We finally had an excuse to travel to Boston for a friends wedding. We were so excited to go on vacation, Will was excited to see Boston for the first time, and I was happy to once again be jet setting away again. But our trip immediately took a sad, scary, and interesting twist when two bombs went off during the annual Boston Marathon: one day before we left for our trip.
I wrote a trip review on Fodors of what we did, the hotel, and places we visited. But here is a little more about the excitement that we went through.
Our first two days were amazing and I learned that traveling with Will is an incredible experience. We both know when to go and when to crash. With our long legs we can cover a lot of ground on foot, we are both not picky with food and can eat anything from 5 star steak dinner to a falafel off the back of food truck, and because I usually pick out my outfits the night before, it takes us a combined 7 minutes from the time we wake up til the time it takes to walk out of the door.
However when you have a group of 7 friends, during a city wide lock down because there is a bomber on the loose, well that is another story. There was a heightened level of stress (but with our friend the bride) and throughout the city. Being stressed is never good when you are trying to get pregnant so Will and I came up with code words <insert bad Boston accents>: fuckin chowda,’ lobsta’ and fuckin cah. We pre-planned to use these words/expressions with each other anytime things got stressful between the bride and our group of 7 friends. Needless to say, the whole group was using the code words by the end of the trip! But what fun would a vacation be without a little stress.
I was most impressed this trip how even in the mess of tragedy and mixed emotions, a city full of Bostonians could be so warm, friendly, and inviting. Four times we were standing on the street holding out a map and someone approached us, independently offering their help. Even with the Boston marathon bombing, the man hunt, and the eventual city wide lock down on Friday, the streets actually felt very safe due to the number of police on every corner, who were also all very friendly and helpful. We got there on Wednesday and until Thursday we had an amazing time exploring the city and the history. On Friday the city was on lockdown due to he man hut but luckily we were heading out to Plymouth early in the morning for the wedding which gave us a bit of relief, and by Friday night they had the criminal captured and we all sighed a bit of relief.
Maybe we will go back to Boston one day, maybe we won’t. But in 10 years from now when we look back on this event in history, it will be interesting to say that we were there when it all happened.
Will and I in Boston Public Gardens on our second day of the trip.
