Some of our favorite things...

Camden's favorite things on the trip:

• Washington DC – Spy Museum's Operation Spy, Smithsonian Museums
• NYC – Yankee Game
• Cape Cod – the beach
• Boston – Quincy Market (reminds him of Granville Island)

Piper’s favorite things on the trip:

• Washington DC – dinosaurs in the Museum of Natural History, Art Galleries
• NYC – Lion King Musical
• Cape Cod – Pirate Adventures; finding shells on the beach
• Boston - eating chowda; the Build-A-Bear workshop

Boston's favorite things on the trip:

• Washington DC - the Washington Monument; baseball game (getting baseballs and cotton candy)
• New York - the baseball game; the Lion King musical
• Cape Cod - Pirate Adventures; swimming at the ocean
• Boston - the Build-A-Bear workshop (sports clothes especially); Boston Red Sox

More of Boston

We spent the day touring Fenway Park, venturing out on a harbor cruise, exploring Boston Common, and spending more time in Quincy Market. Fenway Park is the oldest and coolest ballpark around – almost 100 years old. We got to sit on the Green Monsta! The Red Sox ownership has really made efforts to preserve the ballpark and improve the facilities - lots of subtle improvements - rather than demolishing the old ballpark like a lot of other teams have done in recent years. It seems like a small park (3rd smallest) as the seats all seem really close to the action.
Seeing the tall ships in the harbor was cool. The kids enjoyed the bronze duckling statues in Boston Common (commemorating the famous children’s book), as well as a visit to the Build-a-Bear workshop in Quincy Market. Madison and Boston chose their bears, stuffed them, named them, and picked out neat outfits. See more photos at www.flickr.com/harknessk/sets - as you can imagine, Boston chose sport-related outfits for his bear.

More of Boston

Today we explored more of Boston. Highlights included visiting the piers – which are host to the Tall Ships festival this year (ends today); the USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides as coined by the British navy in the War of 1812 when they were unable to sink her); Paul Revere’s house; Harvard University in Cambridge; and more of Quincy Market which included a variety of buskers and street performers.

Arriving in Boston

Today we left Cape Cod for Boston. After venturing the 70 miles or so, we arrived at our hotel just after lunch. We attempted to get Red Sox tickets, but were unsuccessful. We took a bus tour around downtown Boston and took some time to explore Quincy Market. Supper was highlighted by some “chowda”. Our first impressions of Boston are positive. Like NYC, it is an old place, but not nearly as busy or crowded. NYC seemed compressed, busy, and overcrowded. Boston is spread out a bit more, still busy in certain places, but a bit slower and easy going. New York can be compared to LA – both very busy and with endless possibilities for things to do. If San Francisco is a more “sophisticated” LA to the north in California, then Boston seems to be a more sophisticated version of NYC. We’ll find out more over the next 3 days or so.

Cape Cod

In Cape Cod we found a few neat things to do. This place really is a rich and famous playground – you can just tell by all the lavish beach houses and boats. The speed is much slower here than NYC and people are polite. It’s kind of like a beach resort in Canada, but about 100 times more developed. Ie. Parking is $15 everywhere, there are a dozen different beaches, many tour companies, and every commercial retail outlet. We took the kids on a Pirate Ship Adventure. They role played the part of crew members on a pirate ship that took us out into the Hyannis harbor. Piper and Boston loved it. Cam was a bit old but he was a good sport. We also toured the Cape Cod potato chip factory and spent the most part of the afternoon at the beach. The kids loved sifting through the millions of seashells. They even found and captured a small crab. As mentioned, Cape Cod is a lot like going to the lake, just fancier. While at the beach, we noticed that a Lear Jet would take off or land here at the airport every 30 seconds or so. View more photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/harknessk/sets/

Escape from NY...and on to Cape Cod

We caught a cab from Times Square (where we were staying) to the car rental agency. It was kind of a rush as we entered the street in bumper to bumper traffic in downtown Manhattan, then made our way to the freeway where 85 mph speeds seemed to be the average. Everyone in the car (except the driver) felt sick at least once. It was a 4-hour drive to Hyannis, Massachusetts – the centre of Cape Cod. Cape Cod was a nice change. We spent our first evening dining on a pier eating Lobster and Swordfish.

