This was our “extra” day, and it was also the Lord’s Day. After breakfast (thank you, Delta Airlines) we loaded up for the last time and checked out of the Holiday Inn.
I had copied the directions to the church building in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts exactly as they were given from the website on the internet. While Olen drove, I enjoyed reading the directions to him in “GPS voice”, which entertained the boys. (At this point in the trip it did not take much to entertain them. Nearly everything that happened was funny.) We finally arrived at the church building and were able to slip in quietly in our more-than-slightly-well-worn travel clothes. If anyone noticed, they were nice enough not to mention it, and we visited with several people between Bible class and the worship service. Mike Bozeman, the preacher for that congregation, delivered a sermon on contentment, which we needed after having our plans rearranged for us the previous day. His text was from I Timothy 6:6-21.
We had decided to drive into Boston and try to see a few of the historic sites in the area between the worship service and the time we had to be at the airport to catch our plane home. This involved skipping lunch in order to make the plan happen, so we told the boys to fill their daypacks with granola bars and peanut butter crackers to munch on as we drove. Boston has a bad reputation for traffic snarls, but on Sunday it was doable, but not easy.
We parked the car in a parking garage under the Boston Common, which is the oldest public park in the Untied States. From there we hiked (rapidly) around the “frog pond” and up to the state capitol building. In our walking/running tour I kept pointing out sites that were mentioned in the children’s classic, “Make Way for Ducklings”. I could not believe that Jacob had never read the book, so it will be “Grandma’s required reading” for him for the summer. At least Bailey had been exposed to this work of literature, but that was in the third grade, so the details were not fresh in his mind.
We ran past the Old South Meeting House, which has some connection with the Boston tea party of 1773. We passed the Old State House and viewed it from several angles.
It was the seat of colonial and state governments in the 1700’s. We went past Quincy’s Market and stepped into Faneuil Hall where Samuel Adams and others protested the taxes on the colonies. 
I was impressed with the knowledge the boys had about the artwork in the building.
Of course we had to go to the National Park headquarters to have those Passport Books stamped.
We wish we could have had seen the Paul Revere House, the Old North Church and so many other sites, but all too quickly it was time for our rapid tour of Boston to come to an end. We decided to take a taxi back to the parking garage, and headed for the airport.
Once at the airport, we were lucky that we were not scheduled to come through Atlanta, as all flights through there were cancelled due to thunderstorms. Our flight was through Detroit, so we could make our connections…a day late. Because of the re-routing of passengers, we all had seats on the plane, but were not together. Olen negotiated with his seatmate, and were able to at least get the boys seats together so they could play “Phase 10” on the way to Detroit. Once in Detroit, we had over three house until our plane headed south.
Unfortunately, our plane “heading south” was not scheduled to go far enough south to suit us. They could get us to Nashville, but not to Huntsville. Since we had left our car at the airport in Huntsville, this posed a small problem. We investigated renting a car so we could drive the two-hour distance to Huntsville, but with the added “drop-off charge” that was out of the question. Finally we decided to call our friend, Brittany McCowan and ask her to drive to Nashville and pick us up. So, we called dear Brittany from Detroit, and she acted as if it was nothing unusual for someone to call her late on a Sunday evening and ask her to be in Nashville by 11:30. When she agreed to be there, Jacob said that made Brittany his “best friend” list all of a sudden.
We were exhausted by the time we arrived in Nashville, and were very happy to see Brittany. Jacob posed a question which taxed our brains after our long day. It went something like this: “Since we were in the air at midnight Eastern time, did we go back in time before we landed in Central time?” We decided that probably we were “time travelers” of sorts. We were too tired to argue the issue.
We re-told stories of our trip to Brittany on the way home, and tried to stay awake. We arrived home at 2 AM on Monday. We were too exhausted to think about the trip at that point, but I am sure we will recall memories of this trip for years to come. What a unique experience to be able to spend over a week with two of our grandchildren. The boys were wonderful travelers. They never complained, were always where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there, and there was never a cross word spoken between them.
Perhaps next summer, or the one after that we will take another two or three of the grandchildren on a week’s adventure. Our goal is eventually to have this wonderful experience with all ten of them.
