Eating Time with the Pay

Today Payson turned 7 months old, and I got some cute videos of him eating his green beans!

Enjoy!!

New England

One of the biggest advantages of living in Chicago, is there are cheaper flights to big cities, such as Boston and New York.  (Too bad Salt Lake doesn’t count as one of those cheap flight cities from Chicago).

So to make a long story short-- we flew to Boston and flew home from New York.  We visited lots of places in between our two flights, via rental car!  Here’s the scoop…

BOSTON = A Great Start to our Trip

New England in general was beautiful!  Boston was a really neat city with the history of the Revolution.  We saw where the Boston Massacre occurred, and many other famous sites on the Freedom Walk.  We drove through Cambridge, which is where Harvard and MIT is located, and we toured a battle ship and one of the original tall ships that was used to fight off pirates back in the day.

Site of the Boston Massacre

Old Famous church

Cute Boy holding his Frogman in a cute way!!

Battleship

Giant Kitchen Aid on the Battledship-  lol- Put this picture on for you, Tina!!

Tall Ship USS Constitution- made to fight the Pirates!!  Still floats!

Bunker Hill

We drove by the Boston Temple, and didn’t even realize it until we saw it.

NEW HAMPSHIRE = Where We went to Church

PORTLAND, MAINE = Beautiful

We first ventured into the heart of Portland to find some delicious seafood!  After eating, walking around, and feeling the ocean in Portland- we decided our day in Maine would not be complete unless we saw a lighthouse!!  We also saw a very old, not preserved mansion!

Also, you wouldn’t believe that there was no where to go to the bathroom in Maine.  We tried two gas stations, a CVS pharmacy, and finally found a restroom at a hotel.

Cheap parking!!

You think Lobster Bisque is good… You gotta try Lobster Stew

Awesome New England houses!  Loved them!!!

Exactly what I expected Maine to look like!!

Old Mansion

SHARON, VERMONT = Joseph Smith’s Birthplace

Even though Vermont was 3 hours away from Boston, it was well worth the “out of the way” adventure!!  We thought this might be our only chance to visit Joseph Smith’s Birthplace, let alone Vermont!

It was very neat, and there was a special Spirit there! I learned some new things about Joseph Smith’s childhood, He had a lot more little surgeries on his leg after his initial surgery because little pieces of bone kept creeping to the surface of his skin, and had to be removed surgically.

This was the original hearth stone that was in Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith’s home where the prophet was born.

The monument that was put in place for Joseph Smith’s birthplace.  It shines at night like the Temple, and has been struck by lighting 3 times, but miraculously does NOT have a single mark or crack on it!

This is the plot where the Smith home stood!

 

We also saw the remains of the Solomon Mack home and another one of Joseph’s close relatives.

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS = a Disappointment

We heard Springfield has a lot of history, and I’m sure it did, but we were expecting to see more than what we saw.  The truth is, the restaurants were closed because it was Labor Day, so we had to have Taco Bell, and the Armory that we went to was cool, but not AS cool as we thought it would be!  Plus, the area that the armory was in was S-C-A-R-Y.  Josh said something like, “I would take my chances in South-Side Chicago any day than in Springfield, MA.”

None-the-less, it wasn’t a horrible experience- just not the highlight of our trip.  The drive to Springfield was beautiful, and so was the drive away from Springfield through Connecticut!

The Armory

CONNECTICUT = A Very Pretty Drive

Payson was getting restless, so we stopped the car at a dead-end bridge and took a walk!  Once again- New England was so pretty!!

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND = Fascination

Just look at the pictures below, and you will know what I mean by Fascination!!  We saw a lot of BIG Beautiful Mansions!!  I haven’t seen Downtown Abby, but I imagine this is the kind of mansions that the stories from the the late 1800s and early 1900s took place!  In fact, we toured The Breakers, which was the Vanderbilt's summer home!  ha ha- Their summer home was a small city!  The breakfast room (yes there was a room just for breakfast) was bigger than our condo!!  We heard the stories, and life really was like Jane Austen so perfectly describes it in her books!

I can’t remember the names of all the houses/mansions, but they were all phenomenal!

The Elms

The Elms house backyard (I mean- Gardens)!!

Rosecliff House

And the Grand – The Breakers!!

We couldn’t take pictures inside, but you can trust me- it was like a castle!!

After visiting the mansions we had to find some more LOBSTER!! Yum!! We went to a place right on the port!  Lobster was NOT cheaper on the East Coast, but you can’t go to the coast and not have it, so we improvised and got a lobster roll instead of just lobster.  Lobster rolls were all over New England, and they were cheaper than 1/4 pound of lobster or a lobster tail!

The Allusive Lobster Roll

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS = Very Surreal

One of the most amazing historical places I have ever been to was Concord!  Lexington was pretty cool, too!  We walked the path (Battle Road) the British soldiers walked where the Minute Men came out of no-where and shot many of them down.  This was the beginning of the Revolutionary war!!!

We also walked on the very bridge (North Bridge) where “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” took place.  This is where the British soldiers came to take over, but just across the bridge, the New Englanders fought back.  We were the only ones there.  We could imagine it all happen.  The weather was overcast, with a slight chill in the air, so it was perfect timing to visit the bridge.  At this same place, Thoreau  wrote his famous writings at Walden Pond.  (We saw the house where many other famous authors wrote, as well).

A captain's house. (I can’t remember the name).

Battle Road

North Bridge

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK = From Josh’s words, “The Greatest City in the World”

We weren’t originally planning to go to New York, but we found a super cheap tickets (like $39 one way from New York to Chicago), so we changed our tickets, and took Mega Bus to New York early in the morning. We had the whole day there.  Our flight wasn’t until that night.

Mega Bus was a pretty good experience.  It was quiet and we had a lot of seats to ourselves.  It was clean, and they even had a bathroom on the bus!!

In New York City, we got a Gyro from a street car!  The BEST Gyro I have ever had!! I’m not sure why I thought my dad was weird for getting one every day when I was with him in New York about 5 years ago.  Now I understand why he wanted them so often!!    We were going to take a Ferry to Staten Island so we could get some good views of Lady Liberty herself, but it was too crowded.  We were able to see her from the deck of the station.

We went to Castle Clinton and learned about New York in the early days!!  Then we walked down the financial district.  We saw “The Bull,” New York Stock Exchange, and Federal Hall where George Washington was inaugurated. 

Our last stop in  good ole’ NYC was Ground Zero!  We saw the new 9/11 memorial!  It was peaceful and clean, unlike the rest of the city!  As with  all memorials where lives have been lost, it was sad to see the names of those who died because of the great tragedy. 

Mega Bus Adventure!!

Angel Moroni on the Manhattan Temple

Gyro from street car, and Josh got to speak French with the guy who made the Gyro.! 

Statue of Liberty

Diorama of New York in 1812

Diorama of New York in 1886

Diorama of New York in 1941!  Crazy how much is has changed!

New York Stock Exchange

George Washington

The NEW World Trade Center.  Soon to be the Tallest skyscraper in the USA.

 

At the memorial there were two waterfall pools that were in place where the twin towers were with the names of those who died around the waterfalls.

Our trip was pretty grand!  Payson really is a great traveler.  He slept during driving time, and was awake when we wanted him to be!!  He is a social little guy, and seemed to catch the eye of most- even in New England!!