After spending the ENTIRE day traipsing all over the city of Boston, there are several important things that we have learned:

1)  Though Boston is very walking friendly, it is not stroller friendly due to the cobblestone streets in some places and brick sidewalks.  Biker Bob came insanely close to flying head first over the stroller on several occasions when it got jammed between stones or bricks.  Secretly, between you and I, that would have been a little funny. 

2)  Faneuil is a tricky word to spell and I’m still not sure how to pronounce it.  But the area where Faneuil Hall sits is really neat – and Quincy Market has so many yummy food options it was so hard to choose.

3)  Samuel Adams was a bad ass.

4)  Boston Common is charming.  Take a stroll, chill on the lawn, have a catch – all can be done in this public space.  It was lovely to see and experience.

5) Boston’s North End smells so good – thanks to 100+ Italian restaurants crammed within its borders – that I found myself salivating as we followed our tour guide from site to site.

6)  Walking from Boston Common to the North End and then over to the Museum of Science is ridiculously far.  It’s even farther when you get to the Museum of Science to get tickets for the Ride the Ducks tour only to find that they are sold out for the remainder of the day.  Spouses may begin to squabble at that point and calling a cab to get back to your car may be the only option to save your marriage.

7)  Boston is old.  Like old old.  For America, that is.

8)  My Facebook fans suggest the best cannolis ever.

9)  Despite their penchant for trying to flip over strollers, cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks act like magic toddler nap machines.  Lily Bean slept through at least an hour of one of our tours thanks to the rumbling of the road beneath her.

10)  Boston is this completely amazing city – with secrets and historical facts packed around every corner.  I can’t believe how much we explored today and how much we learned.  What a blast!

Some highlights:

We started out by taking the Freedom Trail 90 minute walking tour from the visitor’s center.  We stopped by some notable landmarks, including the Granary Burying Ground, Boston Common and Faneuil Hall.

The Freedom Trail in Boston is great.  You can literally follow this red brick trail for about 3 miles all through the city – it will take you past a ton of historically significant landmarks.  Our morning tour was lead by a tour guide in period costume who took us through a number of locations on the Freedom Trail.

The morning tour left off right at Quincy Market – we finally narrowed down our lunch choices and enjoyed a delicious meal – while Lily Bean continued to snooze away

We had the opportunity to hop on a second 90 minute walking tour right after lunch.  It was led by the same tour guide (she was great!) and covered the important sites in the North End.  We were excited to see this section of town, as it includes Paul Revere’s House, Old North Church where the 2 lanterns were hung to warn of the British army on the move and more.

We started out by learning about the area surrounding Faneuil Hall and continued to the North End.  On the way we stopped to see a beautiful rose garden that had been built/planted in honor of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy – JKF’s mom.

This is the actual hitching post outside of Paul Revere’s house that he used to tie up his horse.  It was neat to see such a tangible part of American history!

This is the house where Rose Kennedy lived as a little girl.

While in the North End, after our tour ended, we made a pit stop for some delectable cannoli treats!

Then we got the brilliant idea to walk to the Museum of Science to try to get on one of the last Duck Boat tours for the day.  Bad idea.  Very bad idea.  It was an almost 2 mile hike, we took a wrong turn once, finally found the museum and learned that the Duck Tours were completely sold out for the rest of the day.  GAH!

So we spent a little bit of time in the museum – which Lily loved.

Roaring like a dinosaur!

After taking a TAXI from the museum back to Boston Common where our car was parked (BEST $8.90 we ever spent, hands down!) there was one more thing I wanted to do.  We walked across the Common to see the monument built to honor the 54th Massachusetts from the Civil War.  If you have ever seen the movie Glory - this monument honors the regiment portrayed in it.

What. a. full. day.

Phew!

We finally ended up back at our hotel, ordered some pizza, and threw on the pajama pants.  Tomorrow we hope to check out Plymouth, MA – hard to believe that our trip is already winding down.

