It was now Sunday the 29th of October, and the morning after the day (and night) that was the wedding of Kate and Paul. It was a rather late night for the adults, some of whom consumed quite a few drinks, and spent a lot of time on the dance floor. We were all feeling a little worse for wear on Sunday morning and declared that we were probably too old for those sorts of shenanigans.
Once we were up and moving we had to get back into Boston and Omni Parker House for the official post-wedding breakfast.
A good day for brunch…..
It was rainy and considerably cooler than the previous few days. After Kate and Paul had lucked out with amazing wedding day weather of bright sunshine and 26 degrees, and we’d had glorious sunshine since we had first arrived in Boston……it was now looking more like what we expected for Boston in late October.
The kids had a much earlier night than us, and were more than happy to be out and about early. Despite the rain we all agreed the walk to catch our Red line train at Central was much easier not wearing fancy clothes and silly shoes!
The kids weren’t attending the post-wedding brunch, but were keen to hang out with everyone again. Ann, Tony and Nadine were all staying at Omni Parker House so had kindly offered to let the small people watch TV in their suite while consuming copious amounts of orange juice and donuts (procured by Aunty Ann). The kids were much more keen on this idea than hanging out with boring adults.
With the kids happily entertained the adults went down to brunch. Some strong coffee was definitely required. Some guests had pulled up much better than others!
Many of the interstate guests had to head off that day, and pretty soon we were down to mostly the Aussie guests, the bride and groom, and their parents. We went and retrieved the kidlets from their sugar-fest so they could come and catch-up with the Aussie contingent, and help dispose of left-over brunch. Astrid was a fan of the muffins and bagels and Soren and Zinnia harvested plenty of left-over fruit.
We all made plans to meet up for dinner that night and it was time for us to head back over to Cambridge as it was now after 12pm. When we emerged from Omni Parker House, it was still raining and only around 12 degrees. We all enjoyed seeing the manholes near the hotel emitting volumes of fog as the hot air was coming out onto the cold streets. It did keep us amused on our walk through the city and back towards the train station.
With it now raining quite a lot, and us all feeling a bit weary, we decided to head back to our apartment for an afternoon rest. Albeit, via a costume shop to get our Halloween costumes sorted. Halloween was only 2 days away and we figured we’d have far more options for costumes if we purchased something once we arrived in Boston.
Rain, rain, rain and costume shopping
The weather and the late night had left us all a bit less energetic than other days, so there were no desires to walk back across the Longfellow Bridge to Cambridge today, so the train it was!
We jumped off the train at the Kendall/MIT station as there was a very well-rated costume store not too far from our apartment called ‘The Garment District’. It was 2 giant floors of used and vintage clothes and costumes. It being the Sunday afternoon, 2 days before Halloween, the place was buzzing. We didn’t really know where to even start looking and all a bit tired and with so many options there was a bit of decision overload.
The kids had fun trying on quite a few things, before we could all agree on a workable costume for each of us that didn’t cost too much. With more time and energy we could have come up with a coordinated theme, but we were all happy we found something we liked and with purchases made it was off to the apartment for a well needed afternoon rest.
An Italian feast to remember in the North End…..
With Sunday night the last night before most of the Aussies started their trips home (or onwards for other travel) and the bridge and groom heading off on their honeymoon, we’d planned a dinner catch-up back in the North End.
All feeling a little less tired after a quiet afternoon, it was back out into the rainy and cold afternoon weather to head back into Boston. Despite seemingly spending a lot of time catching the Red Line back and forwards between Cambridge and Boston, it was a quite easy and relatively quick trip, and the location of our Cambridge apartment was very convenient and significantly less expensive than an equivalent sized apartment in the Boston city area.
It was a bit less wet on the journey into Boston but now rather cold and grey. The thought of a nice Italian meal was rather inviting. We hadn’t yet had a chance to eat in the North End, Boston’s famous Italian district. Paul had booked our group of 17 (all the Aussies, plus the bride and groom) a table at Trattoria Il Panino, Boston’s oldest trattoria.
It was a cool and rainy evening but we were seated downstairs in a cellar, which was awesome but rather dark! It certainly added to the atmosphere, but I took virtually no photos as I was too busy eating, drinking and chatting.
With the Aussies contingent plus the bridge and groom (well the groom still counts a Aussie) we took up half the cellar. I was mildly terrified of one of the kids knocking a bottle of wine over as they were racked either side of our tables. Luckily, no such incidents occurred and we all all had an amazing meal with antipasti, many pastas and some fabulous cocktails.
After dinner, Paul and Kate wanted to take us for a walk through the North End to show us their favourite bakery, Bova. We’d heard about how Mike’s Pastry was the place to go, and the lines are traditionally out the door. Paul and Kate claimed Bova’s is better and took us for a wander through the streets to find it.
