Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Boston & Blueberries


We took Alex to Boston this weekend for her Aunt Kimmy's wedding. The weather was rainy, but not cold, so it was beautiful everywhere. Green and smellin' fresh.

Alex with her Grammy. We just got off the red eye. Look how smiley Alex is - She slept the ENTIRE trip. I did not, being that she slept on me. That girl is 55 pounds of lead, so it is no easy task to have her lay across you. My butt fell asleep.
After breakfast, we took Alex to the oldest Fire House in America. They let her climb on the truck and sit in the cab. I can't find those pictures though. It was pretty cool and the firemen were very nice.
Then, we took her on the Duck tour of Boston. It is basically a scenic tour of monuments, buildings, etc. via a little boat that can both drive on the streets and go in the water. Pretty snazzy. Alex got to "drive" once we were in the water. She was excited.
I can't be sure how much she learned, as after the driving, she fell asleep on me. Again.
Friday, we met up with Aunt Kimmy for a trip to Newport, Rhode Island. It was a beautiful little sailing town, home of the Jacqueline Kennedy. She and JFK were married there in a little church. It is also home to the sailing race, America's Cup. I thought of my Daddy and wished he was with me.
In RI we took at harbor tour.


Here we are starting out.


Birds nesting on one of the rocks. You can see them sitting on the nests, and when we passed by, you could see little ones peek their heads out to say hello!

This was a pretty neat house on the bay. A family commissioned it to built, moved in, and then after a year or two, decided that they were bored of looking at the water and sold it.You can only access it via boat and there is no electricity, etc. hence the little windmill on the top. The family that currently owns it only summers there. Must be nice.

This is Jacqueline Kennedy's childhood home. This is where her wedding reception was held, with 1500 guests. You can't see it in the picture, but her playhouse is a full size Dutch windmill house. FULL SIZE - no kiddy houses for her.

This is a military fort. It is so large, I couldn't get the whole thing in shot. It was build as a source of protection when Newport was a large trading port, along the lines of New York and Boston. However, it took them so long to build it that by the time they finished, Newport was no longer popular for trade and became more of a tourist location. Subsequently it was never used by the military. It has enough recesses to house 400+ cannons. Now it is a park.
Finally wedding day. While the girls all went to get their hair done, I met up with Phil (Kim's husbands) mom and sister-in-law to help set up the tent for the wedding. It was a very low key wedding, and probably my favorite thus far. Beautiful. I didn't post any pictures of Kimmy. It was her day and she should be the one to show off her beauty.
Me and the Moo.

Alex, enjoying the toy bag I made for her. Swirly ribbons are great. She was so cute in her purple flower girl dress.
After an exhausting trip, we came home to a great surprise! Blueberries! We have four bushed in our front yard, all different strains, and we have been working hard to get these suckers going. We thought that we would have to wait another year or more for fruit, but no! Alex, David and I stood in our front yard and enjoyed the sweet and perfectly ripe berries.


Alex loves blueberries - they are her favorite. She will eat her weight in them. We thought this was a sound investment - I think that she agrees.