Bahst’n

Brenda arrives to pick us up in an enormous black Dodge Ram pickup (thank goodness for free upgrades) as we tag along on her summer work trip to Boston. The kids are so excited to ride around in the huge truck. We throw our luggage in the bed and literally climb up into the cab just like the Ice Truckers…no cap on the bed but no worries the sun’s out and we’re all super cool.   The ride down is uneventful and Brayden is thrilled that we have Sirius Satellite Radio so she can listen to country music for five hours…ask me anything about country music and I can answer it–who’s wife left him and took his dog, who misses his dog more, the best honky tonk, mama, the train, the tractor, small towns, red neck girls etc.

Boston is a great city. It’s on the Charles River with lots of beautiful bridges. There is a mix of old historic buildings with new skyscrapers. It has a big city feel but not too big. It’s walker friendly and almost everything is there except for a darn Chase branch so I have to pay $2.00 to make a withdrawal at a non-Chase ATM after I give all my money to a ticket scalper (but more on that later).   Actually it’s pronounced Bahst’n…there’ no O according to the Duck Tour guide Paul Reverse. The first day we’re there we take a Duck Tour which is an amphibious vehicle that travels on land then it drives into the river for a water tour. It’s fun for adults and kids. –all the tour operators dress in costume and they narrate the trip and race at a breakneck 20mph into the river. The driver even let Bethany and Brayden pilot the boat for a few minutes. They’re ringers because they both have a boating license. The streets have quaint gas lamps and a lot of brownstone looking buildings with colorful window boxes and brick stoops. After the tour we go to the supermarket and buy fruit, sushi, goat cheese, crackers and muffins for the room and we have a feast for dinner.

The next day, while Brenda attends her meetings, the kids and I take a tour of Fenway Park and sit in every section of the park including the Green Monster…this makes it so much more familiar when we finally get tickets to see a game the next night.  I learn on that tour that Rick is a Yankee fan as he keeps making disparaging comments about the Red Sox.  He’s more into the rivalry that I ever suspected.  The requisite Boston event is to attend a baseball game at Fenway Park but alas no tickets are available. Rich counsels me over the phone; it’s easy, just go before the game and scalp tickets. I cautiously walk out of the train station just before the game and go up to the first friendly looking guy flashing more than 3 tickets. (When I called Rich at the game he asks me, “What did you pay for the tickets?” and I respond, “Whatever the guy asked”) Actually I did have to bargain because he asked for more money than I had with me. I haggled furiously for about two seconds (cause I’m standing there with three kids who are obviously overeager to go to the game) and got him down to the face value of the tickets, which was every penny I had in my wallet. The ticket broker at the hotel wanted 2X face value for nosebleed tickets. And, as I handed this stranger, who assured me that I had great tickets, all of my money and walk away, Brayden asks, “Mom, do you think those tickets are real?”…I don’t know how she knew what I was thinking. Then Rick asks a little bit too loud, “Is it LEGAL what we just did?” I was too scared to hand the tickets at the gate so I had nosey Brayden do it…I stopped sweating when the barcode scanner beeped to let us into the game. THE TICKETS WERE REAL and they were very good seats! All the planets aligned for me. The concession stand had $5 kids’ meals, plus the Red Sox won with a home run at the bottom of the 9th…very dramatic Jose Ortiz home run.

We went non-stop all week and saw almost everything. Boston is such a beautiful city. The buildings and parks are just gorgeous and clean. The people are friendly and diverse and young as it’s a big college town. We took the subway and the ferry and just walked and walked everywhere. We had a McDonalds lunch at a bench on the Boston Common (big park with lots of trees and gazebo and lake) then took a narrated tour of the Freedom trail to get a little history lesson in. We learned all about Sam Adams (he’s not just the guy on the beer don’t ya know), Paul Revere, John Hancock etc. And BTW, fun fact…Sam Adams was so ugly that the makers of the Sam Adams beer put Paul Revere’s face on the label. On our way to dinner that night in Chinatown we pass a fountain that some crazy college kids had poured laundry detergent into and the kids got a chance to splash around in all the suds. Walking around with three small kids is tricky as they all want to hold your hand.  In lieu of growing a third arm I try to negotiate.  I’ll hold the little ones and Bethany, the oldest, can walk close by or hold one of their other hands. She’s not having it and complains bitterly that she wants to hold MY hand so I end up holding two hands in my one and trip around the city in this awkward posture.  At one point a man stops me and asks if I need help as I’m acrobatically holding on to three hands as I read a map to navigate our way. 

We spend the next day at the Science museum and see a 3D film on sharks, visit the butterfly gallery, and see this great IMAX film called “Mystic India.” It’s on a 180-degree screen and it tells about the seven-year travels of a young yogi across India to eventually find his spiritual home. It’s supposed to be a true story and the scenery is amazing and it makes me proud to be Indian because everything looked so rich and colorful and exotic. On Thursday we take a Swan boat ride on the lake filled with ducks, swans and weeping willows…very romantic unless you’re with 3 kids…then it’s just picturesque. The ride is about 15 minutes but it’s a bargain…I pay about 6 bucks for the four of us. The other bargain is the ferry from Boston to Charlestown where we see the USS Constitution and the Bunker Hill monument. The ferry cost $1.50 for me and Bethany…the little ones are free. The ferry takes you across the river and you get a great view of the ports and the bridges. We climbed the 294 steps to the top of the monument and I am hobbling around the next day because my leg muscles hurt. Brenda, conveniently, had to make some work phone calls and was unable to make the climb so she waved us on from the comfort of her bench/virtual office.

We walk across the bridge back into Boston and eat at this fabulous Italian restaurant close to Paul Revere’s house. The Revere house is closed but, conveniently, the gift shop is open–capitalism trumps history. The north end is like “Little Italy.” For our first meal there we order eggplant rollantini, chicken parmigiana, and ravioli…the food is out of this world. They bring fresh crusty bread to the table with this dipping sauce that’s made of pureed white beans, garlic, vinegar and olive oil…it is just incredible. We end up eating 5 baskets of bread…but we ask different wait staff for more bread so we don’t come off as galvones. Our ploy to remain invisible and eat all the bread is foiled when Rick makes an accidental karate move (that’s how he describes it) and knocks a glass onto the tile floor that explodes. The waiters are very nice about it and clean it up quickly…so I leave a nice tip (to fund their next bread purchase). Then we go to the corner bakery and get cannolis and different pastries for the room. For lunch (Brenda joined us this time) the next day we had meatball hero, lasagna and seafood and pasta with a white sauce…and only two baskets of bread. The dipping sauce this time is olive oil, crushed pepper and balsamic vinegar.

We were very cool on the ride home too…big pickup, satellite radio, open bed full of luggage…that is until it started to rain. Who rents a pickup without a cap…what happens when it rains? I’ll tell you…all your luggage gets wet. But we’re still looking cool. Actually, although it rained for practically the entire ride home, the luggage was not that wet. We return the truck to the rental company but, as it turns out, we get to visit it again the next day as Bethany had dropped her mini video camera in the console and we go back to retrieve it.  Later, as I’m unpacking I come across the toothbrushes…a yellow one is still in its’ unopened wrapper. I call Rick and I ask him what toothbrush he used all week…he says that it was the yellow one. I have him look at the unopened package and he stumbles to explain how he miraculously brushed his teeth through the factory sealed plastic…finally the little stinker admits that he hadn’t brushed his teeth for the ENTIRE week. So I make him go and brush his teeth 10 times to make up for it and I take away his new robot scorpion toy from the Science Museum that he bought with his own money. I just love travelling with my kids.