Despite it being late on a Sunday night, there were also lines outside the door. We were instructed on many of the locals favourite treats and walked out with a selection of cannolis and ‘rainbow cakes’ which weren’t on display but Kate knew to ask for.
The rain had slowed down so we wandered through the streets back towards Omni Parker House. Zinnia deciding that Nadine’s boyfriend, Jamie was her new favourite person and he was going to give her shoulder rides everywhere.
It was time for farewells to the Aussie contingent, who were all flying in various directions the following day, and the bride and groom who were also departing on their honeymoon. To fit in with school and sports commitments we’d arrived in Boston a little closer to the wedding and were timing it to stay for Halloween as a treat for the kids. This meant no early morning airport for us, but after a big few days the train ride back across the River involved some tired kids and adults…..
The Boston Museum of Science
It was Monday the 30th of October, and with all the family and wedding celebrations behind us, we had intended to do plenty of sight-seeing in our remaining time in Boston. Unfortunately, the cold that Soren had come down with on the flights over had now infected Anto and Mikl. While Soren was now feeling a lot better, the 2 older males were not fairing so well.
It was also a very wet day. We decided most of the plans for the day were a bit too much effort for those under the weather, and the actual weather was definitely not going to cooperate. Anto decided he needed to go back to bed, but Mikl declared himself well enough to attempt an outing with myself and the kids. We figured it was a good day weather wise to tackle the Museum of Science. We’d been keen to go, but had been blessed with such good weather that we had been doing outside activities.
It was about 10 degrees and raining when we left our Cambridge apartment, so we walked down to the train station at Central and trained on the red then green line all the way to the museum. We’d enjoyed a lovely walk there a few days earlier, for the start of our Duck Tour, but today was not the day for that!
With a slow start to the morning due to a much needed sleep-in until 8.30am and under the weather adults, we didn’t make it to the museum until 11am. Luckily it wasn’t too crowded and we were inside and exploring in no time.
The kids particularly liked the interactive exhibits, and many were similar to those we have at Questacon in Canberra, although there were plenty of different things too. The electricity show was a hit. The kids have seen the lightning generator quite a few times at Questacon but this was a different show with far more Van de Graaff generators.
There were quite a few exhibits with AI and programmable robots. Soren and Astrid were able to run around keeping themselves amused and trying most exhibits. Zinnia needed more help but was having fun playing and exploring.
The museum was a slightly strange collection of very modern exhibits and plenty of exhibits that involved large taxidermied animals (and some live animals too). We did learn a fair bit about the fauna and flora of the New England area and moose are definitely huge!
There were plenty of exhibits with an environmental focus and Zinnia was happy to have us explain things to her for hours, although the adults were fading fast at this point.
We ended up working our way through pretty much all the exhibits in 4 hours, but didn’t see any of the shows other than the electricity show. You could definitely spend the whole day in the museum and it was worth the visit. We are spoilt having Questacon in Canberra that we visit regularly, but the Boston Museum of Science was different enough that the kids really enjoyed it.
Rain, rain, rain…..
Mikl was starting to succumb to feeling rather unwell, and with the weather not improving in the slightest we decided to head back to the apartment. Mikl and I were keen to walk back over the bridge to get some ‘rainy views’ of Boston. We’d had such perfect weather earlier in the trip that it looked totally different today. The kids also needed to burn off a bit of extra energy, but were less convinced on the plan to walk the few kilometres in the drizzly rain.
It was definitely a good day to be a duck, it was less of a good day to be Soren. He was now starting to feel a little average again.
The Autumn colours of the trees still looked pretty spectacular on a grey day. The views from the bridge, towards the city, were still impressive and much more ‘wintery’ than earlier in the trip. It hadn’t made it above 12 degrees yet, so we were glad we’d packed those coats, even if earlier in the trip we were starting to question why we didn’t bring more t-shirts and shorts.
It was a stormy afternoon and the rain definitely wasn’t stopping. Such a difference to the glorious weather from the first few days of our trip and the wedding day.
As the rain increased we jumped on a train at Kendall/MIT for a stop, to placate the tiring kids, before the walk back to our apartment, checking out the ever-growing collections of halloween decorations. The kids were very excited about going trick-or-treating the next day.
When we arrived back at the apartment, Anto was still alive, but still not feeling all that great. Mikl was done with being upright and decided he needed to follow Anto’s lead and sleep off the cold. The kids were also in need of a quiet end to the day.
Too much cannoli…
With no one much in the mood for heading out into the rain again, it was an early dinner in the apartment and we had plenty of cannoli’s left from our Bova visit the night before. They may have gone a little bit soggy, especially the ginger snap ones, but the kids still made a good dent in our large supply!
We were all in need of an early night. Especially as the kids had designs on late-night trick or treating the next day !
Up next….
It was Halloween but before we got our trick-or-treat on we had an American diner breakfast, walked the Freedom Trail, and visited Quincy market. The kids then had their first American Halloween, which resulted in an awful lot of candy in a very short time!
