Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Summer Vacation - Part II - Whales, the Mayflower, Food Poisoning, and Fireflies

What We Did During Our Summer Vacation - Part II
by the Nagle5

Ten days after we got back from our first camping trip of the season, Valiant, Buttercup and I headed for Boston.  Flying used to be a lot more fun, didn't it?  The TSA and Homeland Security have taken all the fun out of arrivals and departures.  No friendly faces waiting for you as you disembark from the plane at your destination and no happy visiting at the airport before you fly off into the wild blue yonder. 

We arrived in Boston and headed over to my sister's house for dinner.  We were so tired...it didn't occur to any of us to take pictures.  Still, when we got back to our hotel, I went into the restroom to wash my face and came out to this.  Yes, flying was exhausting.


The next day we went whale watching to celebrate said sister's birthday.  It was so nice to be at the beach again!  I so miss the beach...I didn't care that it was the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Pacific Ocean...it was so beautiful. 


We lucked out and actually saw a mother/baby duo of humpback whales.  It was so cool.


I don't have the group picture of all of us (my sister has to scan it in for me--hint, hint), but here are the kids.  Aren't they delightfully windswept?


Here is a replica of the Mayflower.  Look how small it is!  Can you imagine how brave the first colonists had to be to set out in that?


Finally, I thought you'd like a view of the quintessential New England coastline.  Look at Cape Cod with the spired buildings.  Isn't it something?


After the whale-watching outing, we had a little birthday celebration for my sister.  She was such a trooper...that sunburn had to have been terribly uncomfortable!


Right after she blew out her candles, Valiant started vomitting and food-poisoning was the phrase for the trip.  By that night, the three of us were taking turn vomitting (etc.) in the hotel bathroom.  It was horrible.  I really can't remember a time when I was sicker, actually.   Not many more pictures after everyone spends three days sick as dogs!  Still, we hadn't come all this way to sit in a hotel room.  We hit the road to see the family we'd come to see.  No, we didn't have personalities, but still, the kids got to meet their East Coast relatives.

We made the trip to the cousin's house and saw the amazing treehouse their dad built in their backyard.   It was amazing.
The next day we headed out to Connecticut to meet my little niece.  Isn't she adorable?    She'll be two next month and is definitely the apple of her daddy's eye (just the way it should be!).


 The kids got to see fireflies while we were there.  (I don't think they really believed fireflies existed, so Buttercup actually shot a movie of them for Superman.)  Thank me now for not posting the video!  There was also a bunny in their backyard.  Buttercup was enchanted!


The next day, we hit the Museum of Science in Boston...the electricity show was so cool!


Saw a toad in the hotel parking lot that night.  And shooed it out of the parking lot and into the bushes before we could head up to our room.


And played in the trunk of our rental car.  It was quite and impressive trunk.  Valiant is 6'2" and Buttercup is 5'3" and they seem to have plenty of room.


Then we flew home...and began anticipating Superman's leave the following month. 

P.S.  Did I mention that none of us gained weight during this trip?

4 comments:

Alison said...

Looks like a great trip (except for the getting sick part). My experience with flying is that airplanes are basically germ factories, all that enclosed space with so many people (and tiny bathrooms). I almost always get sick within a few days of flying, picking up germs from some other passenger.

I didn't realize you had family in Massachusetts. That's where I'm from originally, all my family is back East there. We saw that electricity show many times when our son was growing up. I remember being very surprised that there were no fireflies here in the PNW.

Clark said...

This trip looks like it was full of extremes. I can totally empathize with the kids crashing after that first day. Traveling just takes a lot out of you. My favorite picture is the kids in the trunk. They should use that in a car commercial!

loveaphid said...

Since my sister outed me to the world about my tendency to shall we say lose track of time (ie procrastinate, day dream, get distracted) I thought I would make a public mea culpa. The image is on its way. It was super great to have them here, not so super great that they were very sick. They were troopers though and truly did everything they could to make the best of their time. They are strong bunch those Nagle folks, and I was very proud of how well the kids handled their discomfort. They never cease to amaze!

loveaphid said...

p.s. Erin was no wimp either... go SisMom!!!!