Day 16 - Boston

Our neighbours had gone and Julian slept until 7:15am but woke up wet and unhappy (rightly so). We managed the showers (yay), pack up and breakfast in 2hours.  We called our accomodation in Boston to see if we could drop our bags off early at the apartment but were told we couldn't.  They did allow us to use their other location to store them for the 2hours until our apartment was "ready".

So we set Jane (GPS) up and she decided that we would take the same route back to Boston.   We had to return the rental car back at 1pm so we decided not to deviate from Janes decision.  The drive was 2.5hours and apart from a friendly flash from the local cops, it was uneventful.

 New Hampshire number plate "Live Free or Die"- New Jersey already had "The Garden State".

Julian swatting for the test when he gets back to childcare.

Boston skyline - this time with blue skies.

When we got into Boston which included some poor decisions on Janes part, we found the place where we could drop off our bags.  So much luggage that poor Steve had to haul up and down stairs!  Then we got back in the car to drop it off at Avis in the city.  No problem there and the nice lady suggested a place across the road to have lunch - Au Bon Pain.

We had excellent Clam chowder, salad and a bagel which Julian didn't want.

We had a bit of time to kill until our apartment was ready at 3pm, so we went to the local mall Copley Place and let Julian ride the escalators and walk from end to end.  Very ritzy place this - Louis Vuitton, Neiman Marcus, Barneys, Bally etc.  We also found a Starbucks for another hot chocolate and bought more straws for Julians cup as he is chewing the end off the first one.

It was a short walk back to the Inn and they were very good.  They helped us with our bags and got us a Taxi which we jammed full of bags!  The ride to the apartment was straight forward and the driver did very well as the apartment is in a laneway which is barely wider than a car.  It was a struggle to get out without banging the car door on a fence or wall.

The apartment was on level 3 which was at the top of a walkup - so Steve had to haul the bags up even more staircases.  These were narrow and damn dangerous!  Inside the "toddler friendly" apartment was another 2 staircases - one going to the bedroom and then another floor up to the roof top deck.  This is the view from the deck:

Nice eh?
We didn't like the place when we arrived but that may have been tiredness.  We hate stairs!  Also the place is filled with skylights without blinds - damn killer when the sun is up around 5am.  Steve found a fix for one which we will show you tomorrow.  Julian was very reluctant to take a nap but we forced it upon him and he slept for 45mins - boy he needed it!

For dinner we walked about 100m around the corner and down the road to The Upper Crust, a pizza joint with good reviews.  We bought a vege pizza and added Chicken and got it Take Out.  We ate it on the roof top deck:

Tomorrow will hopefully be low-key, probably a walk around The Freedom Trail and a play in Boston Common.

Day 14 - North Conway, New Hampshire

A 6:30am start with a happy little boy- yay!  We tidied up and made the most of the washer and dryer before we handed the keys back at 9:30am.  We really enjoyed staying here, shame it is so far away.

As we were leaving Woods Hole the weather packed in big time and it rained and rained.  We managed to find the LL Bean outlet at Wareham and thankfully they had a jacket in Julians size.  He has grown out of all of his old ones and we needed one desperately.

Then we drove to Plymouth.  The plan was to walk around the Mayflower replica, the Pilgrim museum and have a look at the Mayflower Society house.  Unfortunately it was blowing a gale, freezing cold and the rain was coming in sideways.  Also Julian dropped off to sleep just as we arrived - our singing couldn't keep him awake any longer.

We decided on Whoppers from Burger King and ate them in the car on the foreshore.  This was the view out the windscreen:

Then we set Jane (GPS) up to take us to our rental in New Hampshire.  For some reason she decided on taking us via Maine, adding 2hours to our trip.  Thankfully we were on to her and caught the error before it was too late.  There was a lot of cursing to be had.  The correct route took us through Boston which wasn't too bad traffic wise.

 Still crap weather as you can see.

That is Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox) on the right.

