Ok, so continuing with our trip . . . . after touring the USS Constitution on Sunday afternoon, we drove an hour and a half down to Newport, Rhode Island. A friend had recommended going down there to see the Newport Mansions, and I'm so glad we took her advice. We loved Newport!! It had a great little downtown shopping district with quaint shops, lots of restaurants, and docks along the pier. The perfect New England town. It was raining the few hours we were there (bummer!), so we only walked around a little bit before finding a place to eat dinner. 
After dinner, we drove down Bellevue Avenue to see the Newport Mansions. So awesome. This is where many of America's most wealthiest families built lavish mansions in the late 1800's. We were there too late to take any of the tours, but we had fun driving around and admiring these amazing "summer cottages." The one is this picture is called "The Breakers" built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. A little tidbit of info: It took 2,500 workers 2 years to build The Breakers at an estimated present day cost of $400 million. Someday we'll go back and take the tour.
The cliff walk right in front of the mansions:
Friday morning we drove another 6 hours to Boston. Dan had an AAO conference in Boston over the weekend which was the reason for this trip in the first place. We arrived in the afternoon, unloaded everything at our hotel, which was actually in Cambridge, and then spent the remainder of the day walking around Harvard campus and Harvard Square. It was fun to see Harvard. I loved all the brick buildings and the meticulously manicured lawns. It started to rain a little while we were walking around campus, so we thought it would be fun to take a few umbrella shots, not knowing we would be taking MANY umbrella shots throughout the remainder of our trip:) Harvard Square was also fun, filled with students, visitors, and tons of personality. We visited some of the shops and ate dinner at Bartley's Burgers, a popular burger joint right by campus. 
Dan went to his conference on Saturday morning, so the girls and I went shopping at a mall that was connected to our hotel . . . . handy, indeed! Then that afternoon we walked The Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail through the middle of the city that leads you to 16 nationally significant historic sites that have to do with the American Revolution. It began in The Boston Common and took us to churches, meeting houses, graveyards, a book store, the State House, the site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's house, and more. We didn't have enough time to go into each one and take the tours, etc., which I would have liked to do, but that would have also been kind of hard with the girls. So we just kind of cruised along and saw and took in as much as we could. Boston is such a cool city, so rich in history. Truly a place where the old meets the new. 
If you look at the ground by our feet you can see the brick trail that you follow through the city. The girls had fun making sure we stayed on course. That tavern was the very first tavern in America, in case you're wondering why we took a picture in front of it. 
The Freedom Trail took us straight into The Boston Market. If we had turned left, we could have gone right around it, but there were so many people and we couldn't really see which way to go, so of course we went the wrong way . . . . and ended up right in the heart of it. It was kind of fun actually. This picture doesn't do it any justice. We walked for at least 10 minutes with nothing but fresh produce to look at - and the cheapest fresh produce I've ever seen! It was wall to wall people down the 2 foot wide walkway. I still don't know how Dan managed to get our double stroller through there! He said he nicked quite a few heels.
Just a cute picture of the girls. The Paul Revere house is to the side of this picture. It's in the heart of the Italian District, possibly my favorite part of the whole city.
We saved one of the last stops of the Freedom Trail, the USS Constitution, for Sunday after Dan got back from a morning at his conference again, because we wanted to do the tour. This ship is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. She was launched in 1797 and her most famous battle took place during the War of 1812, earning her the nickname, "Old Ironsides." She's actually under a bit of construction right now . . . . the navy is getting her ready to sail in 2012, the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.
Last Wednesday after Dan got home from school, we loaded up the car and headed out for a week long road trip. Our first stop: Upstate New York. We spent Wednesday night and Thursday night with our friends, the Storey’s, who live in Geneva. It was so fun staying with them in their new house that they had just moved into the day before we got there!
Geneva is about 25 minutes from Palmyra, so with Nessie in tow, we spent most of Thursday in Palmyra. We first visited the Hill Cumorah. We took the path up the hill and walked around the Angel Moroni statue. We had fun playing on the hill and reflecting on the events that once took place here.
Then we drove a few minutes up the road to the Smith log home, the Smith frame house, and the Visitor's Center. The log home is a replica on the exact footprint of the original home, but the frame house is 85% original. So neat to walk on the floorboards where Joseph walked, see the actual bricks of the fireplace hearth where he hid the gold plates, and be inside the walls that witnessed so many hisorical moments. The sister missionaries took us on the tour, and they did a great job of inviting the spirit through their stories and singing.
The tour ended at the path leading to the sacred grove and we were left on our own to explore this significant place. We loved that we were here in the spring . . . . we imagined it looked just like this for Joseph. We also loved that we were the only ones there. It was a beautiful day. The bees were humming, sweet birds were singing, and the woods were so peaceful. 
We ended our church sites tour with a visit to the E. B. Grandin printing shop in downtown Palmyra where The Book of Mormon was first published. It was so neat to see how much work and labor went into printing those first 5,000 copies.
After dinner, we drove down Bellevue Avenue to see the Newport Mansions. So awesome. This is where many of America's most wealthiest families built lavish mansions in the late 1800's. We were there too late to take any of the tours, but we had fun driving around and admiring these amazing "summer cottages." The one is this picture is called "The Breakers" built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. A little tidbit of info: It took 2,500 workers 2 years to build The Breakers at an estimated present day cost of $400 million. Someday we'll go back and take the tour.
The cliff walk right in front of the mansions:
Exploring the barn.