Our Last Day in NYC

While in NYC we spent most of our time in the Times Square area. We also toured Madison Square Garden, went on 3 bus tours (south Manhattan, north Manhattan, and a night tour), as well as a harbor cruise (Statue of Liberty). We took in the Broadway Musical of the The Lion King and visited other various areas. We also took time to enjoy some NY style pizza, a deli, and of course hot dogs and pretzels from street vendors. New York is really big and busy. Everyone is in a hurry and often rude about it…but that’s just what they are used to…they don’t know any different. The kids thought the busy-ness was humourous and couldn’t get over the fact that people actually live like this all the time here. It was a little over-stimulating to the senses at times, but a good learning experience for us all. There’s a ton of things to do here…more than anywhere else in the world I am sure. Camden liked the food (especially the pretzels), Madison liked the shopping (she spotted a Hello Kitty store and nearly refused to leave the largest Toys R Us you’d ever see), and Boston liked the baseball game and taxis.

Yankee Game

We took the Orange D train from Rockefeller Station to 161st Street at Yankee stadium. It was quite an easy trip, and since it was an afternoon game, not as scary as anticipated. The NY fans (and people in general) really are quite rude and not very intelligent – hence the reason I will never cheer for a NY team – the fans don’t deserve any winners! The Blue Jays ended up beating the Yankees (even though they almost blew a big lead – it came down to the last out which was exciting). The prices at the new Yankee stadium are crazier than other stadiums we have seen. Beers ranged from $9 to $10 each. I small helmet of ice cream was $6.50. A large coke was $6.50. Bottled water was $5.00. The list goes on…gotta pay for the new stadium and all high those high salaried players. But when you rarely go to games you just expect to pay the premium prices. As for the new stadium – not as nice as expected. Its all cement and galvanized metal – looks a lot like Taylor field! Parks in Baltimore, Washington, Anaheim, Atlanta, and Denver are certainly in a different league than the new Yankee Stadium – which seems to be very simple and lacks any of the aesthetics or frills of the new style ballparks. More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/harknessk/sets/

Fun Times in Times Square

We are renting a small studio apartment a few steps from Times Square…we can’t believe how close it is to Times Square – like right out the door. However, it is quite small...like a bachelor suite 18' x 12'. It does have a bathroom and kitchenette, along with a bed, a foldout, and a blow up mattress for the floor.

On our way to NYC

We took a 10am Amtrak train from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in NYC. We arrived in NYC around 2pm. The train was going over 200kms per hour at times! (according to the GPS). There were a few stops along the way, as well as some unsightly residences and neighborhoods viewable out the windows – the ones you only see or hear about in movies – see the Flickr site for some pics. The kids likes the train ride. Arriving in NYC was a bit overwhelming. Washington DC was busy, but getting off the train and out to street level with dozens of yellow cabs waiting and hundreds of people shouting was more than anticipated. We got used to it fast. The streets in NYC are all very narrow and there are simply a ton of people – mostly tourists it seems. We are renting a small studio apartment a few steps from Times Square…we can’t believe how close it is to Times Square – like right out the door. Everything is close here. The blocks are about one-tenth the size of the blocks in DC, so much easier to walk places. Unfortunately, accommodations are small and everything is kind of expensive…but we expected all this and its okay once you are used to it. Nice place to visit, but wouldn’t want to live here. Boston actually asked why our apartment doesn’t have a back yard – he wants to play with his NY Yankee bat/ball/glove set. Madison and Camden can’t get over why people would want to live here permanently.

4th of July Fireworks in DC

The 4th of July is a crazy time in DC. Lots of barricades, police, tourists, etc. all enjoying the day in the National Mall. We spent most of the day down there, checking out the monuments, but then decided to watch the fireworks from the top of our hotel.

Touring DC

Some of the highlights in DC included the Smithsonian museums (Natural History, Air and Space); the Washington Monument, Whitehouse, Capitol Building, Lincoln Monument, and the International Spy Museum. You could spend a day at each museum (the Smithsonian is actually comprised of 19 museums – all free of charge!). We hit some of the highlights – the kids liked the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum; the Hope Diamond; the original Star Spangled Banner that inspired the anthem in 1778 in Baltimore Harbour as the British were attacking throughout the night; much of the set for Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian; etc, etc.

A Monumental Time in DC