Less than 24 Hours in Boston... But So Much to Do!
My aunt, uncle, and cousin were finally coming to visit us in Boston for the first time. This trip had been on the horizon ever since I got accepted to Harvard, and we've been talking about it for what feels like forever. They were determined to make it happen before I graduated—now, with less than a month until the big day, the clock was ticking.
We found the one weekend that worked for everyone, but since they’re traveling all the way from the middle of nowhere Iowa, it’s basically a full day of travel just to get here. That meant they'd only have less than 24 hours in the city. But no matter how short the visit, we had a packed, fun-filled agenda ready to make the most of every minute!
We didn’t even leave the airport and disaster struck, because of construction we were stuck circling the airport for 30 minutes. I swear it took more than an hour to get off the airport island. So instead of going to our apartment first, we were off to our first stop: Boston Tea Party Museum! We drove through the city and pointed out all the highlights “The Freedom Trail”, “The Charles River”, where David’s office was etc. When we finally made it to the museum, we were ready to walk around. Abby was a bit fussy and we weren’t sure how long we were going to stay so we took pictures on the outside and ate at Abigail’s Tea Room, in honor of our Abby and had sooo much fun! Everyone got their much needed energy boost before continuing on our adventure. From there we walked to the Children’s museum, again we didn’t go inside since we weren’t sure if it would be fun for everyone (since my cousin is already 13), but we walked along the river which was really nice. Then we walked to this hidden playground next to the museum, which is one of our absolute favorites and that was definitely fun for everyone. We went down the slide, played in the water, and even had a mini pirate fight (no you’re never too old to have fun at the playground, in fact that’s kinda a part of how David and I first met). After that, we made the trek back to our apartment to finally do a bit of relaxing after our fun-filled afternoon.
We got to our apartment and unloaded everything. They traveled lightly with only three carry-ons, but when they opened the suitcases it felt like everything in those bags were for us gifts for every holiday imaginable: Valentines, Christmas, New Years, Graduation, etc. We were excited and thankful,... but sooo ill prepared. We went through half the holidays with outfit switches, videos, and so many gifts and somehow we even squeezed an Abby naptime in. Around dinner time, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Cambridge Commons, and had a wonderful time talking, eating, and watching Abby capture the hearts of everyone in the restaurant, and even though we got her favorite, “Clam Chowder”, she somehow wanted some of my food. Then of course, we had to end the meal with our favorite HoneyComb Creamery ice cream.
After that we went on a quick walk through Harvard Yard. Sadly, everything was closed because of protests at the time, but we walked through the Law School, Old Engineering Yard, and Science Center and pointed out all the cool buildings like Annenberg! We even saw some of the infamous Harvard turkeys.
When we make it back to the apartment, everyone’s ready for some shut eye, so my family takes the car to their hotel and that was the end of Part 1.
The next day started and David and I were hoping to get our favorite breakfast place, but my family had eaten at the hotel so we were off.
Our first stop was to check out the brand new School of Engineering and Applied Science. Sadly, David nor I had our ID, and because of the protest the building was locked, but a really nice security guard would let us in, but only to see the Harvard IBM Mark 1, which is in glass near the entrance, so we went inside to “check out the computer”. But while we were there we pointed out all the cool things in the building like these walls that move with you.
Then we went to our final stop, which we knew we wouldn’t have much time for but we wanted to at least try to squeeze it in: Boston Playground, Boston Market, and the famous Freedom Trail. Parking in the city was and is always horrendous, but when we finally made it we didn’t have much time to spare, so we ran to the playground and Abby got to play in the water with me and my cousin, while David and my Uncle double backed for the car, and we met up at the Market, where they ran inside to take pictures and take a yummy smoothie to go.
We made it back to the airport with tons of time to spare, and finally David, Abby, and I could rest after a fun-filled action packed couple of weeks.