Day 6 - Boston!

For this second day in Boston, we visited a few spots that we couldn't cover on the trolley ride yesterday. It was a lucky day for parking and the weather continued to be perfect. This was a slower paced morning; we didn't get to Fenway until 11:00 so had to wait for the 12:00 tour.

That was fine with the boys since we spent that hour shopping at the Red Sox store! I, however, want to share that I walked into this store and immediately noticed that most of the hats were emblazoned with the single letter "B"...I felt so honored that I purchased a "B"ev hat for myself and wore it throughout the tour. Here's Shelby standing in front of just a small sample of the walls filled with "B" hats!

Before we had a chance to get bored, our tour began and we were inside Fenway Park! Here are just a few shots of our tour but know that we covered most of the park...

...including getting to sit in the section on top of The Green Monster!

From there we drove to the Back Bay and found parking just a couple of blocks from the Mapparium. That is a stained glass globe with a 30 foot diameter that you walk through on a glass bridge. Photos are not allowed but if you ever have the chance, do take time to see it. It's awesome being in the center of the earth and the acoustics inside that glass globe are also a unique experience.

The Mapparium is located in the Mary Baker Eddy Library located on the 14 acre grounds of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, which includes sculptures, buildings, and a reflecting pool. Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. We also visited the beautiful, enormous Mother Church before touring the Mapparium.

After an early dinner around 3:00 we drove over the Charles River to Cambridge to visit Harvard, which is on Dylan's list of potential colleges. These words were engraved above the gate through which we entered Harvard Yard...

Enter

To Grow in Wisdom

That gate is named Dexter Gate, which the kids loved of course!

The Widener Library

The kids in The Yard.

Rubbing the toe of John Harvard for luck.

Harvard Coop...where we all went shopping!

A ballpark, a church, a university...what an itinerary to expose our young grands to more of our great country!

Lovin' Life ~~ Traveling With These Great Kids

1927 - 2013

We'll never know why Rich went outside when he did today, it was 12:45 p.m., but he just happened to notice this above the homes across the street from us and had me come outside to see it. I have never seen anything like it before so I'm sure it was my mom, letting me know all is well in Heaven.

Velma Ruth Pogue

January 23, 1927 - May 2, 2013

Lovin' Life ~~ Love You, Mom

Thanksgiving in San Antonio

Do I have the best Thanksgiving story of all this year? You be the judge. The KOA provided turkey, dressing, gravy, rolls, tea, and water. There was a sign-up sheet in the office all week; I opted to bring mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. I lost sleep for two nights over how to cook and mash and keep hot ten pounds of potatoes but, after all that analysis and over-thinking, they turned out great!

Tables were set up along three sides of the Rec Center. As you came in, the first tables had all the hot main dishes.

The tables across the back had tons of side dishes and salads and rolls.

Just look at all the people and the line out the door!

The last tables were piled with desserts and drinks.

There were a LOT of people enjoying a GREAT Thanksgiving Feast together!

While standing in line, and taking pictures of course, a lady asked if we would like for her to take one of us.

See where Rich is sitting? I had just joined him a few minutes earlier when a guy standing to my right asked if he could take our picture. He had sunglasses on so it took me a second and then I saw his wife.

It was Ken and Gail who live in British Columbia. They are one of the couples we became friends with last winter in Apache Junction! They had just arrived here this morning. Like us, they took a long route on their way back to Apache Junction for this winter, winding their way across and down to San Antonio. They had often heard about this fun city but had not been here.

How is that for a small world story? Can you top this one? To be so far from our families and wondering what we would be doing on this day of Thanksgiving, this day turned out great with a KOA feast of all the traditional dishes and sharing the meal with friends from afar. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Lovin' Life ~~ On This Amazing Thanksgiving

Play Dirty ATV Tours

Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012

From the ads for Play Dirty ATV Tours, we had decided it would be fun to do another off-road adventure. Since it was Labor Day we were certain that they would be booked but thought it would be a scenic drive west on Hwy 50 along the Arkansas River and we could check out their tours when we got there. It is a lovely drive.

Wouldn't you know...they had a group coming back in less than an hour and were open the rest of the day so we could fill out waivers and watch the safety video RIGHT THEN! Oh c'mon. We weren't even sure we wanted to go and I could not decide if I wanted to ride a single ATV or ride together in a Rhino. It didn't matter to Rich. We walked to the nearby restaurant to get lunch and think it over. That was a tough decision for me until they said that we would have to wear full face helmets on the single ATVs which meant there was no way I could drive and take photos...done.

Note the attire...haha! It is not recommended that you wear white on dusty trails...geesh, we didn't know we'd be doing this today.

We crossed a bridge over the Arkansas River,

drove to the parking lot of the Texas Creek off-road area,

and, OFF WE WENT!

Our guide stopped and pointed this out shortly after we started. Do you see the pink bucking horse in the gray granite? Its head is down with its tail in the air to the right. Way cool!

Note the narrow trail and the very steep rock wall dropping straight down off the right edge. Even before we got this far, I was so glad to have my life in Rich's hands rather than riding my own ATV...yessiree, another good decision!

At our guide's request, we both sniffed this Ponderosa Pine tree. I'm sure that Ross knows; does anyone else know why? A mature Ponderosa Pine smells like butterscotch! Honestly!

This amazing heart-shaped rock was at the same stop as the tree above...isn't nature something special?

 We continue on...

This was so much fun! After we went rafting, Rich had tried to figure out how we can transport a raft; after today, Rich has tried to figure out how we can transport a raft and a Rhino! The Saturn's certainly not going to hold it all...giggle!

I took some really cool videos during our drive. I tried for the last two nights to upload one, but with the slow internet connection we have in this RV Park, it just couldn't make it to YouTube. By the way, this is not the first dust bath I've experienced...there was that one day in the Sierras...haha...but I don't think that white top will be making any more appearances...teehee

The drive back to our RV...

 

As we turned into our RV Park, I shot this to show you that "as the crow flies" we are this close to the Royal Gorge Bridge. See it on the upper left side?

Here is a zoomed shot...WOW, what a bridge!

(The white frame above the center has nothing to do with the bridge; it's a swing attraction at the Gorge.)

Lovin' Life ~~ And Unplanned Activities