New York - Day 2

We seem to be getting a bit slower in our plight to see everything. We did not make it out of the hotel Tuesday until about 9:30ish. We walked to the place to get our Trolly tickets and stood in a line that was like an amusement park line. Shuffled in and finally with tickets in hand, we noticed that it was 10:50AM. Breakfast time! We all settled on Brunch and ate at a Three Story McDonalds. With Breakfast finally done we started our day at noon. lol Yes, noon!!

We took the trolly to Lavain Bakery. Lavain Bakery was a featured NYC location in Throwdown with Bobby Flay from the Food Network. The cookies it shows were awesome, but the shop was a tiny hole in the ground. From there we went to the American Mus. of Natural History. It was interesting and so packed! We are so glad we bought the New York Pass. We were on a short line to get in and we hop on and off of the trolly as we want depending on if it is full or not. We thought we were planning well to have 2 hours to get into Times Sq on the Trolly... Not even!! We had dinner reservations at Carmines on 44th at 6:30PM. (Note to all NYC Travelers - This place is a MUST)We were getting close to 6:30PM and we were still a ways away. I called early enough to let them know we would be late. We only waited 5 minutes before we were seated. Downstairs was noisy and crowded, they put us upstairs. Upstaris was perfect. We ordered the Rack of Lamb, Spagetti, Shrimp Scampi with meatballs on the side. Kim and I had ordered a Shiraz that was wonderful so of course we had to order a second. With all that and Cheese Cake for desert we were only slightly over budget, but it was sooooo worth it! I want to go back!

Bed time for us all, since this was not posted until Wednesday AM, you can imagine how tired we were. :) We are up and at em! Happy New Years Eve!! We will battle the crowd and make history!! lol

New York - Day 1 - The Proposal

Up and out early again! We went to have Breakfast in the Hotel and loaded up on some great food since we were going to be on the train to New York from Boston. We made it to the train station too early, but the kids managed to keep things going with their electric personalities!

The train picked us up at 11:10AM and we rode through Rhode Island, Conn. and then New York. It was a smooth ride and more welcomed than the plane was. We had power in the seats and everyone was excited to charge their media devices. We made it to New York at 3:40PM and quickly grabbed a cab. Our bags were heavy enough that we did not want to walk. Had we known we hired the cabbie from Hell we would have walked. I was in the lead cab with two of the kids and Kim was behind us. My cabbie took us way out of the way to a different Marriot. Long story short, when we finally had some sense talked into him on our hotel location, he took us down Times Sq!! It was sooo fun!

Getting into the room was a process. One room was ready, the second was not. We finally got the key for our room and WOW!! Someone had flowers in the room all!! A dozen RED Roses! Who could that have been?? If you guessed Kim... Wrong!! She did assk Brennen if there might be a ring in the bouquet. (Not yet baby! Snicker) lol

We settled into the room and went down about 6PM. Once we got to the street I broke the news to everyone... For the next three hours we were going to be in a Limo touring the city!! You should have seen the look on Kim's face!! WOW! We hopped in and started on the trip. What amazing sites in this city! The limo driver said we were at Rockafeller center and people were all looking at the tree. I suggested we should get out and look. (Wink, Wink) It was a big crowd and (of course the support of the kids was a key element of this)... I took Kim's hand and walked her near the tree. I saw her fiddle with her camera and when she was looking at it, I got down on my knee. As I was heading down, I said "Baby, we are not here just for the tree! Will you do me the honor of marrying me?" With the box of the ring open and the shock and awe on Kim's face, her YES was heard just before we noticed the crowd around us had all joined in to cheer us on!

Hungry, our driver (which did a fantastic job for three hours of city driving) took us to a Pizza place that filled us up as we kept driving around. Our driver took us to Brooklyn. Kim and I got a picture taken at night under the bridge. (nearly under) He drove us to Central Park, down Fifth Ave, Park Ave and back home.

We all went back out again and splurged on some Milk and Duncan Donuts. Bedtime for us now, we start it all over again tomorrow.

Kim has been staring at her new Bling Bling... :) I am emotionaly happy and completely undeserving... but ever so greatful for her yes!

Day Three - Last day in Boston

Sunday turned out to be the best weather day so far... It was warm with no rain. We started out today with breakfast at a french bakery, then we walked to the trolly stop. While we were there we met a really nice family from Great Britain. They were from about 150 miles south of Bristol, UK. We rode the trolly together to our stop. Kim is reading a book called A Given Day. It is a historical book about the 1900's in Boston talking about the social unrest about the first Police Strike. In this book, it talkes about places like Skully Square. This was a red-light district that was so bad the city hired a guy (Skully) to level out all the buildings and build a better area to get rid of the corruption and crime. After it was all done, the only building that was left standing happend to be the only building Skully owned. Now it backs a side of Beacon Hill and it is clean and I belive we only saw one red light... lol

We got off the trolly to head to Fenway Park. For those that are not sports fans, Fenway Park is the home of the Boston Red Sox. It was built in 1912 and if it can remain up and functioning in 2012 it will become a National Landmark. Once it has that status, they can never change even a brick. It has to stay the same as long as it stands. We listened to guy talk about the history and watched a video. We did not get to go down to the Feild, but it was pretty interesting. Before the tour a guy in a Red Sox uniform was telling us jokes while we waited for the tour to start. He was asking everyone where they were from and after someone named their state or country, he cracked a joke... Here is the one he told about us from Oregon...