We stopped for a pit stop in Portsmouth at the Dunkin Donuts.  Fair to say, we wont be eating their donuts again as they seem to always be dry.  The hot chocolate (we have given up on their coffee) tasted like marshmallows even though there weren't any in there!

Then it was the last 130km to North Conway where were are staying for the next two nights.  Still raining.  There were a couple of pretty lakes on the drive but I think the rain obscured the greater vista.

For some reason Jane (GPS) couldn't find the road we are staying on, which added another 30mins whilst we sat in the McDonalds carpark googling the address!  When we arrived, we turned the heating on (12degC outside), set up the cot, feed Julian and headed out much to his dismay.

I had found a local hotel which brewed it own beer in North Conway, so we went there for dinner (Moat Mountain Brewery: http://moatmountain.com/).  Steve had a Pulled Pork burger with fries and I had Carolina Pulled Pork (slow cooked pork with a spicy sauce all on a slice of cinnamon raisin toast served with garlic mashed potato and coleslaw). 

 No idea why Steve was pulling the face - perhaps he was worried about the beers.  I had a Pale Ale and Steve had a Brown Ale and a Belgian triple.  It was so good, we have decided to go back!

We once again needed milk, bread and beer so we went to Hannafords, the local supermarket.  Nothing too exciting there except it was raining and we got drenched getting Julian in/out of the car.

And then when we got home we found that we couldn't get any water in the bath/shower so Julian missed out on a bath.  He wasn't interested either and was fast asleep in minutes!

Finally, here is a little house at the end of our street.

Day 13 - Woods Hole, Falmouth

Julian slept for just over 3hours!  Steve had a good rest too - he has done a lot of driving the past few days.

After Julian woke up he was hungry and he refused an apple in preference for a banana!!

Anyway, we did head up to Falmouth to have a walk around.  First stop however was the drivethru Dunkin Donuts for afternoon tea - we didn't do the drivethru as we didn't know what to get.  In the end I went in and bought a jelly donut and glazed donut each.  I had to have a coffee with my donut, so I bought them also.

We then drove back to a park in the centre of Falmouth to eat them.

 Sorry to say the coffee wasn't too good.  The donuts were much better.  The jelly donut, would you believe, is much less sweet than the Aussie equivalent, jam donut.

This is the boys looking at the flags on the memorials to fallen soldiers from Cape Cod.

We then walked down the main drag to the fancy white houses which surround Falmouth Common.

As we have a long day tomorrow, we needed to stock up on supplies so we once again headed to the Stop and Shop, then it was back home to feed Julian.  Yesterday he refused most food and today he ate nearly 2 days worth!  Damn hard to plan when he is like this.  He has also started eating Blueberries again.

We didn't feel like eating in and the weather was cool but not raining, so we drove to Woods Hole for dinner.  Tonight we chose Captain Kidds which was an old style pub with pub food.  Steve chose the baked seafood and I chose the fried seafood.  They both were ok, nothing special.

 We chose a different road home and came past the Nobska Lighthouse (still in operation).

It is now 8:20pm and Julian went to bed without a fight, again.  We are just about to tuck into these icecreams:

Tomorrow we are heading up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire which is around 4hours driving.  We are going to break it up by stopping in Plymouth.

Day 12 - Woods Hole, Provincetown

Our bedroom has a couple of high windows which don't have curtains and we think this is why Julian is waking early. Thankfully today he played in his cot until 6:10am, so it was semi-bareable :)  It was already raining outside, as forecast, so we didn't hurry to get out of bed.

At breakfast Julian noticed Steve had a banana and wanted it.  This is not unusual, however this time instead of screwing his nose up in disgust when he tried to bite it, he ate some.  He ended up eating 1/2 the banana.  He has never liked banana, so maybe this is a turning point!  Not too much as we don't want to block him up again.

