DAY 5 - All over the place

This was our last day in Boston and we still had lots we wanted to see. So we bundled up and started walking.

We started off at the Bunker Hill memorial. The hill is actually called Breeds hill. If I remember right, they were originally going to fight the battle on Bunker hill, but Breeds hill was a higher hill so they changed the location. This is the famous battle where General William Prescott made the famous statement "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes." If you would like to read more on the Battle of Bunker Hill, click here. If you ever decide to take a trip to Boston be sure you read up on the Revolutionary War before you go. It will be a more meaningful trip for you.


This Bridge is the Zakim Bridge but is widely known as the Bunker Hill Bridge because of the similarities to the monument. It crosses the Charles river and connects Boston to the neighboring town of Charlestown. It is the world's widest cable-stayed bridge. If you look directly behind the bridge you will see TD Gardens...Home of the Boston Celtics.


The large white steeple you see in the background of this picture is the Old North Church. It is the oldest standing church building in the Boston area and is still used for worship today. This church was made famous by Paul Revere when he used the tower to signal troops of the comming of the Brittish. "One if by land, Two if by sea(or river)" Here is a great site that tells all about the Old North Church. It has a lot of great information and pictures of the inside.


This is Ben and I sitting in one of the pews of the Old North Church singing Hymns. I think we were singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"


It was so wet and yucky walking around town after the big snow storm. This is a picture of my leg so you can see how high up the water climbed up my leg.



After following the Freedom Trail for a while we got back on the subway and made our way to the Museum of Science. This was a really cool place. If I lived in the area I would for sure buy a membership and visit often. We had a lot we wanted to see so we didn't stay at the museum for too long. Just long enough to take a brief tour and see what it was all about. In front of the museum There is a big T-Rex so Mom and Ben decided to act like him.


Ben looking excited while I snapped a photo of him in front of a dino skeleton.



My foot compared to the footprint of a dino.



Next stop: The Aquarium

I really like the aquarium a lot. Behind dad you will see a Sand Tiger Shark. (I think that is what they were called)


There was a guide walking by with this jaw bone, so Ben asked him if he could take a picture with it. He told us it was the teeth of one of the aformentioned Sand Tiger Sharks. It turns out they have really big mouths and could swallow Ben's entire head in one bite. Yikes!!

Mom was a trooper. We did a lot of walking this day and we still had more to do. So Ben and I went and asked the front desk if they had a wheelchair we could rent so that mom could have a break from walking for a while. They were actually complimentary. All we had to do was leave a drivers licence. So mom got a good break...and Ben got a good workout pushing the wheelchair up all the hills in the building.

I can't remember what kind of tortiose this is, but I do remember the guide telling us that she was 75 years old and weighed over 500 lbs. She was HUGE!! Darren got a better picture of her so maybe we'll get lucky and he'll post some of his Boston pictures on his blog.


This here is a sideways picture of one of the coolest sea horses I have ever seen. I almost missed it because I thought it was just a bunch of weeds floating in the water. I thought they had cleaned out the exhibit for some reason. I'm glad I kept looking.



This is just a neat picture of downtown Boston. I really like the clocktower in the background.


One of the last things we got to do was ride to the top of the Prudential Building. On it's 50th floor, there is an observation deck that is open to the public. There is also a free audio tour that explains to you what exactly you are seeing out the windows. This is Susan listening to her audio tour. This is where I learned a lot of interesting things about the Boston area. One of the most interesting things I learned from this tour was about the great Molasses Flood in Boston.

In 1919 there was a big Molasses processing plant located in the North End of town. One January day one of the tanks of molasses exploded leaving 2,300,000 gallons of molasses flooding down the streets of town at around 35 miles/hour and with enough force that it lifted a train off it's tracks. There were 21 people and many horses killed and 150 people injured. Nearby buildings were lifted off their foundations.

They say that in that portion of town on a hot summer day you can still smell the molasses that seeped into the pebble roads. If you want to read more on this event, look here.

DAY 4 - Celtics & Art Museum

Sunday we woke up to a couple feet of fresh snow. We waited around for a while letting the storm settle down a bit, and then we headed out. We were so bundled up as we walked to the subway station that one of the locals passed us and said "You all going caroling or something?"

Ben laying in the fresh snow.