You can see all of our Twizzlers Road Trip adventures that I have posted so far!

Travel accommodations and other expenses incurred as a Twizzlers Traveling Family have been provided by Twizzlers/The Hershey Company.  All opinions and experiences are 100% our own.  In addition to our cannoli pit stop, I might have purchased a cookie at Quincy market that was roughly the size of my head.  And eaten more of it than I’d like to admit.

:: The longest piece of licorice to date was 1,200 feet and 100 pounds, created in 1998 in Lancaster, Pa. This lengthy piece of licorice made history when it was awarded with a Guinness World Record. It is still the record holder today.

:: More than 875 bags of Twizzlers Candy would fill the cargo area of a traditional family minivan. Too bad you need to take luggage on a road trip!

:: Historic Route 66, also known as the “Main Street of America” was used from November11, 1926 through June 27, 1985. If Twizzlers Candy lined the entire route, it would take nearly 19.5 million pieces of the popular candy.

:: One of the most famous “road trips” is along the Oregon Trail, with well known stops including Niagara Falls, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park. If you laid Twizzlers Candy along the trail, it would take more than 15,840,000 pieces of Twizzlers Candy – that’s a whole lot of twisty fun!

:: More than one million miles of Twizzlers Candy are produced a year. If you line them up, there would be enough Twizzlers Candy to stretch from the earth to the moon and back again – five times.

Boston!

Today we hit the ground running – and made it through 3 tours, insane heat and an impressive thunderstorm.  The forecast for the Boston area today was for high heat and humidity with temps soaring towards 100 degrees.  We took a look at some of the attractions that we wanted to visit during our trip and opted for things like museums instead of outdoor walking tours (for the most part).  Lily Bean did not get a nap today and I was sure she was going to have a royal meltdown by nightfall, but once again she proved even more resilient than her parents – she was a great travel buddy today.

So the very first thing on our list of a sort of pilgrimage if you will.  If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that we are diehard Phillies fans.  More than the Phillies though, we love the game of baseball and the history surrounding it.  I think that most baseball fans will agree – no matter what team you cheer for, Fenway Park in Boston (home of the Red Sox) is a must-see.

We grabbed tickets for the noon tour of the ballpark and honestly it felt like we were transported back in time to 100 years ago.  (I also had a very Field of Dreams moment as I thought of the scene where Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones took in a game at Fenway.)

Fenway Park ballpark tours are offered most days of the year – though the times change a little bit when the Red Sox have a home game.  Tickets run $12 for adults and kids under 3 are free.

Before the tour, we walked around the stadium to take in the nostalgia of it all.  We found some neat statues and took a spin through their fan store – definitely one of the biggest I have ever seen!

The tour wound us all through the ballpark.  See that stuff on the field?  New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys concert is coming to town on Saturday and they are already setting the stage, etc.

The Green Monster:

Oldest seats in baseball today:

After our tour (which was almost an hour long) we split from Boston.  We jumped back in the Twizzlers mobile and headed north towards the town of Salem.

What’s that?  You kind of sort of remember the name Salem for some reason?  For me, Salem brought back memories of 11th grade English class – we had to read The Crucible and learned all about the seriously heinous Salem Witch Trials that took place in 1692.

I can condense the happenings to this: a few very bored and bratty girls thought it might be silly fun to hurl accusations of witchcraft at fellow townspeople.  Consequently 20 innocent people ended up being put to death after being convicted of witchcraft.  After the fact, the girls did admit that they made the whole thing up – total tragedy.

Salem, MA was a quaint little town that was really quite lovely to explore.  We saw the presentation at the Salem Witch Museum first.

From there we hit the sidewalk and wandered down a few blocks to the old cemetery.  Next to the cemetery is a memorial to the innocent victims who were put to death during the trials.  The cemetery itself is wicked old (no pun intended).  The tombstones were extremely aged and very interesting to read.  We even found a headstone from one of the Mayflower Pilgrims!