We were very pleased to have been to Martha's Vineyard yesterday which meant today we could do the drive up to Provincetown in the rain. First we stopped in Falmouth (5km up the road) Vistors Centre and asked what wet weather activities could be had in the area.  The lady suggested taking the scenic route to Chatham before heading up the highway to Provincetown.  We did as advised and there was nothing scenic about the drive, unless you consider abandoned motels and restaurants scenic - maybe "scenic" means something different over here?

Chatham was a nice little town and it has a lighthouse which we went to look at. Julian and I stayed in the car as it was REALLY windy and spitting with rain.  These are Steve's photos:

The Chatham Lighthouse

Looking out to the Atlantic ocean - it looks blurry because of the bad weather.

We only stayed in Chatham for lunch - Clam Chowder and sandwiches - before heading north up the main road to Provincetown.  Provincetown is the place where the Pilgrims first landed in mainland USA. They only stayed a month before moving onto Plymouth (just south of Boston).  It was a small town which reminded me a lot of Akaroa but the houses were all the same and the roads narrower.  There was no parking in town, so we drove up the rise to the Pilgrims monument.

 It is something like 100m tall.

 

This is looking down the stairwell 

Julian looking up at the monument.  It was so windy up there that he was getting blown backwards!  He thought it was great fun, most of the time.

We walked up the many stairs and there was a spectacular view when we got to the top.

 

Unfortunately because we took the "scenic" route, we didn't have much time to spend in Provincetown.  It looked very pretty and had many art galleries to explore.  It would have been magnificent in better weather.

So we drove back to Woods Hole to give Julian a late-ish dinner, which he wasn't interested in.  Katrina and Greg kindly went out in the rain to get Indian take-out for our dinner.  Julian had a spoonful of rice and butter chicken and then gave up eating for the night.

Tomorrow is meant to be nicer weather, so we are going to walk down our street to the beach in the morning with Katrina and Greg.  Then once they have left for Montreal, we will go to Falmouth for a proper look around.  Julian deserves a day out of carseats and strollers!

Day 10 - Woods Hole, Newport

After Flo's, we went for a drive up Bellevue Avenue to look at all the fancy mansions - and there were many:

 This one is for sale (above)

There were so many and the styles were varied, something that these photos didn't capture.  I would have had better luck photographing fences and fancy gates such as this:

Anyhow, this was a worthwhile stop.  Even Steve was impressed (how could you not be?)  He forgot until after we left that Newport was where Australia beat the US (and our mate Dennis Connor) in the Americas Cup.

And then there was more driving - another 1.5hours to Wood Hole.  This wasn't too bad and we found our rental quite easily.  We met the owner and he gave us some recommendations for dinner and then he left us to it.

Tonight Julian had half of what Mr Heinz offered but surprisingly refused the blueberry yoghurt.  So we gave up and headed to Woods Hole, a very small township (10 or so shops and restaurants) about 2miles from our rental.  It is the launching point of the Martha's Vineyard ferry.

This is Woods Hole:

 Looking out towards Martha's Vineyard.

 The view from our restaurant balcony.

On our owners recommendation we went to Phusion.  He warned that it was expensive but the food was worth it.  We couldn't have summed it up better.  Steve and I had the same thing - Kobe beef burger with lobster tails and a Martha's Vineyard brewery Indian Pale Ale.  The burger was magnificent, easily the best thing we have eaten in the US - perfect in every way.  The beer was really good too.  We did need something to go right for us today.

However as we were enjoying the view too much, the market/shop next door closed and we needed milk for Julian.  So we went to Falmouth 5miles up the road to get it - another visit to a Rite Aid and bought a gallon of milk for $3.69.  We will go back as the houses there are perfect little dolls houses!

Tomorrow Katrina and Greg are arriving from Montreal.  I haven't seen them in 5 years and Steve saw them in February when he was over there.  They are staying with us until Sunday.  The weather is good for tomorrow but thunderstorms are predicted for Friday night/Saturday morning so we will play it by ear to see what we do.