Riding a subway was a new experience for Ben, Mom and Dad. I'm not sure if it was also a new experience for Susan. Anyway, here is a picture of them on the memorable event. I really like the subway system. It makes it so easy to get from place to place.


We started off at the Museum of Fine Arts. Notice dad is not wearing a hat. He had a very specific hat he wanted to find. (and after looking in several different stores, he finally did find one our last night in Boston)

The MFA building was a neat building. This is just one shot of the ceiling. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the museum. It's a great activity for a snowy day.


After the museum we went to the North end of town. This is were a lot of Italian people live and were were told we should go there to get some yummy Italian food. And it sure was Yummy!!! The area reminded me a lot of Spain. Bakery's on every corner and just a bunch of little shops along the streets. Across from the North End, was TD Gardens, home of the Boson Celtics. My dad as been a Celtics fan for as long as I can remember, so we bought tickets for the game. I just wish it would have been a a more exciting game. They were playing the Timberwolves and had almost a 30 point lead the entire game.

We had pretty good seats though. Ben walked down to the floor and took these last two shots. I like these shots because if you look at the "normal" sized people compared to the basketball players it shows how really tall they are.




When we got home Darren was craving a slice of pizza from a shop nearby our hotel so he and Susan stopped there and the rest of us continued on to our hotel. Ben found a flat, smooth section of snow along the way and decided to make a surprise for Susan and Darren on their way back to the hotel. He signed his name on it after the picture so they would hopefully know it was for them. They did.

DAY 3 - Rockport, Gloucester, Salem

First stop today Rockport, MA. This is a small fisherman village with a ton of granite stone. The whole coastline is granite. Here's Dad walking down to the coast.




Susan, Darren and Ben workin' it on their way down to the coast


Mom trying to stay warm


Ben in front of a Granite Quarry


Dad really wanted to put his hand into the water of the Northern Atlantic Ocean so he climbed down the rock all the way. It was really cold. Then right after he stood up, a big wave came up and got his feet all wet. We were afraid he was going to be washed out to sea. :) j/k




A cute picture of Susan and Darren on the coast. Darren was nice enough to stop birding and photographing long enough to snap this picture.



Ben, Me, and Susan out on the coast. Have I mentioned yet that it was cold?



Susan and I taking our own picture. I look very determined.




Dad and Ben in front of the ocean. You know it's cold if even dad is bundled up like that. As you can see in the picture it was very overcast. There is a blizzard moving it's way up the east coast. it is supposed to hit us tonight, but I think we might get lucky enough to have it miss us.



The next stop on the road was Gloucester, MA. - Americas oldest seaport.
It was a really cute, and old village. In the middle of the city we found this tree...



...as you can see in this close up picture it is made out of lobster cages and buoys . Can you guess what they do a lot of? While there, we stopped into a small seafood restaurant after finding that the one we really wanted to go to was closed for the season. Ben and Darren were craving some fresh lobster (which they had none of) and Dad was craving a bowl of clam chowder.




Next stop: Salem, MA - home of the famous witch trials
This is Dad and I standing in the middle of the road in front of the awesome looking witches museum. We were pretty disappointed in Salem. It turns out that most of the buildings are not heated, so they are only open during warmer weather. And as we've established already, MA is NOT warm in December.



Next stop:The hotel
Darren, Dad and Mom were tired of being in the car.



Next, and final stop for the day for Susan, Ben and I: Fenway Park - home of the Boston Red Sox......-

...and temporarily home of the Boston Bruins Hockey team. They have turned the entire field into a giant ice rink. Unfortunately they were having some company party tonight, so we weren't allowed in to tour. We just had to look in from the outside, much to Ben's dismay.

DAY 2 - The actual Wedding

Today was Andy's wedding. It was a great day. We made it to the temple just fine and way early, so we consulted Beverly, Darren's GPS system, for some attractions near the temple. We found a really cool cemetery. Mount Auburn Cemetary - the first landscaped cemetery. We didn't have a ton of time by the time we found it, so I don't have any pictures. Hopefully Darren will post some of his pictures. It is worth seeing. He said he thought it was the same guy that designed Central park in New York.

