The Boston Invasion: Day 8

The Esplanade
We went walking along the Esplanade, which is like a long skinny park along the river. This footbridge goes down to the Esplanade.
Same bridge, view of the river.


I love the Esplanade! We took a nice long walk. It's so green! And I love the river! And I love the view of the city! And I love the cute footbridges! And I love the long lagoon thingy with a path going around it!
Kaci took a lot of pictures. This isn't all of them. But aren't you glad you get to see all these? It's a great view of the river.
The round brown thing on the shore is the Hatch Shell, where the Boston Pops play for their televised Fourth of July special. MoTab has also sung there, Mom tells me. I didn't know that. It's pretty cool. It's smaller than I would have thought and has composers' names written all over the outside.

Kaci told me to gaze, so this is my best gaze.

Our mama duck and cute little ducklings! I said to Kaci, "Look! It's Mama Kaci, Peter, Thomas, Kaci Jo, and Elizabeth," (the names Tom told me they have picked out for their kids, but Kaci got very defensive when I asked if that meant they were having 4. She said Tom just sneaked the boys in there.) So Kaci replied, "No, it's Kaci Jo, Elizabeth, and their two friends!"
I was again instructed to gaze at the city, but I think I just look like a punk. Or sad. Maybe it's because you can't see my eyes behind my sunglasses.
This one's better.

South End
Then we walked around the South End, a neighborhood Kaci hadn't been to. At first it was pretty boring because it was just houses. This is the first at all exciting thing we came across: Union Park. It's a cute little green spot in a quiet nook of the neighborhood.


Then we came across this Greek Orthodox Church, I think the first one I've ever seen. The mosaics were pretty cool.
We couldn't quite read the plaque through the fence so Kaci took a picture.
One ginormous cathedral! I like the architecture.
We ran into this adorable little bakery that we had read good things about so we got sandwiches there and were going to eat them in a park we had passed. This is a cute little community garden with a cute little gazebo.

This is Blackstone Park, named after William Blackstone, the first European settler in Boston. In 1625 he began living alone on what is now Beacon Hill and the Common. We started eating here and then it started raining. So, of course, I suggested we leave and of course, it stopped raining soon thereafter. But we weren't far from Copley Square so we stopped there and I was glad to spend more time with one of my favorite places in Boston. :)