"I once knew a professor from Oregon. She was a great teacher and she had a glass eye. The glass eye would follow you behind her real eye. One day her glass eye fell out and rolled into the heating vent... That day she lost her best pupil!!" lol

We went to the Prudential Tower after that. (The rest of the day was walking). Some of the kids did not want to go to the top of the tower (52 floors tall). Kim, Jon, Brennen and I went to have a snack for lunch and take some pictures. They sat us right by a window! WOW!! Peaceful and so beautiful!! We all enjoyed our food, but were druling over the Buttery Lobster Bisque Kim had ordered... Satisfied we went back to the hotel to charge the batteries to our cameras and off load pictures.

Ok, so we have had some pretty good food and have seen food that is outragously priced for the quality... However, after a long walk through the city and some shopping at a Mall, we found something more the style of us Oregonians! It was called UNO Chicago Grill. The food was AWESOME!! Spectacular service and inexpensive, we all had chose something from the menu that made our tastbuds explode in satisfaction! For budgeting a dinner menu before tip that turned out to be $60 less for 7 people. We also had 4 beers two souvenier pints and desert! It was great! Side Note: during dinner Kim asked me if I am planning a suprise for her in New York. It took everything in me to keep a straight face. I lied my @#$ off!! She caught me on the phone today and I had to tell her it was our Friend Heather. It was the limo service for tomorrow!

We have walked back to the Hotel and we are going to crash early cause tomorrow is our train ride to New York. Stay tuned... Tomorrow is the BIG Day!! Wish me luck!!

Day Two - Trolly Ride

Ian finally arrived about 1:30AM from Albany, NY and after a short sleep we all took off to Breakfast. We were told about "The Paramount Cafe" on Charles Street. "The Paramount Cafe" is a small establishment with tables in the front and bar stools and tables on the right. We ordered the food from the cooks directly and paid at the register. After getting settled at a table with drinks (which was not that long) our food was ready. The food was filling and awesome!!

After breakfast we walked back through the Boston Gardens. It had many different kinds of trees and history. The man made pond was frozen and as hard as the kids tried they could not puncture the ice from the shore. There were quite a few Willow Trees in the park and we were picture taking fools!!!

The trolly ride was the best deal ever! We learn so much about Boston. The most interesting fact about Boston is that 75% of the current city is sitting on landfill!! Can you believe it? We are so amazed! The area called Back Bay is 100% landfill. We got on the Trolly on stop 6 and rode it to Stop 1. Stop 1 is the New England Aquarium. It is pretty interesting, but it is small. In the center of the aquarium is an enormous fish tank with Sharks, Turtles, Tuna and other fish. After that we went to the Hard Rock Cafe (This is a right of passage for us when we are in a city that has one!) lol When we were there we noticed there was a HUGE line forming at the door. Once the group of what turned out to be about 200 people was moved inside we talked to some of the kids in line. Yes kids... 13 to 15 year old young gals that were there for a private Joey Page concert. Evidently he is a big hit and according to his Myspace page is quite popular. We finished lunch then took the rest of the trolly ride back to the hotel. It is a great thing to do if you come to Boston. There is so much history here it feels good to see the places our history teachers preached at us about in school...

After a power nap and some shopping, we went to dinner at Legal Seafood. Prices are just about normal for the Boston area and some of the food was great! If you like fish and chips, try their spicey batter... YUM! The Fishermans Combo was good but the best stuff was the Clam Chowder and Ostyers on a half shell. (The ones from Cape Cod)!!

We did not get to everything we wanted to today... There will always be tomorrow! We are leaving Monday for New York so tomorrow we are going on the Freedom Walk passed Paul Revere's home and a few other fun things.

We are all pretty tuckerd out... The kids all wanted to be in a room to themselves and let Kim and I have one to ourselves!! (WOW!!! Hotel room to ourselves!!) You know what is going to happen tonight!! YES!! We are going to fight over the remote!!

Day One - The Flight

The morning started out early for us. We were up at 2AM and as sleep was still surrounding us all, we managed to pick up Kim's Brother and get to the Airport only to find there was no Sky Cap to take our bags as we arranged, the counters were all empty (no Delta Employees were in). We did see an opportunity to check our bags through a remote terminal. We were in and with the last two hurdles of Security Checkin and the actual flight we felt home free. Lukily there was no body cavity searches going on and we made it it to the gate with Coffee in hand.

The 6:30AM flight started out normal, de-icing and enging testing. WAIT!!! Oh, there is a light that is staying on that shouldn't be on... They caught it as we were done getting out to the runway. Back to the gate we went and finally an hour later they had a new proceedure for this light and we were on the way. We flew non-stop to JFK and arrived about 3:30PM Eastern. We had to boogie from Gate 1 to Gate 28... Not real close!! lol We were all hungry. We had plenty of snacks but that only goes so far in place of solid food. So Wendy's won out (it was also the only fast food place to get to in time before the flight to Boston)...

We left JFK for Boston and was impressed with the 37 minute flight and the TV's on the back of each chair. We watched Tommy Boy and we were real impressed to see the flight path on the way to Boston in real time. We were able to get our bags ok from Bagage Claim and made it to the hotel. It is a beautiful hotel with 2 bathrooms/showers per room!! We are so set in the Morning!! Kim and I found a great little bar called The Whiskey Park, the bartender Kate reminded us of Sam Malone from Cheers only Asian, and a woman. lol She was the total know everything about Boston.

Kim's son Ian is taking a train from Albany, it was to be here at 9:30PM, but it is now 1AM and he tells us he is still 45 minutes away.

Tomorrow we are going to go see the New England Aquarium, Fenway Park and Sam Adams Brewery!