Boston.

We are home today after spending some time away in the city. We planned this getaway to Boston a couple weeks ago. This was Maxwell's first trip away from New York.  We weren't sure how he would do. Especially the car ride. But he did great! I think this little man is an adventurer like his Mama. He was so content riding around the city in his stroller. He napped when he pleased and other times he took in all there was to see. Scarlett loved it as well. In fact, she cried when we had to leave. When we asked her why she was crying, she informed us that she wanted to live in the city. *smile* I told Scarlett there would be plenty more trips to enjoy. Despite what you may think, Boston really is a great place to travel with kids. It's a lot less chaotic than NYC but still plenty to do and see.

This getaway got me very excited to go explore new places. Boston is the capital of our home, Massachusetts. But I can't tell you how long it's been since we've been there. Probably 6 years or more. It was all so exciting. Tall buildings, people everywhere, food to die for and of course, pastries and cannolis that made your mouth water. We used 2 strollers while in the city. We brought the Nuna Mixx and a Sit and Stand Stroller. I loved using the Nuna stroller for Maxwell in the city, but Scarlett often got tired and ended up riding on the front board, which really isn't made for a child to kneel on. I need to find out if they sell a stroller board for the Nuna Mixx. Does anyone know? The Sit and Stand came in handy for most of the trip. We put little Max in the front part. I can't believe he is big enough to sit in there at 3 months old! But he's a little chunker, that boy. Then Scarlett hopped off and on as we stopped at attractions and places. It worked well. Scarlett is at the age where she still gets tired of walking and often wants to lay down. I'm thinking that our next trip we will invest in a City Mini Double Stroller for them. That way they can both lay down and nap if they want to. But that is a whole different post that I will touch base on later. I tagged most of the places that I talk about below in case anyone wants to know more about them.....

In Boston, we wanted to do a few things. Boston Children's Museum, The Swan Boats, Mike's Pastries in the North End, and Spectacle Island. Of course we saw much more than that. It was a wonderful trip. On the first day we took a Ferry over to Spectacle Island which is right off the coast of Long Wharf in Boston. As you can see by the photos, you can see the Boston City Line in the distance. We went on a Friday and it wasn't too packed. The beach area is quite small but it was enough sand for Scarlett to make a sand castle. She'd been asking to play in the sand all summer long. If you go, bring water shoes. The beach is very rocky. There were walking paths that took you around the island if you wished to take a stroll. They also had a restaurant there in case you got hungry. We brought our lunch with us and ate on the Ferry instead. It worked out great. All in all it was beautiful.

That night we checked into the Hyatt Regency which was in the Financial District of Boston. It was pretty centrally located and perfect for us since we were walking to all of our destinations. The Boston Commons were close and everything else within a 10-20 min walk away. We ventured out and found a place to eat called "The Back Deck". Wall length windows were completely open and gave us the feeling that we were eating outdoors even though we weren't. Burgers there....delicious! I am not a burger girl and I loved mine. After we looked through some of the stores, we went back to the hotel to get rested for another fun day.

Saturday we met up with Ty's sister and her boyfriend. They showed us around A bit and took us to The Gaslight for brunch. Another tasty place where we ate outside with Bloody Mary's and Mimosas in hand. Scarlett was amazed at the statue people. A little afraid of the guy who flipped change in his pan but amazed with the woman who gave out little rolled up scrolls with words of wisdom. We ate dinner at Tia's along Long Wharf. Great place to eat with the family. After that we made our way to the North End where the streets were ridiculously packed. We decided to leave that area and go back the next morning instead. Which we did. We ate breakfast at Trattoria's on Newbury St. and then got a box full of goodies from good ole' Mike's Pastries which we ate by the sprinklers. Why I didn't bring more home, I'm not sure. Then we made our way to the Children's Museum. This part was all about Scarlett! Three floors of hands on activities had her in her glory. From there we grabbed Pret  sandwiches (SO good) and ate them in the commons. We then stumbled upon the carousel so of course Scarlett rode. Right next to the Carousel was the Frog Pond. The Frog Pond is a large but shallow wading pool that the kids can cool off in. We made the mistake of leaving Scarlett's bathing suit in the hotel room. Scarlett asked me if she could go in with her clothes on. I couldn't say no! Besides, I've been trying to make it a habit of saying yes more often. She loved that Frog Pond so much that we came back the next morning and let her go in again. We also did a buffet breakfast at Avenue One, another great eat in the Regency. By noon on Monday we headed out on the long ride home. If you follow me on SnapChat (LaurenRebecca44), you saw how we spent the long trip home to New York. I sat in between the kids keeping Maxwell from crying and switching movies at Scarlett's request.

After this trip, I'm already planning our next. It made me realize how much I love to travel and explore new places. Especially with our kids. I want them to see new places and experience fun things. If this means cutting back in other areas so that we can vacation more, so be it! Anyway, here are our photos from Boston. Enjoy :)