The Boston Invasion: Day 7

The Newport Invasion

Kaci and I had talked about possibly going to Newport, RI, to see the mansions, but then on Monday night we thought we weren't going to be able to, but then on Tuesday morning we decided to go and Sheryle drove from Connecticut to meet us! So we were excited to go and hang out with Sheryle again, and I was excited to educate myself because I'd never heard of the Newport mansions--or Newport, for that matter. (And let's be honest, what do I like more then touring old houses? Maybe eating ice cream...but not much else.) Kaci was excited to add Rhode Island to the list of states she's been to and tell Tommy she was catching up with him in their contest. After an adventurous road trip--I won't go into the details--and a confrontation with a mad dog parking attendant, we found Sheryle--yay!--and took a cab to The Breakers, the house we toured. This is it.
Kaci posing a very Kaciesque pose.
While we waited for the tour to start, I took a shot from the entrance of the tree-lined drive.
Okay, if you skip this it won't hurt my feelings, but I have to give you a history lesson because the tour was so cool. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt got rich from the New York Central Railroad, had 12 kids, and left all his money to one! His favorite son, William Henry (named after the president), got all $100 million. He only outlived his father by 8 years, but in that time he doubled the money. When he died in 1885 it went to his son, Cornelius II, who bought a wooden house called The Breakers. When it burned down 7 years later, he had architect Richard Morris Hunt design a new house on the same site. It was built from 1893-1895 as a summer "cottage" for him, his wife Alice, and their 7 children. Gertrude, the oldest, was 18 when the house was finished, so they had a coming out/housewarming party with a zillion guests that went until 6 am or some crazy time. She married some guy named Whitney in the music room and started the Whitney Museum in NYC (she was an artist). Four generations of daughters continued museum operation and it's still there. The Vanderbilts' youngest, Gladys, is the reason the house is so well preserved and has its original furnishings. She married Count Laszlo Szechenyi of Hungary and had 5 daughters. She inherited the house when her mother died in 1934 and couldn't afford to maintain it, so she opened it in 1948 to raise money for the Preservation Society of Newport County, which she strongly supported. In 1972, the Society bought it from her heirs and it was made a National Historic Landmark in 1994. Gladys' youngest daughter, Ferdinandina, is still alive--she's in her 80s and lives in Budapest. The Breakers has 70 rooms, 23 bathrooms, over 138,000 square feet, 3 floors plus a mezzanine for the servants, a 50-foot Great Hall, a second-floor porch with an ocean view, and only one guest room. They didn't like having overnight guests! The only time the guest room was used (for an extended period of time, anyway) was when their granddaughter Ferdinandina spent the summer there. The house is full of gold, laid on thick, as much as 1/16 in., marble furniture and pillars, an original tapestry from a long time ago, mosaic floors and ceilings, hand-painted ceilings, etc. The 400-year-old fireplace in the library is from a French chateau. 2 or 3 were built in France, taken apart, shipped over, and reassembled. The dining room is awesome--seating for 34, solid rose alabaster pillars going around the room--only used for special occasions though. There's one huge painting on the ceiling and two smaller ones on either side that were hand-painted by Italian craftsmen. Cornelius' bathtub is carved from a single block of Italian marble and weighs over 3,000 pounds. All the bathtubs had 4 faucets, for hot and cold fresh water and hot and cold sea water. They thought the sea water was good for 'em. And the children and servants got the rooms facing the ocean. They thought the wind from the ocean was bad so those were the bad rooms. Everything is so detailed. Cornelius really spared no expense, even with the servants' part of the house. Not that they were all paid well, necessarily. It took 40 servants to run that place and Mrs. Vanderbilt's housemaids (some of them, anyway) got paid $12 a month for 18-hour days, 7 days a week. Mr. & Mrs. V. were scared of another fire happening so the kitchen has its own wing to prevent any fires spreading to the rest of the house. The kitchen is big, but still, with 120 meals to prepare every day for the servants alone, not to mention the Vanderbilts and any guests, it must have been crazy in there. They had to keep the stove hot all the time and the tour guide said it took 7 hours to heat the whole thing. It's huge! It only took 2 years and 2 months to build the house. There were 40 architects and over 2,000 craftsmen working on it. Even on the outside (Indiana limestone with marble insets) it's so detailed! It's incredible. And the money spent on the house was just pocket money to Mr. V. We don't know how much it cost, but that's what the guide said--pocket money. There are 8 other houses owned by the Preservation Society, but there's one that's not--Belcourt Castle (also designed by Richard Morris Hunt). The owners actually live there and give tours!
The wait for a cab was too long, so we walked back into town. The weather was beautiful. Here Sheryle consults the map and Kaci gives me her best damsel-in-distress pose.
After a lot of walking past big trees and cute wooden houses, we found one of the restaurants the cab driver had recommended. But we wanted to eat outside, and they weren't serving outside. So we kept going, failed once more, and by the time we got to the third restaurant, we were so tired and hungry that we stopped there even though they weren't serving outside either. That meal was so good. I ordered lamb and liked it! I also tried swordfish and clam chowder for the first time. Aren't you proud of me? And I had the most wonderful key lime pie for dessert. When we finished Kaci and I took pictures while Sheryle talked to Nate on the phone. :)
The light is fading, but these aren't too bad. It was a cute little spot on the waterfront with cute little boats.
More boats...
The Black Pearl, where we ate...
More boats...
More boats and me...
And more boats...
And more boats...
And Kaci!
Then Sheryle wanted to find Ocean Drive so we drove around for a while but we couldn't find it so we stopped by a dock and Kaci and I went out for a couple minutes and tried to take pictures but it was too dark. So we looked at the ocean and got back in the car when we got cold. So between the whale watch and that, I didn't get much of an ocean experience. But that's okay! I'm never getting on a boat again--I'll just stay on the beach. :) Anyway, I know this picture is weird but I like the shot of the bridge that we came over on. The view on the bridge was pretty sweet.

