We spent the past week at the Normandy Farms RV Park in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Normandy Farms is definitely the nicest facility we have stayed in to date – four pools (two heated, one outdoor, one indoor), restrooms with granite counter tops, a one acre enclosed dog run, world class softball field, Frisbee golf course, and space for 400 campers. It has won awards the last few years as one of the top RV parks in the nation, and is about the same price as the campground we just left in Jamestown (~$40/night). The view of the ocean at Jamestown was outstanding, but the facilities here are ten times better. We feel fortunate to have found both!We toured Boston two separate days this week, and Brian celebrated his 16th birthday in Boston on Monday the 15th. We left the campground around 10 and drove to the Riverside subway station in Newton. From there it was a 45 minute ride into Government Center in downtown Boston. When we excited the subway we headed for the North End for an Italian lunch. I was able to find Artu’, the restaurant that some of our Boston friends introduced me to a few years back. The food was great as usual – Brian had Tortellini Alfredo for his birthday meal.
After lunch we walked by Paul Revere’s house and down to the trolley stop on Commonwealth Avenue. We boarded the next trolley and spent a little over two hours touring the sights of Boston – the Old North Church, Bunker Hill, USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), Boston Public Gardens, Cheers Bar, Copley Square, Newbury Street, Fenway Park, MIT, and the Berklee School of Music. When we were done we walked up to Faneuil Hall and explored the shops before catching the subway back to our truck.
We made it back to the RV around 6:30. Rocky had been walked earlier in the day by one of the staff at the RV park, but was still ready to get outside and explore. We took him up to the one acre enclosed dog park and let him run around. They have a cutout board for taking pictures of dogs – that’s the picture attached. They also have a water fountain with three bowls at different heights – one for adults, one for kids, and one for dogs! I have never seen anything like this dog run!
After lunch we walked by Paul Revere’s house and down to the trolley stop on Commonwealth Avenue. We boarded the next trolley and spent a little over two hours touring the sights of Boston – the Old North Church, Bunker Hill, USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), Boston Public Gardens, Cheers Bar, Copley Square, Newbury Street, Fenway Park, MIT, and the Berklee School of Music. When we were done we walked up to Faneuil Hall and explored the shops before catching the subway back to our truck.
We made it back to the RV around 6:30. Rocky had been walked earlier in the day by one of the staff at the RV park, but was still ready to get outside and explore. We took him up to the one acre enclosed dog park and let him run around. They have a cutout board for taking pictures of dogs – that’s the picture attached. They also have a water fountain with three bowls at different heights – one for adults, one for kids, and one for dogs! I have never seen anything like this dog run! The kids and I went swimming at the outdoor pool while Teressa prepared dinner. Laura and Teressa baked a birthday cake which we enjoyed after dinner while Brian opened his presents. We finished the evening by watching a couple more old episodes of Seinfeld.
We spent the next two days focused on homework and running errands. I think the kids are actually enjoying home schooling – they don’t spend near as many hours a day doing school work, but are getting just as much out of it. It really helps when we can augment with field trips and DVDs. Both kids are studying the American Revolution now, and we just started the mini-series John Adams. It is excellent and we recognized many of the places we toured in Boston. We stop the DVD at certain points and discuss why things happened the way they did – it is great! We are all learning things.
Teressa got her hair cut this week by Janet Wells, one of our good Sequent friends, and mother of the bride last weekend. She gave Teressa a cute short hairstyle – the whole family likes it! She looks 10 years younger and it takes less time to fix in the morning! It doesn’t get any better than that!
I bought Teressa a new laptop yesterday morning. Her old one died a couple of weeks ago. I had a hard time finding something decent, but finally got a great deal on a Dell laptop at Best Buy ($450!). I had to drive to three different Best Buy stores, but finally found one that had it in inventory.
Teressa got her hair cut this week by Janet Wells, one of our good Sequent friends, and mother of the bride last weekend. She gave Teressa a cute short hairstyle – the whole family likes it! She looks 10 years younger and it takes less time to fix in the morning! It doesn’t get any better than that!
I bought Teressa a new laptop yesterday morning. Her old one died a couple of weeks ago. I had a hard time finding something decent, but finally got a great deal on a Dell laptop at Best Buy ($450!). I had to drive to three different Best Buy stores, but finally found one that had it in inventory.
We enjoyed another history lesson in Boston the second day we toured this week. After a 40 minute drive and 45 minute subway ride we arrived in downtown Boston. Our first stop was the Freedom Walk, where we toured several of the old cemeteries and visited Paul Revere’s, John Hancock’s and Samuel Adam’s graves. From there we walked into the North End and visited the Old North Church (see the picture above). We had lunch in another fantastic Italian café, and were lucky to have a window seat looking out over the neighborhood (see the photo above). Brian fell in love with the waitress and has decided an Italian wife might have serious culinary benefits!From the North End we took the trolley across the bridge to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). It has been beautifully restored considering that it is a combat vessel over 200 years old. They emphasized the fact that the Constitution is the oldest military ship in the world still in service (there is an older one in the UK, but it is in dry dock). Apparently the average height of sailors 200 years ago was 5’ 4”. Brian and I had a difficult time navigating the lower decks. Another gentleman told Brian he would have had to go into the army! ;-)
Laura really wanted to climb to the top of the Bunker Hill monument, so we walked along the Freedom Walk to the top of Bunker Hill and climbed the almost 300 steps to the top of the monument. It was a spectacular view on a clear day, and the burn in our thighs soon disappeared. When we exited Bunker Hill we caught a cab to the Galleria Mall in Cambridge next to MIT. We found the Apple store which appears to have the only new iPod Touch players in Massachusetts! We gave Brian a gift certificate for a 16GB iPod on his 16th birthday, but couldn’t find one before his actual birthday. He is thrilled, and I doubt he will forget his 16th birthday present, or where he got it.
We took the subway back into Boston and had dinner at the food court at Quincy Market (Laura had pizza, Brian had clam chowder, Teressa had tacos, and I had Thai food). We made it back to the trailer at 8:30 to a very affectionate dog (even though the dog sitter walked him at 3:30). The kids are doing pretty well in their foreign language class. This week they are studying Bostonian. You pretty much just need to change any word with an “r” in the middle or end to an “h”. For example, Brian likes to “pahk the cah”. The “r” mysteriously reappears for words that end in “a”. My wife is now called “Teresser”. It is a little confusing, but we are getting the hang of it. The only thing that bothers the kids is when they have to tell people they are from OrEgone! ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment