You Didn't Think I Could Do It

Did you? C'mon, be honest. You REALLY didn't think I'd write on my blog two days in a row. However, you were wrong (this time). I like to be unpredictable, keep people off balance, etc. So here I am again.

I am disturbingly fatigued right now. Sunday I took a nap AND went to bed early. Monday I was dragging around and my brain just completely quit functioning around 4pm. The girls said I was acting like a drunk because I was so tired. Apparently I was quite entertaining - or so they report. I really don't remember! And, sunshine notwithstanding, today has been a struggle.

Is it a virus? Hormones? The stupid time change?

I am eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep at night. I'm not taking any new meds or imbibing of alcohol. I am not particularly stressed. In fact, I rather think I'm too tired to care enough to be stressed!

'Tis a mystery.

At any rate, I am here in my caffeine induced state of quasi-allertness to tell you about Boston and Rescue Training and whatever else comes to mind. Any of the photos that foolow were taken by the girlies.

Early in the week before GrammaJ got on that plane, Mulletman and the girls and I loaded up the car and headed for Boston. It's about 3 hours away. We arrived there just in time to catch the T and rumble our way into the city. Girly-Girl and Silly-Head adore the subway. After all, what could be groovier than sliding onto that train quick-before-the-doors-shut!!!! Now they want to take a tour of all the transit systems in the U.S. We'd better start saving our pennies...

Unfortunately, it being the off season, we got there a bit late to enjoy the aquarium, so we decided to take a Trolley Tour. We had prebought the tickets online because they had a "deal" where we could ride the Trolley for 2 days in a row without any extra expense. You're supposed to be able to get off and on at various places in town. But, since it was 3:30ish and they stopped picking up customers at 4pm (Hello - off season!) we decided to just ride the entire tour.

The entire tour was 90 minutes. That's 90 minutes more continuous sitting after a 3 hour car ride and a fair amount of time on the T. The driver gave us some very entertaining and informative narration, but it felt like a looooooooooooooooong ride! Girly-Girl filled in the time by snapping photos through the window, See:






but poor Silly-Head was bored, Bored, BORED!

After all that riding, we needed to stretch our legs, so we headed over to Quincy Market for supper. There were so many choices it was almost overwhelming, but we finally settled on some excellent brick oven pizza. Yum! It was late now and we were tired. I think we were all glad to get back on the T to head for the hotel.

We had spent much time comparing hotels online and had reserved a room at the Woburn Best Western . They had an indoor heated pool, a nice little gym room, a lovely continental breakfast, beautiful rooms, a great staff AND they were extremely reasonably priced. The Groovy clan highly recommend the hotel! The room was so large we were even able to allow a couple of roaming cowgirls to set up camp by the window.



In fact, the hotel only had one true flaw - although the pool was heated, the room it was in was not. I had to wear a winter coat and drink hot coffee in order to watch my family swim. I kid you not!



As you can see, the cold air didn't seem to bother them!

The next day we headed back into town for the New England Aquarium. It was wonderful! If we lived within an hour of the city I would definitely buy a season pass. All of us were enthralled with the penguins and fishies and jellyfish and the gigantic salt water tank that goes up through the middle of the building. It was certainly well worth the time and money we spent. We were there through lunch time and Mulletman decided we should eat at the aquarium cafeteria. The food was excellent, but the prices were astronomical! Next time we pack PB&J!!

Silly-Head took LOTS of photos!






Once we were done at the aquarium, we decided to make use of the Trolley to visit a few other attractions. Old Ironsides was only open on the weekends (off season!) so we visited the museum.


We participated in a scavenger hunt and the girls got to pretend to be ship hands on the USS Constitution. Very fun!

The girls tossed down some ale in the tavern...



...and Mulletman got to wrangle with a pirate!



After the museum we took a ride to Quincy Market again for some tasty (but pricey) snacks and then we hoofed it along the Freedom Trail so we could take a look at the Old North Church.

Finally, it was T time again. We headed back to the hotel for swimming and relaxing. The next morning we used the gym, swam, ate and took our dear sweet time packing up to leave for home. Our mini vacation was over.

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Next entry? Search and Rescue!!!

Dropping in For a Quick Chat

HiHo!

We just got back from Boston yesterday afternoon. We took the girls there for a vacation/field trip and had a lovely time. Girly-Girl took 270+ pics and Silly-head took almost as many. I left our grown-up camera packed in the suitcase!

Today I need to workout, teach school, pack and GO. I'm off for 2 and 1/2 days of winter survival/rescue training in the mud and ice - should be a blast!

GrammaJ is leaving for a 2 week vacation to SC to visit her BFFs. Mulletman will be picking her up at 3:30 in the morning tomorrow to get her to the airport on time.

Mulletman is AWESOMELY GROOVY!!!!! He took airport duty so I wouldn't miss the fun and chummy overnight tonight and because he was afraid I'd fall asleep mountain climbing tomorrow after being up so early if I went straight from the airport to the training class.

I hav much else to say, but time is slipping away. I need to go rouse the late sleeping children and torture them with math and English while simultaneously packing snowshoes and mudboots!

I promise a much longer report upon my return!

(That's assuming I DO return...heh-heh-heh.)

The One Stupid Problem With Homeschooling

Actually there are two problems, the first being that I never get surprised by cute little cards or gifts the kids make in school for Mother's Day.

However, that's not the problem I wish to address in this post.

No, one of the biggest problems for me as a homeschooler is that I have absolutely no idea what sort of schedule the public schools are or are not keeping. Therefore, when we planned a 3 day family getaway to Boston this week, we did not realize that it was winter school vacation and that 843,692 other families decided to also spend the "holiday" in the Boston Area. Even more specifically they all converged on the Boston Children's Museum the very same day we did.

It was crowded, LOUD, crazy, LOUD, chaotic, LOUD, claustrophobic, LOUD, and confusing. And did I mention it was LOUD?

Oh well, being the Groovy clan we are, we had fun anyway!

We stayed at the Red Roof Inn in Woburn, MA. It's not a 5 star hotel, but it was clean and affordable, the indoor pool was fabulous, and the staff was truly couteous and wonderful. It didn't offer a continental breakfast, but we brought our own bowls and cereal and milk and snacks, so we were fine. Other guests headed a block down the road to Panera Bread. If you and your family decide to head to Boston, we highly recommend the accomodations!

Here are the girls relaxing on the beds. Looks like Floyd and Teddy were pretty tired too after the 3+ hour drive there.




As a side note: Floyd was a little leary of staying at a Red Roof Inn. Last time we did so - in Vermont - he got left behind! It was over a month before that Inn managed to mail him back to us!

Here are the girls at the pool. It was clean and warm and wonderful. They are giving their "Flamingo impersonations" for their mingo loving big sister, Funsocksgirl.



Several months ago, Mulletman scored an extraordinary deal in a local store that was closing down: Brand new, name-brand suitcases for $5 each. The girls were SO psyched to finally get to use them. Unfortunately, it seems Girly-Girl isn't quite sure how a suitcase works. Here's hers in the hotel room:



Note to self: teach Girly-Girl that her stuff goes IN the suitcase, not beside it!

Of course, more exciting than using new suitcases. Better than running every floor of a five story hotel. More exhilarating than unlimited indoor heated pool use. More tantalizing than visiting the great children's museum of Boston:

Is......RIDING THE SUBWAY!!!!!!!!! WHOO-HOO!!!!!!!!




Then there was the museum itself:









After all that excitement and noise and activity, we were all exhausted. Fortunately, Teddy is a bright fellow and he drove us back to Maine while we all dozed.



And you'll be glad to know that Floyd made it back safely as well. :-D