I had copied the directions to the church building in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts exactly as they were given from the website on the internet. While Olen drove, I enjoyed reading the directions to him in “GPS voice”, which entertained the boys. (At this point in the trip it did not take much to entertain them. Nearly everything that happened was funny.) We finally arrived at the church building and were able to slip in quietly in our more-than-slightly-well-worn travel clothes. If anyone noticed, they were nice enough not to mention it, and we visited with several people between Bible class and the worship service. Mike Bozeman, the preacher for that congregation, delivered a sermon on contentment, which we needed after having our plans rearranged for us the previous day. His text was from I Timothy 6:6-21.
We had decided to drive into Boston and try to see a few of the historic sites in the area between the worship service and the time we had to be at the airport to catch our plane home. This involved skipping lunch in order to make the plan happen, so we told the boys to fill their daypacks with granola bars and peanut butter crackers to munch on as we drove. Boston has a bad reputation for traffic snarls, but on Sunday it was doable, but not easy.
We parked the car in a parking garage under the Boston Common, which is the oldest public park in the Untied States. From there we hiked (rapidly) around the “frog pond” and up to the state capitol building. In our walking/running tour I kept pointing out sites that were mentioned in the children’s classic, “Make Way for Ducklings”. I could not believe that Jacob had never read the book, so it will be “Grandma’s required reading” for him for the summer. At least Bailey had been exposed to this work of literature, but that was in the third grade, so the details were not fresh in his mind.
We ran past the Old South Meeting House, which has some connection with the Boston tea party of 1773. We passed the Old State House and viewed it from several angles.
It was the seat of colonial and state governments in the 1700’s. We went past Quincy’s Market and stepped into Faneuil Hall where Samuel Adams and others protested the taxes on the colonies. I was impressed with the knowledge the boys had about the artwork in the building.Of course we had to go to the National Park headquarters to have those Passport Books stamped.
We wish we could have had seen the Paul Revere House, the Old North Church and so many other sites, but all too quickly it was time for our rapid tour of Boston to come to an end. We decided to take a taxi back to the parking garage, and headed for the airport.
Once at the airport, we were lucky that we were not scheduled to come through Atlanta, as all flights through there were cancelled due to thunderstorms. Our flight was through Detroit, so we could make our connections…a day late. Because of the re-routing of passengers, we all had seats on the plane, but were not together. Olen negotiated with his seatmate, and were able to at least get the boys seats together so they could play “Phase 10” on the way to Detroit. Once in Detroit, we had over three house until our plane headed south.
Unfortunately, our plane “heading south” was not scheduled to go far enough south to suit us. They could get us to Nashville, but not to Huntsville. Since we had left our car at the airport in Huntsville, this posed a small problem. We investigated renting a car so we could drive the two-hour distance to Huntsville, but with the added “drop-off charge” that was out of the question. Finally we decided to call our friend, Brittany McCowan and ask her to drive to Nashville and pick us up. So, we called dear Brittany from Detroit, and she acted as if it was nothing unusual for someone to call her late on a Sunday evening and ask her to be in Nashville by 11:30. When she agreed to be there, Jacob said that made Brittany his “best friend” list all of a sudden.We were exhausted by the time we arrived in Nashville, and were very happy to see Brittany. Jacob posed a question which taxed our brains after our long day. It went something like this: “Since we were in the air at midnight Eastern time, did we go back in time before we landed in Central time?” We decided that probably we were “time travelers” of sorts. We were too tired to argue the issue.
We re-told stories of our trip to Brittany on the way home, and tried to stay awake. We arrived home at 2 AM on Monday. We were too exhausted to think about the trip at that point, but I am sure we will recall memories of this trip for years to come. What a unique experience to be able to spend over a week with two of our grandchildren. The boys were wonderful travelers. They never complained, were always where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there, and there was never a cross word spoken between them.
Perhaps next summer, or the one after that we will take another two or three of the grandchildren on a week’s adventure. Our goal is eventually to have this wonderful experience with all ten of them.
My question actually was, "While we were in the air, did we went go into tomorrow, then come back to yesterday when we crossed the time zone, then go back to tomorrow later?". Chew on that.
ReplyDeleteFabulous trip. Thanks so much for sharing - Stacy Jobe
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