Andy had a bit of a check list of things to see while we were here, and the big one was the Freedom Trail - a big red path that traces all through the city linking up a lot of the historic sights. We picked up a guidebook from the Visitor Centre in Boston Common and started off ... Isobel wanted to walk the whole way herself, and certainly made her annoyance known when we had to strap her into the stroller to pick up the pace a little!! The guidebook had lots of detail about the stories behind each of the stops, and it was interesting to see a few of the places we'd only read about before then.
Little did we know we'd arrived over the Patriots Day weekend, which meant Monday was a public holiday and the day of the Boston Marathon! Our hotel was a little way out of town, so we weren't really affected, but we saw a lot of runners wearing their commemorative spray jackets and finishing medals around town that evening. We took the ferry over to the USS Constitution only to find it was closed on Mondays, so we picked up the end of the Freedom Trail again and finished the sights we'd missed on Sunday, returning back through the city and stopping into the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We were seated under a tour jacket from New Kids on the Block, who were originally from Boston - scary to think that was nearly 20 years ago!! Isobel enjoyed her hot dog, and giggled away at a young boy on a nearby table. He was enthusiastically bopping along to the music playing on the TV screens around the room, and Isobel thought he was hysterical.
We also managed to stop into the Children's Museum and the Aquarium during our trip - Isobel is getting old enough to need some separate entertainment, and she had a ball at both places. The Children's museum had a special section for under 3s, and once she got past her initial shyness she was racing around all the different toys and having a great time. A few of the kids in the room were being randomly selected for a learning study by some MIT students - we were asked if Isobel would participate, but when put in a small room with two strange people she clammed right up and clutched Mummy and Daddy pretty closely. Didn't want to play with the offered toys at all! Hopefully the students get something from her reaction, anyway
.After three days in Boston, we jumped on a train for the seven-hour trip down to DC. Thankfully we'd booked business class seats, so we had a bit more room for Isobel to climb around - we'd brought a few of her favourite books with us, but they only last so long. She flipped through all the magazines and safety cards, watched out the window for a while and finally fell asleep for a quick snooze towards the end of the trip. We're realising that she needs to be somewhere dark and quiet to get a good sleep - there's just too much to look at otherwise, and she'll force herself to stay awake!! Very funny to see her trying desparately to not fall asleep ... stubborn little thing, don't know where she gets that from
.
