Finally a Day of Fun in Boston!

Jared wanted to do three things today: ride a train/subway, visit the aquarium and tour the U.S.S. Constitution. 

We considered buying Jared a medical mask but worried about it restricting his oxygen further.  Instead Chris had a serious talk with him about keeping everyone and everything at arms length and to never touch his face.  He needs to stay healthy or his surgery will be post-poned.  At the same time if we stayed in our room for three days we might all go crazy and no one would be in the right frame of mind for surgery on Tuesday, its a delicate balance.

We started off early and bought a 1Day pass for the train/subway. I was thrilled to see that it appeared clean and was pretty empty of passengers.  The boys enjoyed the ride over and under the city and it placed us right at the Aquarium in the end. 

Item number 1 check!

This part of Boston is beautiful; the air much cleaner and the area much more child friendly.

We were gifted a membership to the New England Aquarium and excited to use it.  We had a great time exploring the aquarium, they had a number of different animals I had never seen in captivity before; an egg veil, anaconda, electric eel (with meter) and a variety of other marine animals I can't remember the names of today.  Considering all the aquariums we've visited that's saying a lot.

Item number 2 check!

When the Aquarium started to get busy, Chris and I became uncomfortable.  Though we had never seen a single person who looked ill we didn't want to push our luck.  Everyone was getting tired so we thought we'd return to our room.  Then Jared lamented that he really wanted to see the USS Constitution.  So I went into problem solving mode.  It was a 1.7 mile walk, something no one was up for and no trains went that way....so I talked to a tour guide who told me our train passes included a ferry ride that took us directly from the Aquarium to the USS Constituion!  How exciting!  Boys talked about wanting to go on a boat ride but didn't think it possible.

With my virtigo prone crew I made sure they stood outside on the bow and Chris bought a coke to share with Lance (apparently caffine can mitigate the triggers of virtigo) and off we went.  The bay was incredible calm and everyone had a blast.  We saw cruise ships, tug boats, fire boats, police boats, need buildings and city features.  I was just tickled it didn't cost anything extra.

The bonuses continued as we arrived at the Ferry Dock.  In addition to the USS Constitution there was a WWII Destroyer in dry dock open for tours too!  Jared said he liked the USS Casin Young Destroyer even better than the USS Constitution; I think because of all the different type of armaments.

We self toured the destroyer because they had a four foot height minimum and the mighty Titus therefore could not go.  However, we did take the 30 minute tour of the Constitution and I'm so glad we did.  It was free and the only way to get below deck.  I put Amber in the backpack so Chris could carry Titus if necessary but of course it was not.  We learned a lot about the 214 year old ship and its 33-0 record.  Jared had some good questions for our tour guide too.

Item #3 Check!

We then reversed course on the ferry and train back to our room.  It was nice to be tourists for a bit, to distract us from our worries about Tuesday and whatever follows.  The stress has been hard on everyone.  Poor Titus won't let Chris and I even go downstairs without him.  I worry when he'll need to stay with Auntie Susie on Tuesday, he's going to be a handful.  He came in this morning all worried Jared wasn't awake yet.  People don't give little kids enough credit for what they understand.

Update with Chris FB Posts:

Sep 1, 2012, 11:31 AM

at New England Aquarium 

Sep 1, 2012, 3:32 PM

at USS Constitution 

Sep 1, 2012, 9:10 PM

Another long day, but this time on our terms. Jared spent the night in auntie sue's room and they stayed up late watching football. After everyone woke up, we had a "normal" morning with everyone having their breakfasts try would have had back home. We then headed out to nearest train station (trolleys) and went to the aquarium. We had a nice time but left after lunch because it became quite crowded.
Boston harbor has a nice boardwalk, so we went there. Tina found out that a ferry went from the aquarium to the charleston naval yard, which is home to the USS Young and the USS Constitution. The Young is a WW II destroyer and the other is nicknamed "Old Ironsides" and was commissioned in the late 1790's. Both ships were impressive and better yet - free admission!
After we toured both ships, we took the ferry back to the aquarium area and then hopped on the trolleys to go back to our room.
The kids were once again great today. They are such troopers. It is exactly the kind of day we needed to enjoy what Boston harbor had to offer and have fun as a family. Tomorrow we plan to tour Fenway! Yippee!