I could almost smell the tea in the harbor...
A little background, first. Two years ago, when we had several graduates in the family, we all went to Yellowstone National Park for a big family vacation. Mark's sister, Aunt Shasta, helped Mark find a house just north of the park that was large enough for us all to stay in while we took day trips into our country's first national park. Aunt Shasta was living in Gardiner, MT, with Uncle Mike and their daughter, Olivia. Besides a family vacation for all of us, it was a mini reunion getting to see part of Mark's family in the mix. We had a blast and the kids decided that we should do it again in a couple of years.
Fast forward one and a half of those two years. I'm a little fuzzy on how we decided, but we decided that we would be Boston-Bound. Jessie did the research and, with Aunt Shasta's help once again, found us a house in Hyde Park, large enough for all of us...8 adults and two cute little girls.
The players in this adventure: The Sr. Paganos (Mark and Cindy/me); The Waymans (Jessie and Richard); The Hildebrands (Amber, Jesse, Lily, and Emma); The Jr. Paganos (Joel and Kimmy).
Conveniently, Joel graduated, again...so why not go on another family vacation?
May 4th began the adventure for Mark and me. We drove over to Muncie, IN, to watch our son, the actuary, get his master's degree, to much Pomp and Circumstance!
We left Muncie after taking a few pictures of Joel with various significant people, like his parents, his wife...you know, the basics. We drove to Columbus, OH, to spend the night with Terri and Dan Mitchell (Mark's sister and brother-in-law, and a BIG thank you to them!) in order to get up E.A.R.L.Y. Sunday, to drive to the airport for our flight to Wilkes-Barre, PA...because who doesn't want to visit Wilkes-Barre, PA?
Actually, we flew there to meet up with the Hildebrands, who were driving to Boston. It tooks us about 6 hours to get to Boston from Wilkes-Barre. Mark and I were not approved drivers for the rental car, so we got to play with Lily and Emma!! Grandparenting is great!
I'll let all of the others blog about their experiences getting to Boston, but let me say this: Flying may be the fastest way to get someplace, ONCE YOU ARE IN THE AIR, but it may take longer when you count in the time and inconvenience of flight changes, transfers and layovers, and the cost of having to check your luggage!
Back to my story.
Once we ALL arrived at our rental home in Hyde Park, MA, it was close to bedtime for the little girls. The Sr. Paganos were pretty pooped, too, so we let the youngsters stay up and get the party started without us. We had the honor of sharing a room with Lily. Actually, the first night we shared the bed, too. After that night, Lily decided that there wasn't enough room in our bed and she slept in the Pack and Play in our room. She's a pretty good little roommate. :)
Monday was our shopping/planning day. We got our food for the week and a few cursory plans made for the week. The Waymans and the Jr. Paganos went into Boston to get "acclimated." Well, maybe to take the train into Boston, and out again, in order to get to Uncle Bob's and Aunt Doris's for a wonderful dinner. Thank you to Moores for hosting such a large gathering, and thank you to Pam for stopping in to say hi, and to Paula, Kylie, Edward, and Katrina for staying for dinner...and for playing in the park with Mark...oh, and the Hildebrands. Thanks also for the hints and helps on what to see and what not to see (good call on the zoo...we didn't go).
Tuesday, the hard-core vacationing/touristing began. Getting into Boston was not a problem. Getting out - well, that was a different story. Suffice it to say that some of the people of metropolitan Boston, and at least one train conductor, were extremely kind and generous to help us find our way home! :)
From Tuesday through Thursday we used "Boston Go" passes to get into all of the sights that we could possibly see in 3 days with two tiny troopers with us. The highlights of our trip are as follows: The BeanTown Trolley Tour, the Aquarium, the Boston Harbor Cruise (Trivia Question: Did you know that 70% of the land mass of Boston is landfill/man made? That's a few tons of dirt!!); Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall; Boston Commons; Freedom Trail Tour (half of it in the rain...); Public Gardens (where we saw and played with the ducks from the book, MAKE WAY FOR DUCKS...and saw beautiful flower gardens, too); Lexington, Concord, The Bridge (sadly, the Manse was closed that day); tried to the Orchard House (Louisa May Alcott's home), but it was going to be too long for the little girls, and it had already been a long day.
The one thing we did not get to do, because for some reason they weren't running, was the Segway tour. That was rather odd, because it was advertised in the Go Pass book, and we saw some running, but had been told they were closed when we called for reservations. Oh well.
Thursday night, the Sr. Paganos, Lily and Emma stayed "home" while the rest of the Clan went back into Boston. Richard and Jessie went to MIT and to some delicious place for Italian food. Jesse and Amber met a couple from college and ate seafood (Jesse ate a TWO POUND LOBSTER and felt sick later that night...said it was worth it, and didn't offer one single bite to his wife!). Joel and Kimmy went to Harvard to meet a friend from Kimmy's high school days and they ate Chinese. Mark, the girls and I had sloppy Joes over baked potatoes, in case you were wondering. :)
Friday morning we did some straightening up and headed down to Torrington, CT, via Rhode Island. Why? Because RI was the ONLY New England state that Mark and I hadn't been to in all of our travels, and neither had anyone else, so now we all have! In Torrington, we visited Auntie Mae, Mark's sole surviving great aunt (there are no aunts or uncles left from any generation in that line). At 96 years old, she still gets around on her own two feet and climbs the stairs to her second story apartment each week when she goes to get her hair done! We had a nice visit and enjoyed iced tea and real percolated coffee! Auntie Mae's sister, Carmella, was there along with two of Mark's 2nd cousins, Anna Marie and Judy, Anna Marie's husband, Ben, and their son, Tom.
When we said good-bye to the Torrington Family, our Family Vacation also came to an end. The Waymans and Jr. Paganos returned for one more evening in Boston, and one more night at our "home" in Hyde Park. They flew out on Saturday. When our van-load left Torrington, we headed back to Wilkes-Barre, PA. On our way there (we had 6 hours to make our plans), we made some plans, then did some research and re-planned. The bottom line: The Hildebrands drove us to the airport and we rented a car and drove home...the day before we were supposed to fly. In the long run, even though the airfare was paid, we saved money and got home a day early.
On the way to the airport, Jesse wanted to settle an "argument" that he was having with Amber over which donuts were the best: Dunkin' Donuts (Amber) vs. Krispy Kreme (Jesse). Jesse definitely won that round by stopping and buying Krispy Kreme filled donuts. One more stop on our way to the airport:
It was just after dark when the truck started down
The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
This is from Harry Chapin's song, "Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas." I didn't realize this actually happened, in a real place. We saw a sign that read, "Load limit 20,000 lbs." Either that driver couldn't read, or they have since changed the load limit!!
We returned home, stopping at Der Dutchman for dinner, Happy Mother's evening. The rest of the way was uneventful and our Boston Family Vacation came to an end.
If you made it this far, congratulations!
Thanks for reading.
P.S. My favorite line from the WHOLE vacation came as we were getting into the car to go to the airport for our rental car, Saturday morning. Lily settled into her car seat and said, "Mama, My no want more 'venture." Lily was done with this adventure. If Emma could speak and knew the word, I'm sure that she would say, "Ditto!" What cute little girls.