The Boston Invasion: Day 6

Concord

On Monday morning Kaci and I took a train to Concord. It was so pretty. When we got to the station I was so excited! The main street-ish street right there was so cute. And that was when we got the phone call from Mom that reaffirmed my intution that Andra's baby is a girl. And I was really looking forward to meeting Sheryle, so I was pumped. It was love at first sight for me and Concord. It's fun just to walk around, and the weather was beautiful. We went to the Colonial Inn (LOVE that place) and had lunch on the porch with Sheryle. She is so fun! She told us about her artwork, her Sunbeams, her years in seminary and Scouts, her sons Forrest and Nate, and she expressed approval for my upcoming marriage to Forrest. Then we took a nice long walk to Orchard House, where the Alcotts lived, and took a tour. It was so cool! The house is actually two houses dating back to the early 1700s that Mr. Alcott stuck together, and they moved in in 1858. I saw the desk he built for his daughter Louisa on which she wrote Little Women, a bunch of May's artwork, and Anna's wedding dress. We were there the day before the 146th anniversary of her wedding. I thought that was sweet. She was married right there in the house by her uncle, the Reverend Samuel May. I could go on, but I won't. We took pictures outside the house but they're on Sheryle's camera. Yes, I know you're very disappointed.
Then we walked to The Old Manse, the Hawthornes' house. The tours were over, so we just looked at the house from the outside and walked around the grounds. It was way cool. Behind the house is the Old North Bridge and the Minuteman statue.
Kinda dark, I, know, but here we are with Mr. Minuteman.
We drove to Walden Pond and walked the trail all the way around it. It took a while. The pond is bigger than I thought it would be. And there were actually people swimming in it--can you believe it? The first person we saw was wearing a wetsuit, but there were a couple more that weren't. Brrrrr!!



By the foundation of Henry David Thoreau's cabin. It wasn't found until the 1940s. There's a replica of the cabin at the entrance to the pond. It's way tiny! I said, "Kaci, it's even smaller than your apartment!" And she said, "Yeah, it's just about the only thing that is."

This picture turned out weird (it was pretty dark) but isn't the Entering Concord sign cool?
We drove back to Concord to see one more thing-- the old Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Authors Ridge where the Alcotts, Thoreaus, Hawthornes, and Emersons are buried.
Here's Louisa's grave...
...and the Alcott family marker. Those were my only pictures that weren't blurry. The cemetery was very neat. When we got back to Boston we told Tom about our adventures over a steak dinner. Yum! The restaurant was in the old city hall, which was also a plus, because it was the only closeup look I got of it. It's a really cool building. Too bad it's not still used as city hall, because the new one's nothing special.