After the cemetery, we dragged our hot, sweaty selves back to the car and headed to our final destination for the day.  It was about 4:40 pm and we saw that the House of Seven Gables (of Nathaniel Hawthorne fame) had a final tour beginning at 5 pm.  We made it in time and got in on that very last tour – which included the House of Seven Gables and Hawthorne’s birthplace.  (You can download the free Kindle edition of The House of Seven Gables!)

Oh – and how is this for CRAZY… right before we began the tour, we noticed that the sky was getting very dark and we remembered hearing on the news this morning that storms would be moving through.  I pulled up the current weather on my phone and took a picture of the impending madness with Biker Bob’s phone:

Suffice it to say, we got WALLOPED about halfway through the tour and had to RUN from one house to the next in the extreme downpour – soaked is an understatement!

We saw so many interesting things today.  Tomorrow we will head back to downtown Boston to see what else we can find!

Travel accommodations and other expenses incurred as a Twizzlers Traveling Family have been provided by Twizzlers/The Hershey Company.  All opinions and experiences are 100% our own.  We may or may not have taught Lily Bean to say, “Go, Red Sox” today.  What can I say?  We were caught up in the moment!

This morning we checked out of our hotel on the early side and scampered across the street to the Hy-Line Ferry.  When our friends over at Eversave heard that we were coming to Massachusetts, they offered one of their Saves, first class passage to Nantucket, to us.  Our ferry was set to leave Hyannis, MA at 9:20 a.m. and would take just under 2 hours to arrive on Nantucket.  Our lounge was nice and spacious, air conditioned and had huge windows as well as a small outside deck.  We started the journey outside, watching the coastline disappear as we chugged towards Nantucket – 32 miles off the coast of Mass.

Funny story: Today’s trip to Nantucket reminded Biker Bob and I a LOT of our honeymoon cruise to Bermuda.  But it wasn’t because of the quaint little town that we explored on foot.  It wasn’t because of the cobblestone streets, wildflower bordered sandy beaches or even the cute shops lining the main drag off the boat.  It was because we were pretty much the only tourists in the 35 and under crowd. Actually, Bob joked that he was pretty sure that we were the only ones in the 65 and under crowd.  LOL  He wasn’t that far off the mark.  It was hilarious – it seemed as if the entire ferry over to Nantucket today was comprised of a few different senior tour groups.

And you know what?

THEY ALL LOVED LILY’S RED HAIR.

Holy flying pigs, did they LOVE her hair.

LOL!

And you know what else?

They were the cutest.  We made new bffs all over the boat, the bus tour, even the curb where we sat eating ice cream waiting for boarding back to Hyannis to begin.

We heard about everyone’s grandchildren, great grand nieces and nephews, etc.  We traded travel stories and enjoyed their slower-paced, laid back attitude.  There was no rushing the gang plank to board the ferry… no one half listening to us because they were too busy updating their Facebook status… it was really nice.

As the ferry rounded the final turn into the harbor, we took in the amazing summer homes that dot the shoreline on Nantucket.

When we arrived to Nantucket, we didn’t have any plans for the day, other than to take in the local sights.  As we walked down the street, we noticed that there was an island bus tour leaving in the next 15 minutes.  History geek confession: I love tours like that.  I like being able to get the historical overview of the area we are visiting.  So the bus tour ended up being the next thing on our itinerary.  It was an hour and 15 minutes long – guess how much of it Lily Bean enjoyed?  Exactly 15 minutes.  Here’s how she spent the other hour:

Good thing she was free.

We saw some other neat things on the tour – old houses and buildings… the oldest functioning windmill in the US, and of course, the breathtaking beaches!

After the bus tour we were STARVING so we asked our tour guide for a food recommendation – he had a great one and we enjoyed a tasty lunch at the Easy Street Cantina.  (LOL My Facebook fans got a glimpse of my Lobster Salad Wrap – just before I devoured it.)

