Final Thoughts and Impressions from our Trip to Boston

the odd "art" in a crosswalk that we came across as we walked the Freedom Trail

-metal pieces of smashed produce and trash embedded in cement

LMS chillin' with an anemic-looking redcoat we also found on the Freedom Trail

You can read my previous Boston posts here, here, and here.

Train/Subway
The train ride in/out of Boston was a bit dull, but it would be way better than dealing with traffic in and out of the city every day.

I thought LMS would like the train trip (we rode it on 4 different days, I think), but she found it boring. This reinforced the idea that getting a roomette on the train next time we travel by Amtrak is a good idea. It gives the kiddos a little more flexibility with space and noise. TLM didn't fully appreciate the train either, but he handled it pretty well overall.

The commuter rail is repressively silent. And we weren't in the quiet car. Everyone was listening to headphones, playing with their phones, reading, or sleeping. There was no talking and very little noise and very few children. I can understand not being talkative when you ride the train day in and day out and are tired after a long day at work. I wonder if maybe it's a little more lively in the summer when kids aren't in school and are riding the train?

The subway had a musty, dirty smell from the train exhaust. The stations felt dark and stuffy and the smell of stale burned brake pads hung in the air. Not too long ago I read Enclave, where the main character lives in an abandoned NYC subway tunnel, and spending time in stations and riding the subway made that book much more realistic. And made me really glad I don't live in a post-apocalyptic subway tunnel.

I hope that taking LMS on the subway from a young age will make her feel more comfortable with new experiences. I didn't ride a subway till I was 19, in London on a study abroad trip. Oh wait, I did ride the BART system in San Francisco/Oakland a few times when visiting my grandparents as a child. I was maybe 12 the last time though. So not a lot of follow-through on that.

Subways can be intimidating, but it also opens up a whole new world. Cities that have subways can be traveled quite easily, and you come in contact with such a wide cross-section of society. I mostly grew up outside a smallish town, LMS is growing up outside a small city- neither have a subway system, though our city does have a bus system that we don't use because we live too far away. Driving everywhere gives you a completely different perspective than riding public transport. I'm looking forward to traveling other big cities via subway (NYC and Chicago are on our list) and we need to make sure we continue to find opportunities as the kiddos get older, even into their teen years.

Weather
I forgot that the seasons are a little slower coming up north. We should have brought more warm clothes since it was cold, windy and rainy most of the time. We never did wear the shorts we brought with us and I ended up buying a pair of pants to make up for not bringing enough pairs with me and a warmer jacket for LMS.

We went from 50s/low 60s up north to 80 degrees the day we got home. Up north it was cold and gray and spring was just starting, but at home the trees were fully leafed out and everything was green.

Traffic
This first one is a generality based on what I saw and experienced. Others may have different experiences, but this is what I saw. New Englanders have a major speeding problem, especially in Connecticut. At times, lanes are optional- we sometimes saw two cars in the the same lane as they tried to go the same place.

The roads are terrible. For how expensive (very) the tolls were, you'd think the roads would be half-way decent. Even accounting for winter road damage, they were terrible.

The drive north was terrible- we went along the coast and paid $45 in tolls (!). Mapquest, Google, and the GPS all said to go that way and that it would take x hours of driving time. I figured it'd take x+2 hours with stops, and that we could do it in one day with no problems. Or not. The trip took almost x+5 hours! We were so exhausted when we finally got to the hotel. The reason it took 3 more hours than planned? Traffic really was that terrible. On the plus side, we did get to see the NYC skyline.

When we headed south at the end of our trip, we split the travel into two days and took an inland route that only had one toll ($1.30). There was much less traffic (we probably could have done it in one day) and splitting it up made it much more manageable for all of us. TLM did really well, going and coming back, but he really appreciated when we stopped at the hotel on the way back and he didn't have to spend 14 hours straight in his carseat again.