Day 3-Rainy Day in Boston

Rain rolled in during the night and that combined with with weary travelers and hotel blackout curtains, made us a little late in starting our day today.  In fact, we missed almost all of the morning since we didn't even get out of bed until 11:00!  So after a brief swim in the hotel pool, we headed out in the rain.

We started out at the Prudential Center which is like a shopping mall combined with 2 other shopping malls.  You never have to go outside.  Lots of restaurants and fun things to buy.  We ate lunch, wandered around, bought a few things and had frozen yogurt at Pinkberry for the second day in a row.  The day is really not complete for Mandy on vacation if she doesn't have some "frozen  yo."




Thomas bought a camo Red Sox hat, Grace a Vera Bradley purse....and then Mandy saw these...

....the Russian stacking dolls!  She was instantly facinated.  The young Russian girl working the kiosk was very sweet to her and showed her several and taught her that they are called Babushka's.  She finally decided on the Winnie the Pooh set and has much fun calling them "babushka's" all day.  We have even had to use our itouch to take many, many pictures of them...

After hanging out at the mall for awhile we decided to take a cab over to Chinatown.  I think we were all expecting it to be similar to New York or San Francisco.  It's not. We have been to several Chinese bakeries in NYC, SF and Toronto and the kids (& Scott) love them.  So, when we saw the first one we all headed right in.  It was a disappointing assortment of items like shrimp buns and rolls with meat and fish inside them.  Needless to say, our stay was brief and no purchase was made.  Two doors down another bakery.  After peeking inside and seeing recognizable pastry items, we went in.  Only to nearly be knocked to our knees with one of the foulest odors ever!  By the time all 5 of us got in the door, the first one was knocking the others down to get out.  Scott had his shirt over his mouth and I was trying not to gag.  We all get out and are standing on the sidewalk sucking in the fresh air, when Thomas looks at us and says in a PERFECT Chinese accent "Nah more Chinese bake-a-ree ok?"  We all lost it!

We were all trying to recover when I took this picture.   Scott was done with Chinatown at this point and was using his phone to map us out of there.  Grace was freezing.  Mandy is her usual self, and Thomas is laughing at the skewered chickens roasting in the window with their necks broken and heads still on.  Can't tell?  Don't worry I took a close-up...

Mandy assured us that this was NOT the kind of chicken that she eats!  I also got a pic of the fish that were available for purchase and kill at the same store as the chickens...

At this point one of the kids pulled on Scott and said, "hey dad!  Look!"  He screamed.  We were done with Chinatown.

We decided to walk from there to Ye Olde Oyster House for dinner.  At this point the rain really decides to pick up.  We duck in a CVS and pay $3.50 a piece for those throw away rain ponchos from the Dollar Tree.  Which, in my opinion, are more trouble than they are worth even when they are only a $1.  The hood is a joke.  The wind from the harbor just whips it right off your head.  We walked for what felt like forever. We did have one small break because the girls and I wanted to stop in a Bath & Body Works for some hand gel.  We are a family of germaphobes, but mainly we just wanted a break from the rain and to thaw out.

We had anticipated a long wait at America's oldest restaurant, but it wasn't bad at all.  The food at Ye Olde Oyster House is incredible.  Of course, Mr. I don't eat Seafood had a porkchop that he said was over cooked.  Hmmm...maybe because you ordered something other than seafood at a restaurant that is known for it's seafood....???  I had the Haddock with shrimp & crab stuffing...

Mandy's reaction to the
"chowder clam soup" offered by her sister.

I actually am on the vacation!
I'm just always the one taking
the pictures.

Nachos
I was skeptical, but they too were awesome.

Not only is Ye Olde Oyster House the oldest restaurant in America, but before it was a restaurant, it was home to the oldest newspaper in America.  It is also the place where the toothpick was first used...AND one of Kennedy's favorite restaurants.  He liked to sit upstairs in the back booth.  And, as luck would have it, we were seated right across from the Kennedy booth.  When the people who were eating there left the kids all ran over and hopped in so we could take their picture...

After this we were done.  Especially Scott...

Driving here is painful.  Not the traffic like NYC, but that the city is so old, that none of the streets go straight, or thru to the next block.  In fact, there are no blocks.  There is no grid.  It's nuts.  It also costs more to park the car for a few hours than it does to feed our family of 5 lunch.

Tomorrow we are packing up and checking out of the hotel.  We are going to drive to Springfield, MA and go to Six Flags New England for a few hours and then on to Connecticut to spend the night.

Rainy Day Blessings,
Leslie