Friday, September 22, 2017

Boston Teen Book Festival, or more accurately, a long car ride then a trip into Boston

MeMe's plan has been that when her granddaughters turn 10 she takes them on a trip. Finally, at age 13 we've gotten C13 her trip, an overnight at MeMe's house and a trip to the Boston Teen Book Festival.

We planned to leave early Friday morning, missing a day of school. M13 had slept over and we decided to leave at 4:30 am,  so the girls requested I wake them at 4am, which I did. I made their tea while they got dressed, and we were in the car by 4:20. Zoom! The early morning drives are the best. the GPS indicated we'd be in Massachusetts by 11 or some insanely early hour like that. And the goal was to make it to Massachusetts on one tank of gas, so we had to drive conservatively.

Of course, we had stops along the way -- drinks, bathroom, drinks, bathroom, drinks, bathroom (you'd think we'd learn?)  -- but we were on target for a pre-noon arrival, so somewhere in Connecticut I called MeMe and asked if we could head to Boston that afternoon, and go to Faneuil Hall Marketplace/Quincy Market with the girls.  I remembered really enjoying just walking through the places as a teenager, and I thought M13 & C13 would enjoy it. MeMe said could and we would.

First thing we did when we got to the Tri-Town area was get gasoline, though. As we were driving out, C13 saw a car zoom by headed toward downtown Leomonster. "That's Pep! I think that was Pep!" I was like, "huh, maybe" but she said it was his car, his license plate holder, and it turned out he was headed for his standing lunch date with a friend; we'd just missed him.

Anyway, we arrived in Lunenburg, settled in, had a snack, and then headed back out again without Pep, since he was not home.

In the back of MeMe's car:



We drove to Alewife, parked, and took the Green Line on the T in ... it was rainy and yuck out, and we weren't QUITE right about the stop we should get off at, so we got off at Park St, which dumped us off in Boston Common, which was fine. Mum & I were both pretty confident about the direction to take, and off we went, even if we weren't EXACTLY sure of the route to take to get there.

But the first thing we passed was Old North Cemetery. We decided not to go in, but we peeped through the bars and C13 and M13 enjoyed the morbid aspect of being there.


And are just darn cute.

We kept walking, stopped for directions once, which confirmed we were headed in the correct direction (yay, us!).  M13 wanted to find the site of the Boston Massacre. We did.


We spent a few hours in Quincy Market ... Good thing Pep missed us. He would have been bored. But it was fun for me, and Mum, and the girls, too. Eventually, though, it was time to go home, and we headed back to a closer T stop. Before we got on the T at Government Place , we saw the giant steaming teapot at Starbucks. The girls loved it (ah, me, too, but I've seen it before!). This is a ROTTEN picture of M13, but sort of shows what fun they were having, which I liked.


Back on the train home, to Alewife, to Lunenburg. And ice cream at Kimballs after dinner. Mmmm. Mmmm. I say that, but I got a flavor I regretted (Coffee Heath Bar Cruch). Mistake. I couldn't eat most it. What I did laugh at, though, was Pep getting a little bit angry/annoyed at the portion sizes being so big at Kimballs. So he saved half of his ice cream for later, and proceeded to eat 2/3 of mine. Sooooo upset about the big portions. :)

My sad ice cream:





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