Day Two of the “cities” portion of our trip

I am sitting in the Hampton pool area while the kids swim. (Where they get the energy I do not know.) Matt and I are both relieved and happy about how well we’re all doing in the city. (We expected to do well in the country.) Today we left the hotel at 9:30am and got back at 6:15pm. We started the day at the Boston Children’s Museum and stayed for three hours. We ate our bag lunches (mainly food taken from the Hampton Inn breakfast) there. We then went to the Afro American Heritage Museum. After some walking to find a subway stop, we went to Jamaica Plain (a neighborhood). There we stopped at a playground, had very good veggie food at the Purple Cactus, and yummy ice cream at JP Licks (even tried Pad Thai ice cream and Coconut Curry ice cream). The point of reciting our day’s activities is to say that we did all of this without losing our cools and getting too tired. Watching the kids swim, I think that they are less tired than Matt and me.

Yesterday walking the Freedom Trail was a bit more of a challenge because Calvin really didn’t want to do it. He hung in through an hour or more, but then he and I broke off and had a good time exploring stores and bakeries in Chinatown. Matt wasn’t initially considering the Children’s Museum, but changed his mind last night. And Calvin didn’t want to go to the Afro American Heritage Museum, but he did fine. So, again I guess the message is that we all have needed to adapt and we basically have.

Tomorrow we go to the JFK Presidential Library, which I’ve privately told Matt seems totally boring to me. But I thought that Lexington and Concord would be a drag and they were pretty interesting. I really want to go back to Jamaica Plain after that and eat more. (The food there is totally yummy, unique, veggie food.) Eleanor wants to go to Chinatown and get more “coconut mooshies.” (I’m not sure that is what they are really called, but that’s what they are called at the place on McMillan in Cincinnati.) They are much better (fresher and with more sugar?) here in Boston!

Another surprise is that Matt and I are not spending that much time away from the family. I have spent more than Matt and it hasn’t been much at all (none since Islesboro). I’m wishing for some time now, but not desperately. The kids’ behavior helps. I told them 15 minutes ago that I “need some privacy” for a while. So they have mercifully stopped talking *to me* for a bit. Calvin *never* stops talking. I walked through Chinatown being asked hypotheticals and trivia questions about Star Wars. I think this bothers me more in my real life where I have my own worries and thoughts.

That’s all for now. I need to be done with my privacy.