually slept for about 4 of the hours!

I arrived in rain and cooler weather, which was lovely b/c we Phoenix was still in the triple digits. I followed Jared's instructions to board the bus, then metro then walk to the Pier Marriott where his hotel was. What a fun reunion in the lobby to see my hubby there! He snuck me up some breakfast food and I took a little nap until 11am, when his meetings were done. We packed up our suitcases, bid farewell to his fellow co-workers, checked in our luggage to he valet (smart idea, vs having to haul it around the city) and off we went to explore!

The culture and people of Boston are happy, energetic and their accents are contagious. Everywhere we looked, people were in good moods and willing to give directions or take pictures for us. Since it was starting the weekend, there were many street performers and vendors in the main city square. I loved taking lots of pictures of the old buildings, the open swap markets, the food courts (lots of seafood, pot pies, chowders and pizza), tourist souvenir shops and local vendors. We walked the freedom trail to a couple of OLD cemeteries (like 1700's) until it was time to get our luggage and take the metro to our hotel. We must've walked a mile with our luggage on some cracked sidewalks before we finally got to the Cambridge Marriott.

We decided to go to the Boston LDS temple that night. It was an adventure! We took the shuttle to the metro station, then the bus, and then walked another 1/2 mile to arrive. I was a little scared to be out walking on such busy streets late at night, and then having to wait for the bus to arrive (not knowing if the bus schedule posted was the correct one? would we be stranded?)  The temple was beautiful, inside and out. I was a little surprised at how NOT crowded it was! We did some sealings and then headed to the celestial room where we were completely alone for like 30 min (even the patrons weren't in the room). We enjoyed the visit with he head sealor on schedule and I know Jared felt the desire to get a higher education just by visiting with him (which is very common in the East).

The next day Jared worked out while I went shopping at Trader Joe's for some expensive breakfast and snacks. We decided to buy a 2 day Tourist pass to hop on and off the Old Town Trolley's. It was a GREAT idea. We hit up all the local spots, including; Cheer's, Omni Parker House (where they created the first Boston Cream Pie and Parker House rolls), Garden Boston Celtics center for Hockey, went to Four's for lunch (really yummy food with a fun Boston atmosphere),  Commons Square (where there was a Hemp Fest going on with over 1,000 people high on marijuana. It was craaaazy.  Jared felt pretty uncomfortable, but I found it interesting and sad. The overwhelming smell in the park was enough to make us want to get out of there quick).  We went to Harvard and MIT where Jared's heart was just soaring with dreams of a higher education. I remember looking at all of the random students and just thinking "you guys are all so smart to be here!" Jared bought an expensive $6 ice cream that an entrepreneur built a POD into a ice cream shop on campus.  That night we dined in the hotel Japanese Tepanyaki restaurant where they made awesome food in front of us over an open fire. We chatted with the locals, and they thought it was amazing how we were prego with our 5th child, but pretty much the same age as them. I was exhausted by the late evening and just had to lay really still before I started dry heaving up our expensive dinner!

Next morning, Sunday, we went to the local Harvard Student ward. Jared and I were amazed at the intellectual talks and high degrees, even the bishopric members were using huge vocabulary words! We walked back to the metro station, took the shuttle back to the hotel, changed our clothing, then loaded up the luggage onto the Trolley where we put it into the Valet again at the Pier Marriott. We saw a really cool carousel with octopus/sea creatures/ fish and bought some souvenirs. We went to Fenway Baseball Park and even hit up the local Marshall's for cheaper priced items.  We were really crunching in as many places as we could before the Trolley stopped picking up people and we had to get to the airport. Our last stop was taking a Boston Harbor cruise across the water to the Bunker Hill Monument. I climbed all 294 steps of that building, sweating and panting, but did it! The weather was still really nice and I loved being alone with Jared (and not pushing a stroller or waiting for toddlers).  We raced back to get to the airport in time for our 7pm flight out, arrived at 10pm, and fell into our beds exhausted from our great weekend trip.