Erin visits!!! (March 27)

Going back in time a bit...

In March we had a wonderful thing happen -- Erin came to visit! We haven't seen her for 10 years, which means the last time we saw her she was Ian's age (and SO cute)!

It was a little weird to reconcile that tiny little girl with the blond curls with the very mature and self-possessed young woman she has become. She was confident, friendly, and had a great sense of humor. Now that I've met a grown-up Jeremy and a grown-up Erin I have to say -- RJ has done a great job and raised some really great kids. I can't wait to see Alex!

Jacque tasked us with coming up with something to do on Sat. and I chose the aquarium. Oddly enough I do not think I have ever been to the aquarium -- not even on a school field trip -- and I've been wanting to take Ian for the last 4 years.

We had several adventures that day. The first was introducing Jacque to her new phone (we got her a droid). The second was trying to catch the train into Boston. We were sure we were going to miss it and ran the whole way from Granma's house. We then proceeded to wait 40 minutes for the train because someone *stares at JD* read the schedule wrong.

When we got into Boston we had pizza at South Station -- the best pizza I've had in a long time -- and picked up some sweets at another one of the south station vendors.

Then came the T adventure. It took us about 1/2 an hour to figure out how to buy a Charlie card and another slightly stressful 1/2 hour trying to get on the right trains to bring us to the Aquarium. There was also a LOT of stairs that we had to carry the stroller up and down. JD and I burned off a lot of that pizza.

When we finally emerged in front of the aquarium it was to the sight of a MASSIVE line for tickets. Half of Boston must have decided to go to the aquarium that day. It was starting to look like another one of my brilliant ideas.

Things got better when we got in the aquarium -- it was crowded, but not impossibly so, and the sight of the four story tank was well worth it. Ian had a great time. He especially liked the shark.

My camera was still lost at this point so I used my cell phone camera (which is why the pictures are a bit blurry). I am definitely going back sometime with my new camera.

After we had seen everything in the aquarium we went to Fanueil Hall for dinner. It was also extremely crowded -- but that is part of the Fanueil Hall experience. We made our way back to the T, successfully purchased more Charlie cards, and even found an elevator.

I am interested to know what Erin thought of the whole experience. She took our chaos and confusion in stride but I am sure she had some stories to bring back to RJ and family. :)