boston, mass.

Every time Dave has a free weekend, we talk about going somewhere. We've had days where we debated for an hour on where we should go (Boston? Montreal? Lake Placid?) and end up not going anywhere. Time, money and/or weather usually stop us. (When we first moved here we thought "this is awesome, we'll be so close to stuff!", but in actuality, we're not.) But this weekend we were determined. Dave felt caught up on studying and he has Monday off anyway, so we decided it was time to go someplace fun.

I remember attending the National Museum of Natural History as a kid, as well as going on family trips to historical sites and I must say I'm a sucker for museums. So when Dave and I decided a trip to Boston sounded fun for the weekend, we wanted to include the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the USS Constitution museum. Friday night we loaded up the car and headed to Massachusetts.

Of course, Ana was most excited about swimming in the hotel swimming pool, and was up super early on Saturday morning begging to go down the pool. Then we headed over to Harvard University. The museum was awesome and our kids loved it!

Ana's favorite part:
The dinosaur exhibit. This one was a Kronosaurus - the most complete set of this type of underwater dinosaur. Ana, however insisted that she is a "dinosaur expert" and that this one is called a "T-rex fish."

Jack's favorite part:

The meteorite exhibit. He wanted to watch the video about craters and asteroids and meteorites. He calls them "the rocks that come from the air."

The USS Constitution was also very cool. We went to the museum and then got to board the ship at the dock.
Ana liked laying in the hammocks on the boat. Jack didn't.


Some fun facts about the USS Constitution:

*it is the oldest (213 years) commissioned (still owned by the navy) warship still afloat.
*it was involved in 33 battles, the most famous of which was during the war of 1812.
*its nickname was "Old Ironsides" because, even though she was made of oak, the enemy's cannonballs either got stuck in the hull, or simply bounced off.

After that we drove around downtown Boston, which was crazy, and we decided we'd go back some other time when the weather wasn't quite so windy and we could walk. We did manage to drive by Old North Church, and I'm looking forward to going back and walking the Freedom Trail with my sister in April!

At the museum, there was this short little video with quotes from actual sailors on the Constitution. One sailor said, "I do not fear the day of battle. We are too busy fighting to be afraid. But the day after, with the fatigue and caring for the dead and the wounded, that is the day I dread."

The days after a vacation are always the hardest too. :)