Anyway, back to the wedding. Here is a picture of Andy and Kat after the ceremony with mom and dad. Don't they look great!!?? It was freezing cold. They were troopers. If you look you will notice there are a lot of clutched fists in the picture. I was all bundled up, and was still freezing. Kat and Andy must have had a lot of hormones going through their bodies to keep them warm enough to keep moving, because they kept going and going without freezing to the pavement. Mom was a trooper too, because I made her take her coat off for the picture. :) It was worth the sacrifice.

This is Ben working it. Doesn't he look sexy? The woman sitting on the table next to us thought so. She kept talking to him throughout the entire evening. I got some good pictures of them on Darren's camera. Don't worry, the lady was about 80ish years old.


The cake battle was a good one. Kat got Andy pretty good as you can tell in the picture. She got the best end of the deal.
This is a cute pic. of Darren and Susan. He gave me the camera and told me to go take random pictures of people, so I got lots of them. You can also see some of the decorations that were there. It was amazing. A LOT of time was put into putting up all the decorations.

BOSTON - DAY 1

I decided I would put at least one picture every day of our trip for those of you who were not able to come.

Today, we spent most of the day traveling. We left Salt Lake in the dark, and we arrived in Boston just before dark. We arrived safely without any trouble.

We were scheduled to meet up with Kat's family for dinner at 6:30. They made reservations at Cafe Polonia, a polish restaurant. I've never eaten polish food before so that was fun. I ordered Kotlet Sobieski - a chicken breast with some sort of a breaded crust and a cucumber salad and a beet salad. The chicken was awesome, and so was the cucumber salad....the beet salad not so much. It had a very strong vinegary flavor.
While we were waiting for Kat's family to come pick us up, we found out it was only a 5 min. walk from the hotel so we decided to walk. IT WAS FREEZING!!! I haven't been that cold in a really long time. Even dad said the same thing. So after dinner we all walked over to Target, also near our hotel, and purchased scarfs, long underwear, and other warm items of clothing. On the way over to Target the wind was blowing so hard and cold it was giving us all headaches. The walk home was much nicer with our new purchases.



Here we are all bundled up. Ben, Susan, Darren, Dad, and me in the front

An Awesome Surprise

Late Monday night I decided to get on Facebook just to check things before I went to bed, and I'm sure glad I did. One of my friends from Spain had changed her status to say "I'm in Idaho Falls for a week!" So of course I freaked out and sent her a message to call me. She did. I was so excited. The only time they (she and her brother) had to hang out with me before my trip was Tuesday morning. Unfortunately I had to work, but I was doing labs those days so I invited them to school with me to see what an American school is like. It was great. She loved it. (Brother stayed home and slept) When we were walking through the halls, she said "This is so cool. It's just like the American movies!" I laughed. She thought it was cool that we had cooking classes at our schools. I guess in Spain they only have art and music as elective classes.

Here is a picture of us:

Crafting

Look what I made for my Sunbeams for Christmas....aren't they cute?? I copied the idea. It's not original. But I still wanted to show you all.

Flash back to November

Now that I finally have the calendar sent off to the printer, I can finally update my blog. It was a fun thanksgiving because we had both sides of the family together. I feel bad though because I have some cousins on my dad's side that I don't know very well. I guess that's what I get for moving so far away and staying in my own world. Here are some random shots from Thanksgiving.



Grandpa went through his closets and gave all his old hats, jackets and bags and gave them to the grand kids. This is them sporting their stuff


Jacob wouldn't be in the group shot showing of the stuff he got from grandpa...but he let me take this individual shot


Jacob the bear


Michelle...after her pie


Ethan


A great picture- Jake, Ethan, and Luke



I love this picture..... Heather, Michelle, Brooklyn, Jenna



John



Ashlyn



Dessert time! Kaitlin, Brianna, and Heather



Darren Striking a pose



Brianna and her pie



Kaitlin with her pie



Heather eating her pie



Mary Ann cutting all the pies



Dad and his pumpkin pie



Mom and Grandpa Christiansen - I really like this picture



Jolene and Linda



Shelly



Brooke and Ali (Thanks Mary Ann)



Jessica and Caleb



Kyle, Caleb, Zach, Tyler, and Tate....did I get all those names right??



Michelle, Rose and Dave



John and Mike



Sheri and Kathy



Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew



s-t-r-e-t-c-h



The almost-newlyweds



Susan probably won't like this one, but here it is anyway



Ryan and LaCee... This is a really good picture of LaCee