New England adventures

I am re-reading my final post from last summer's blog realizing that I never finished it!  I blogged our last day, but I always like to add in a recap of it all.  It's too late to do that now, so I will start anew with East Coast Summer 2016!  It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by already, time just keeps flying by.  We officially finished our 48 mainland states last year.  No one had a huge desire to try Alaska or Hawaii this summer, so we discussed and decided that because the east is our favorite and Jane wanted to look at some colleges, we would plan for an area of New England that we hadn't been to yet.  One huge change for us this year is that we decided to FLY!!

The boys were very excited to try something new, Jane was bummed out, she loves the long drives, but we just didn't have the three weeks to dedicate to the trip this year.

We headed out bright and early on Wednesday, July 27th flying from MSP to BOS.  The flight went well and as soon as we landed, we split up.  Jane and I grabbed the subway to MIT for a tour and Mark and the other kids went to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game(Thomas' favorite team).  Dustin Pedroia even hit a home run for him!

 It was HOT and their seats were in the sun, so they were pretty spent by the time we met back up for dinner. MIT is a beautiful campus that sits right across the Charles River from downtown Boston.



Thursday was a day of sightseeing in Boston.  A ride on the duck boats, walking the Freedom Trail, Old North Church("one if by land, two if by sea"), the USS Constitution(Old Iron Sides), the Cassin Young and so many more historical sights along the way. I think I could spend days in Boston!

Friday was a day everyone was so excited for.  We went to one of our favorite places in the whole country, Rockport, MA and it did not disappoint!  We left Boston on the train in the rain, but by the time we arrived and hour later the sun was peaking out and brought a gorgeous day.  We had to follow our traditions and ate lunch at Top Dog Hotdogs....delicious.  Then dessert at the The Ice Cream Store....more delicious!

We took the train back to Boston and it dropped us at North Station which is in the heart of Little Italy.  We picked the restaurant with the longest line, that way we knew the food would be worth it!!  Being a Friday night, the people watching was great and helped pass the time.  The kids had fun just going crazy ordering anything they wanted, usually I'm telling them to order off the kids menu and "nothing extra"!  The food delivered....fantastic.  I think we licked our plates.  One mishap that will be apparant in future photos was the extremely hot red sauce that hit my chin and gave me a nice burn.

Saturday morning the girls and I Uber'd it to Harvard for our second college tour of the trip, while the boys packed up the hotel room and picked up our rental car.  We had been to Harvard a couple of years back, but didn't take the "official" tour, so we learned many interesting things about the oldest university in the United States.  To me the most interesting thing was that the admissions office is looking more for interesting students that will give something to the world in the future along with "nice" students, way more than students with a specific GPA or test score.  They pride themselves in being forward thinking.

The boys met us in Harvard Square and we hit the highway for Rhode Island where we are renting a house for a week.  We arrived in Narragansett around 4:00 p.m.  The area is filled with tiny coastal towns.  We went to dinner on the Harbor where I got the first of many lobster rolls to come!

The night ended with a trip to the grocery store for supplies and a movie at the house.  Great start to the week!

Side note: you may see way more pics of Ted than anyone else.  That is because he is the only one that allows us to take any!  Thomas is very against all pictures and the girls need to proof anything we take!  So, because he is easy, he gets the limelight.

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park was the last stop on this trip and it was well worth the wait.  Beautiful, amazing, fantastic, I could go on and on.

                                  
                                   Rose and Ted sitting on on the porch on our "cozy cabin".

                                        Driving the "Going to the Sun Road" was incredible.  Click on the
link below to learn more about the road.

http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/goingtothesunroad.htm

We went on a two hour trail ride and had a blast!  Ted and Jane were very nervous and by the time we we were done, Ted was ready to go home and take horse back riding lessons!

When you spend so many hours on the road over 19 days, you notice so much more along the roadside than you ever would normally and this time for me, it was the cows!  Black cows in particular.  They are everywhere!  You see them in the 100+ degree heat, and the pouring rain and lightning, they are always there, roaming, eating.  So, when we got to Yellowstone, it blew my mind, when we came across "free range"cattle.  Yes, EXTREMELY large cows, just walking, standing eating in the middle of the road.  They didn't seem to care if there was a person, or car, or truck in their way.  One local warned us about driving too fast, because "cows are as smart as a jar of mayonnaise".  Whatever....I thought they were AWESOME!  If I had the room, I would have brought one home.

We stopped at Many Glacier Hotel.  It was built in 1914, by mostly Minnesotans.  It was beautiful....

        Ford Motor Company restored these for the National Park Service to use on tours.

Spokane and Bozeman

We left Port Townsend Thursday morning with a temperature of 58 degrees!  Wow,  would things change quickly.... We landed in Spokane for the evening and it was 108!  We found a great restaurant called Wisconsinburger.  We did just a little exploring and headed back to the hotel.

Only a few hours later coming in to Spokane!

                                       Does this look like  DOT approved seat belt usage?



On our way in to Washington, the sign was impossible to get a picture with.  It was located in an area that we couldn't reach, so we told ourselves to remember that we needed it on the way out of  the state.  When we left Spokane the sign was at the top our list.  Believe it or not, number 48 shall never be....the sign out the state was located in middle lane of a busy interstate.  We made the decision to keep all four children alive and skip the sign.  But after all of these miles and sign pictures, it was a bummer to miss the last one.

Yesterday brought us to Bozeman.  What a fun town with a beautiful backdrop of the mountains. There are fires burning in the area and the air is thick today with smoke.




 Smoke surrounding the sunset, beautiful yet creepy..

Tomorrow we leave for Glacier National Park.  We are trying to monitor the fire conditions.  So far, it sounds like our stay is not going to be affected, but we know that things can change quickly.  We have had no cell coverage in Bozeman, so hopefully we will get it back while we are on the road tomorrow to keep checking in with park service.

Last days in Port Townsend

 We went in search of the infamous Glass Beach yesterday, but about all we found was a dead crab and bunch of sand and rocks.  Jane walked a little further than the rest of us and was able to find a little sea glass, but we heard later that most of it is a 4 mile hike down the beach!


Later in the day, Mark had signed up Rose and I to take longboat sailing lesson.  We had to row out to the bay before we could put the sails up.  The oars were 35 pounds of heavy wood each!  We made it and learned a "little" bit about sailing on the big seas!

        This is Ted....mad again about not getting to go with on the sailing lesson, but you had to be 12!

Today we drove about an hour to the town of Port Angeles and took an hour ferry ride to Victoria, B.C.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some whales!  Wish we could have snapped a few pictures!

I don't think we had the time to take in Victoria and all of it's ins and outs.  Maybe someday we will stop back through.

               Brothers enjoying the ferry to Port Townsend!

We found Port Townsend to be a cool little town with a main street lined with ornate buildings from the 1800's that house many unique shops and restaurants.  Its very dry here from a lack of rain so everything is brown, which makes the neighborhoods look kind of sad.  We've had fun walking the town and sightseeing, of course the people watching hasn't disappointed!

 Puget Sound is very beautiful and offers lots of awesome views that we could sit and look at for hours. 

It's fun to be in an area with a nautical theme where everything is centered on the Sound. 

Everyone here seems to have a dog with them, which makes us miss Hudson even more.  That, coupled with the fact that we missed Hudson's birthday and the fact that we will be picking up his new brother when we get back, makes us even more excited to start the journey home.  A very special thanks to our friend Rachael for making sure Hudson had a great 8th birthday at home!

Next up, more ferry rides, Victoria B.C., Spokane and Glacier National Park.