Vacation 2009

AJ and I are back from our summer vacation - we had an AMAZING time in Boston! AJ's parents picked up Ethan for bedtime on Monday. I handled it pretty well - no tears, but I did feel a huge helping of guilt. But, we were able to get the house in order and get ourselves all packed without worrying about waking up the baby, so it worked out. We got an early start - I think we were out the door by 7:30. We made one stop for breakfast at Perkins - big mistake. Bad food and SLOW service. It took an hour! We still made it to Jen's house in CT by 4. We had a great visit - the kids are hilarious! They were all excited so they definitely worked hard at entertaining us. AJ just couldn't get over how awesome our nephew is - first, he fell and bumped his face and started screaming. Jen looked him over, told him to stop crying, and he did! Then, he sat at dinner and calmly ate an entire piece of pizza, pausing in between bites to wipe his face. It was quite impressive! I wish we lived closer - it would be fun to get together with them more often, but CT is definitely easier to swing than San Diego or West Palm, so we'll take it :-)

We got to our hotel with no problems at about 8. We got a great night's sleep in a king sized bed and headed to the commuter rail early Wednesday morning. We had a bit of a fiasco waiting for the right train, which took forever, then it started to pour so our wonderful friend, Chris, just picked us up. We had a stereotypical Kovall vacation day - up early, went to Panera for breakfast, and then spent the next 6 hours walking and touring. We went all along the freedom trail - I'm not much of a history buff, but it was really cool being in the same places where Paul Revere sat, etc.

Paul Revere's House - the oldest building in Boston!

Crazy! And, Boston is just beautiful. We are so used to going to NYC and fighting with a billion tourists and barely being able to move, not to mention the constant threat of dying due to a cab...Boston was much mellower - we got to take our time and really look at things. We met Chris's girlfriend, Nellie, for dinner at a great micro-brewery right by the stadium. We had amazing burgers and beer (watermelon beer - it was great!) and headed to the game.

Fenway is quite an experience. They close down the street (Yawkey Way) and it's one big party. Vendors are there with food and beer, there are lots of stores with insane amounts of Sox merchandise, and everyone is very friendly and geared up for the game. It was just a really cool atmosphere to see. I love going to PNC Park, but my main goal is to eat and people watch - definitely NOT the vibe at Fenway! The park is ancient and you kind of feel unsafe, but it's also really charming being there and not have everything be neon and granite. We had good seats - of course, the locals who were in our section thought they were crap - center field and way up. We had a nice view of the game. It was a good one - Big Papi hit one out and they won! It was FREEZING there! It had rained off and on all day and the breeze was just crazy - it felt more like we were at a fall football game. But, we bought extra Red Sox sweatshirts so we fit right in.

The next day, Chris picked us up at our hotel and we headed to Harvard for the morning. It was great - so beautiful! It kind of made me laugh, though - now I see how much of a poor imitation Westminster really is...Anyway, we stopped by the admissions office to get Ethan in (kidding) and bought him a cute shirt to wear from his future Alma Mater.

Then, AJ and I headed back to Fenway for a park tour. It was one of the highlights of our trip - so much history there! We got to sit on the Green Monster and go through the bowels of the park - very, very cool.

After all of the Sox fanfare, we got to do some touring that was more up my alley. We went to Lousia May Alcott's house

- THE house where she wrote Little Women!

That has always been one of my favorite novels so I loved it. We also got to see Walden Pond where Thoreau spent two years camped out and writing. Then, we headed to another cemetery and paid our respects to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, and Emerson. On Hawthorne's and Alcott's graves, people left pencils and pens - such a cool thing! Though, I was tempted to take one off of Alcott's grave - it was the type I buy every year for school and what a cool story to say I got it from her grave. I am a big believer in karma and decided against it.

AJ and I went to a great seafood place and had wonderful meals. That was it! It was truly a whirlwind, but we loved it. We flew home and got to Connellsville by 6:30, got Ethan, and came home. We really missed that little guy! He had a great time with his grandparents and probably didn't even realize we were gone.

Enjoy some pictures from our trip!