A short walk from the restaurant was the Nantucket Whaling Museum.  We decided to escape the heat to check out the museum – it was a wonderful collection of artifacts.  True to its name, much of the museum covered the island’s rich whaling history.  There were other general island history exhibits too, which were interesting to see.

At the top of the museum was  a large outdoor observation deck which revealed sweeping views of the island and water beyond.  I was sure that I would get some great pics of Lily Bean up there… though as you can see below, SILLY was her only focus. 

Towards the end of the museum we found the Discovery Center – a charming little space just for kids.  There were activities galore and Lily was totally in her element!

And with that, we grabbed some ice cream and it was back on the ferry and a smooth return to Hyannis.

We hopped in our trusty Twizzlers mobile and set our course for the Boston area.  We can’t wait to explore the city and surrounding areas over the next few days!

p.s. Here’s a video of our ferry to Nantucket!

Travel accommodations and other expenses incurred as a Twizzlers Traveling Family have been provided by Twizzlers/The Hershey Company. All opinions and experiences are 100% our own.

Greetings from Massachusetts!

Yesterday we packed the car, loaded up Lily Bean and all of her travel accessories (dvd player – check.  boredom bag – check.  2 Belle dolls, 3 Snow White dolls and 1 Rapunzel doll – check).  We made sure our cooler was packed with water, soda and juice and our snack bag was brimming with pretzels, popcorn and, of course, Twizzlers.

We made the 6.5 hour drive in just under 8 hours from start to finish.  That included 2 bathroom breaks and about 45 minutes worth of stop and go traffic throughout Connecticut.

Some highlights:

We made it through New Jersey and New York without much to report.  I always love getting a glimpse of the NYC skyline from afar – the Empire State Building ALWAYS reminds me of Sleepless in Seattle.  LOL

We headed over the George Washington Bridge and I got excited to think that we were closing in on Connecticut.  A new state for all three of us!

After a ton of traffic in CT, it was almost time for Rhode Island.  Another new state!

I put my camera on my lap, ready for the state sign.

After about 25 minutes of waiting for THE SIGN, I got a little distracted.  I started to check out the fully loaded first aid kit that came in our car.  And I missed the stinkin’ sign.

So here’s a picture of the first aid kit instead.

As evening set in, we crossed into Massachusetts – WOOHOO!  p.s. Seekonk.  Hehe.

Our final stop was Hyannis, MA (on Cape Cod) where we would spend the night before heading on to Boston.  We found our hotel without incident, checked in and were excited to see a beautiful harbor directly across from our hotel room.  It was time to drop the bags and go find a tasty seafood dinner before calling it a night.

Tomorrow will include seeing more of Cape Cod and the surrounding area!

Travel accommodations and other expenses incurred as a Twizzlers Traveling Family have been provided by Twizzlers/The Hershey Company.  All opinions and experiences are 100% our own.  That weird smell in our car is Biker Bob.  Not me.

I hope you’re ready out there!

We have been chosen as a Twizzlers Traveling Family and are kicking off our summer road trip to Boston TONIGHT.  Twizzlers chose 10 bloggers and their families to cruise around this beautiful country in – you guessed it – a Twizzlers Mobile!  We will be passing the car from family to family throughout the summer and each family will explore a different US location.  You will be able to follow all of the participating bloggers as we post pics, stories and videos of our adventures.  (Did I mention there will be some SWEET giveaways?  Hint, hint!)

Why is Twizzlers sending families around the country this summer? To celebrate the Twizzlers Landmark Summer promotion!  This online sweepstakes offers families the chance to win a trip to the United States landmark of their choice – FOUR grand price winners will be selected!  In addition to those four trips, they will be giving away some rockin’ prizes every day through September 4, 2011: Twizzlers-branded GPS Units, digital cameras and national park guidebooks (over 650 prizes).