The Boston Invasion: Day 5

Nursery
Church was in Roslindale, which Kaci and Tom said was technically part of Boston, but I find that hard to believe because it's 45 minutes south of their place. And we drove--that was another new experience for me. (That sounds weird, but you know what I mean--driving in the city, not driving.) I went to nursery with Kaci and Tom and it was interesting. We only had five kids: Hadley, McKay, Ashton, Jocelyn, and Emma. Emma is Tom's favorite and Kaci accused him of avoiding/not liking/neglecting the others. :) She's really funny though, and she has red hair. Ashton has red hair too but I guess he didn't like Tom as much. He couldn't handle it and we had to get his dad. His dad is their second counselor and he was hanging around in the nursery room after sacrament meeting. He started telling us about this English class he's teaching at BYU this summer, so I told him I would be there and I was looking for another class and he laughed and said something like, "I don't know if you want to take mine." Anyway, Jocelyn was my special friend from nursery. She was very reserved, and younger than all the others I think, and Kaci said she didn't like to play by herself. Well I held her for a while and read to her and then she played by herself just fine! I don't know if it was me, but I was proud of myself anyway. Of course, when the Primary song leader came in to lead singing time, the other kids were really excited and they brought out their colored mats to stand on and Jocelyn just clung to me. At least she wasn't crying. The other kids had a great time singing, though. We sang "Here We Are Together," "Popcorn Popping," "Book of Mormon Stories," "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," and "Once There Was A Snowman." We also got special requests for "Frosty the Snowman" and "Jingle Bells." Hadley was really cute. She had a great time singing, dancing, and twirling, especially to the songs with motions. She just generally waved her arms around because she couldn't do the motions. Anyway, enough about that.

Glamour Shots
Tom thought Kaci looked especially pretty (her dress was way cute), so he took these pictures. Very goofy. I don't know what we're supposed to think of the pose with the bike lock, but you can see Tom's artwork on the wall behind her--T + K in pencils.

The Boston Invasion: Day 4

H&M
We got a very late start on Saturday because Kaci and I wanted to get pretty. We were going to meet Julia at H&M, but she wanted to go to the new one on Newport St, and we wanted to go to the old one on Washington St because it's closer and more familiar. So we headed to Downtown Crossing. I had already seen some of it on the way to Chinatown the day before. We were there for a while and we both got some way cute stuff! My favorite thing that Kaci got was a tannish wrap sweater. I got a creamish polka-dotted half-top sweater thingy (so did Kaci) and a long-sleeve green shirt with pleats across the top. I guess you would call them pleats, anyway...very cute.
Later we all went to the store and Kaci was so happy that Tom was with us. It was cute. He said he was glad I was there because we could carry more groceries home. :)That night we made seven-layer bars. So good. Here we are posing with our creation! Kinda dark, I know.

The Boston Invasion: Day 3

Whale Watch

Tom suggested we go on our whale watch the next morning (Friday), so if Kaci was still biffed/tired, we wouldn't be exerting ourselves much. So we did and we were very excited! It was something Kaci had been wanting to do, and I thought it would be really cool. So we walked to the waterfront (specifically Long Wharf, in case you wanted to know), took some pictures while we waited to leave, and admired the harbor and cute boats, even though the weather wasn't great. As you can see, it was a gray, foggy morning, and kinda chilly.

These first pictures are pretty self-explanatory...





Our boat was a catamaran with 3 decks and 2 indoor cabins. The top deck was open. I went to the Boston Harbor Cruises website just now and it said she's 110 feet long and holds 400 people. Named the Nora Vittoria. Nice, huh? Well, the voyage didn't turn out to be so nice...


Shots of the skyline as we went out to sea:



When it had been 15 or 20 minutes and we'd gotten out of the harbor the boat sped up big time and the sea got choppier. With the extra wind it was uncomfortable to be outside. I was already kinda cold and wishing I had brought a sweatshirt. It ended up not mattering, though, because both of us spent most of the time in the cabin. We stuck it out for a few minutes, then gave up and went inside. I remember telling Kaci I felt kinda weird and I hoped I wasn't getting seasick. Someone handed out barf bags and I was a little surprised, thinking, "Are we really going to need these?" The further we went, the more pitching and rolling we did and Kaci and I both felt awful. The naturalist lady got on the mike and started talking about the kinds of whales we might see. It was kind of interesting and I tried to listen but Kaci and I had to keep our heads down to make it bearable. When we reached our whale watching spot she kept talking from time to time and then a few whales were spotted, but they were too far in front of the boat for me to see, but I could only keep my head up for about three seconds anyway. Then there was another one off the side we were sitting on (I think--I was a little delirious) but I couldn't lift my head and by that point I didn't even care. Finally Kaci felt better and went outside. Somehow I managed to rouse myself, thinking maybe some fresh air would help. Well, I swaggered across the room and only made it to the door, and I was glad I had that barf bag because I lost it right there. Then I felt sooo much better. It was great! Everyone was watching Salt and Cap, mommy and baby humpback whales, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside. I got two pretty good looks at them but no good pictures. After a couple minutes they disappeared and it was still very windy so I went inside, and then a couple minutes later we headed back. I slept most of the way--I guess being sick had really taken it out of me. Kaci didn't sleep but she kept her head down. Some others were sleeping too, and earlier we heard some kid say people were throwing up downstairs, so maybe they were in the same boat as we were. (No pun intended, Tommy, honest! That was funny.) We were awake when we passed the cute little islands we recognized from the trip out, so we knew we were getting close to the harbor and went outside and...


