Saturday May 12th, Part 2

First day down and it was a great one!  We spent the whole morning and early afternoon in downtown Boston.

We started with a limousine tour of downtown with Boston Tours - Antique Limo.  They picked us up in a 1939 Cadillac Imperial Limousine.  This thing was super cool.  The driver was in period dress.  He started by threatening to put the boys in the trunk if they misbehaved.  This got  their attention and they were both great the whole time.

The Cadillac approaches.

The boys are ready to go.

The four of us after the ride.  Owyn just  woke up.

After our pick up we headed into Boston and spent an hour and a half driving up and down the streets.  My initial impression of Boston drivers was confirmed.  I've been in third world countries that had better driving.  We hit all the high points, the Constitution, Breed's Hill (Bunker Hill), Beacon Hill, the financial district, etc.

He dropped us right in front of the aquarium, which, while on the itinerary for the day, was not destined to be our first stop.  Before we looked at fish we needed to eat some.  Right across from the aquarium is Legal Sea Food, a Boston based chain.  We had some great food.  Tracy was able to get her soft shell crap fix fixed and I got to have three grilled fishes, shrimp and scallops.  The boys picked around at their fish and chips and hamburger, but mostly ate fries and corn, shockingly.  We also got some raw oysters.  They were really, really good.

After lunch it was across the street and over to the long line at the aquarium.   I did the math and realized it would be $92 dollars for four of us to get in, so Tracy went inside to look at the membership.  It was only a few dollars more, so we did that and skipped the line.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

These are Rhys' favorite birds.  He told us so several times.

Rhys likes penguins.  He just told me so again as he looked at this picture.

These penguins are "fighting". 

After the aquarium we wandered around down town, though we stayed away from some stuff that we plan on seeing tomorrow.  We went to the Holocaust memorial.  We had a talk with the boys about showing proper respect, which they did.  They understood some of what it was about.

The walkway runs under the glass columns.

The numbers of each of the murdered Jews are etched on the glass.

The glass column, with all of the visible numbers on all four faces.

Rhys, suitably impressed by the experience.

It is difficult to read, but worth your effort.

The rock gardens.  Evocative of the stones placed at graves.

After the holocaust memorial we wandered back down to the shopping district.  Here we found an example of public justice in Boston.  I'm not sure what heinous crime the miscreant was guilty of, but Owyn was much better behaved after we explained that this is what they do to boys that don't listen to their parents.

An object lesson; or a busker?  Owyn went with option number one.

Following the lesson in New England jurisprudence we wandered towards a park, where we found a carousel.  The boys, of course, were thrilled and Tracy just had to take them on, you know, to keep an eye on them.

Rhys, making sure his feet are in the stirrups.

Mama, supervising the mayhem.

Owyn actually looked like that most of the day.

After the carousel we went and sat in the park for awhile.  It was a beautiful day; it hit 80 at one point.  The boys did some running and got some tickling.  Mama and I got to sit on the grass for awhile.

What a wonderful day.  Looking out over Boston Harbor.  Owyn took this one.

Rhys' compass.  Rhys took this shot.

Owyn was just a little close to the camera on this one.

Me, relaxing in the shade.  Rhys took this shot.

After the park we decided to head back to the hotel.  The train station was right around the corner so we popped in, after stopping to pet a large dog.  We needed a little bit of help to get the fares settled then we were off to the train.  The boys started standing up, no seats in sight.  They were both thrown around quite a bit so a nice couple gave up their seats for the little rats.  They sat in style for the two stops until we got to the airport.  We called the hotel for a shuttle to come get us and waited the advertised twenty minutes for it to show up.  Sadly, we were not the only one waiting and nine drunk mooks from New Jersey got in the van with us.  That was thirteen of us in a nine passenger van.  They were not too bad and they did make an effort to watch their language and their volume.

We all made it back to the hotel.  We rested in our room for half an hour and then walked half a block to a local place for dinner, Floramo's.  It looked kind of sketchy but was surprisingly good.  We ended up bringing left overs back to the room for breakfast.

After dinner we hit the pool again.  We kept the boys at it for an hour tonight.  Tracy had complained about the icebergs, this morning, and they turned the heater back on.  It was almost the temperature of a hot tub.  The boys had a great time, practiced their swimming and their flying.  Owyn lasted twenty minutes after we got back to the room.  Rhys is yawning by my side right now.

In the morning Nana and Grandad will be here and we will do it all again, before we board out plane for Ireland.