Boston trip!

We had the best getaway you could ask for in Boston last weekend. My mom took the kids on Friday and off we went. The worst part of the whole trip was driving in a torrential downpour all the way to Boston. We literally couldn't see in front of us and it was one of those moments that you think, "Good thing I have a will." But we made it to the Park Plaza alive and both agreed if that was the only rain we got that we'd be thrilled. By the time we got settled in our room the rain had stopped and it didn't rain again!! Very lucky since thunderstorms were called for each day - gotta love New England weather.

We did a 4pm Fenway tour which surprisingly neither of us had done before on Friday afternoon. Then we headed back towards our hotel and chowed down at the California Pizza Kitchen (I know, it's a chain and all but it's one of my favorites and VERY unrated if you ask me, you should really try it sometime). Then we went to see Al Madrigal at the Comedy Connection. Supposedly, he has some show with Jay Mohr coming up on CBS. He was pretty funny, definitely worth it since the host was also good. Madrigal did a few bits on his two kids which happened to be around Cal and Ben's ages so we definitely laughed the hardest at that.

Saturday we headed off to the Christian Science church area in search of the mapparium. I was told about this by a friend but didn't have many details...very cool! It's this huge stained glass sphere and you stand on a bridge right smack dab in the middle of it. They have a little recorded thing you listen to while the recording and watch as all of the 603 panels light up. It's the largest, most acurate representation of the earth there is or something like that. Given that it's a perfect sphere if you stood in the exact middle and talked your voice was in perfect surround sound. Also, if Eric and I both stood at opposite ends of the bridge and barely whispered we could hear what each other said and the people standing in the middle couldn't hear us at all. Neat! After that we learned about what Christian Science actually was, all about the lady who started it, and took a tour of the church. Very beautiful! After that we were surely hungry so down Boylston Street we went to gorge on an Indian buffet. Then we walked around, did some shopping, hung out in the Common, etc. Saturday night we satisfied my months-long craving to eat at Boston Beerworks (one of the few times we took the T too - who knew that damn thing costs $2 per ride!) It was cooler that night but we braved the chill to take a walk to the North End and see the newly constructed parks and whatnot after the Big Dig. Neat to see the changes since I've last lived there, oh about 8 years ago now. Can't leave the North End without having dessert so canolis and peppermint gelati it was!!

By Sunday morning we're seriously in need of a diet since we figure we've gained an enormous amount. We lounge around most of the morning but go out to get Starbucks for breakfast and then to PF Chang's as our final meal before heading back home to the boys. The boys were ecstatic to see us when they woke up from naps! They both did very well for Grammy while we gone - no problems aside from the fact that Ben took a nose dive on the driveway and had a huge egg on his forehead and a pretty scraped up nose. Cal had a matching nose scrape from what we think was the edge of the pool. Ben was like a baby gorilla once I got back and clung to me for the rest of our stay at Grammy's. He had a hard time sleeping there on Sunday night. I think he thought he'd wake up and I'd be gone again. Poor little thing - he cried for an hour until he finally fell asleep. Then he sobbed while I packed up the car on Monday and got ready for our departure back to NH. All returned to normal once we got back home though :) Hard to come back to the norm but we're very grateful to get the chance to getaway and spend some time together before baby #3 gets here!!