Yay! The fog lifted! The sun came out, it was warmer, and we were going slower so it was less windy and we could actually walk around on deck. Boy, were we feeling better.

Another part of the shore.


We were so happy to get off that boat! And hungry! It was 2:00. We thought it would be 3 hours, but it was 4. There's a Legal Sea Foods right there on the waterfront where we came off the wharf, but I didn't really want to. Kace began rattling off their clam chowder's wonderful attributes and I finally gave in (kind of). I told her later we could come by and I'd get a small cup of it so there wouldn't be much risk. So we walked around trying to decide what we wanted to eat. We passed a Turkish restaurant called Sultan's Kitchen. Kaci was intrigued, but I said no. I wasn't ready to take that step when I hadn't even tried Indian food. Kaci suggested we go to Quincy Market, and we did. There's a North Market and a South Market on either side of Faneuil Hall. So we walked down this really long food court and then decided on Indian food, because I'd never had it. It was good. Then we took the T across the river to Cambridge for my Harvard tour! (We hadn't planned on this but Tom called earlier and said why not now because he had some free time.)
This is the Flour and Grain Exchange, a cool building we passed on the way to the marketplace. Kaci didn't know much about it so I googled it just now. It was built 1890-92 and designed by the Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge architecture firm, now known as Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott.

Harvard

Here we are at the entrace to Harvard Yard! And no, I don't have a Harvard boyfriend. The flowers are Kaci's. This is funny, though--we were waiting for Tom, wondering where he was, and Kaci said, "I bet he's getting flowers." And I said, "Yeah, right." Well, sure enough, he showed up with flowers! That was weird.
Rubbing John Harvard's foot for good luck. Tom said he donated a ton of money to build the university but that's all.
In the yard.
Adams House. Cool dorms, huh? (This isn't Harvard Yard anymore.)
Memorial Hall. This is my favorite building at Harvard (besides the way cool library, but we didn't go inside that). It's a big gothicy churchy building with stained-glass windows dedicated to the sons of Harvard who died in the Civil War. It has their names on the inside. No, I didn't take this picture--it's from the internet.
Then Kaci and I went hunting for tamarind juice, an ingredient for our pad thai. Kaci had read on the website that's it's available in many Indian and Chinese markets, so we thought we could find it in Chinatown. Well, to make a long story short, we didn't. And we were pretty biffed until Kaci changed her attitude. She said we should just feel empowered and when we got home I found some websites you can order it from while Kaci started cooking, and that made her happy. :) Julia came over while we were cooking and brought our cilantro and limes. Thank goodness the cilantro was cilantro, because when Kace asked her to get it she didn't know what it was. Heehee. :) So we had fun talking and eating (it was very good, although later we realized we'd forgotten the beansprouts). Then we ran downstairs and around the corner to the Beacon Hill Market, picked up some Chunky Monkey ice cream, and ate it while we watched Gilmore Girls on my bed. I chose the episode where the girls visit Harvard, in honor of my recent visit. It was great fun and Kaci said, "Tom! Tom! Take a picture," hence the picture. After the whale watch, it was a great day!