Enter the contest and find some great travel tips from Emily Kauffman (aka The Travel Mom) at www.twizzlers.com.

So you take one Twizzlers Mobile.

Throw in a Mama Cheaps, Biker Bob and Lily Bean.

Oh yeah, and Twizzlers.  A LOT of Twizzlers.  (Thank goodness they hold up in the summer heat!)

And fortunately, we love Twizzlers.  Don’t believe me?

So when Twizzlers asked us to choose our road trip destination, we thought long and hard.  If you have been hanging out on this blog for any length of time, you know that we love traveling.  We decided that we wanted to choose a location that was 1) somewhere we’ve never been and 2) somewhere that was close enough that we could drop anchor after a few hours of driving to really explore.

Destination: Boston

We have NEVER been to the Boston area and are SO excited to take in as many sites as possible.

We will spend several days taking in local history, attractions, restaurants and other haunts – all while cruising along in our Twizzlers Mobile.

So stay tuned for daily updates on our trip.

If you’re not already a fan of our Facebook page, now is a great time to join.  I have been known to upload pics from our various trips while we’re out and about!

We have several “must-see” items on our Clipboard of Fun but have left our itinerary very open to accommodate for weather, naptimes and in case anything pops up that we really want to do.

If you know of anything not to be missed in the Boston area, I would LOVE for you to leave a comment with that info.

We hope you’ll follow all of our Twizzlers fun – and keep your eye out for a big giveaway tomorrow evening!

Travel accommodations and other expenses incurred as a Twizzlers Traveling Family have been provided by Twizzlers/The Hershey Company.  All opinions and experiences are 100% our own.  I may or may not have paid our house sitter in Twizzlers.  It’s a good thing she enjoys them.

If you’re like me, you have certain memories that transport you back to your childhood.  Memories that  just mean it’s almost summer and that remind you of happy, laughing family times.  And if you have kids, you might find yourself trying to recreate some of those very same memories with your own kids.  I know I do this often with Lily Bean.  I love sharing family traditions and watching her enjoy places and events that I remember fondly to this day.

Saturday was another one of those days.  We headed out to The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair.  This annual horse show (now in its 115th year) is held each Spring in Devon, PA (Philadelphia suburbs).  Riders bring their horses from near and far after qualifying for the opportunity to compete at Devon.  The show lasts for a 10 days- and is currently running through Sunday, 6/5/11.  Horse events of all kinds take up the day and night and are split between the two rings.  You will find a bunch of shops to poke around in – everything from frilly hats to horse gear.  There is also a carnival-type midway with games, fair food and a few rides.

I have gone to Devon pretty much every year of my life- I might have missed 1 or 2 years… out of 30 that’s not too bad.  Lily Bean is 3 for 3 so far (LOL – or 4 for 4 if you count the year I was pregnant)!

It’s worth noting that the Devon Horse Show is run by thousands of volunteers.  Proceeds from the show benefit Bryn Mawr Hospital.  A great time for a great cause.

Fun day at Devon on the cheap: If you live nearby, a day at Devon can be SUPER cheap.  Kids 2 and under are FREE.  Adult general admission is $8 and kids (3-12 y/o) and seniors (65+) are just $5.  PLUS – you can bring your own food and drink into the showgrounds.  Yes, they sell all sorts of tasty food and treats – and the prices are fairly reasonable – but you always have the option to bring your own.  We typically spend an entire day at Devon, so we pack our lunch and purchase our dinner.  Parking near the show tends to run $5-$10 for the entire day/night.  Note: if you happen to go on the 2nd Thursday of the show, parking will cost more.  Thursday night is the big Grand Prix jumping event and the place is packed.

The first weekend at Devon is always Junior Weekend-  riders under 18 show their best stuff over fences, in flat classes, team jumping, lead line and more.  It’s one of my favorite times to visit the show!

Here are some more pictures from our day/night at Devon on Saturday: