Weight family: October 2010

So at the end of residency, Chris was given a "traveling fellowship" where he was given $ from Cleveland Clinic to go to any hospital, learn something, then report back to the Clinic. It was enough $ that I could go with him! He asked me where I wanted to go, so I chose Boston. Chris' parents flew in to watch the kids (THANK YOU!!!!!), and we flew out on Saturday, Sept. 18th. Because our plane out of Minneapolis was delayed, we missed our connection in Milwaukee, so we got to hang out in the airport for 6 hours. We finally got to Boston, then drove to Cape Cod where we booked a Bed and Breakfast called The Night Heron. I wish we had more time to enjoy it because it was darling, but by the time we settled in, then ate dinner (at a place called Land Ho! - awesome clam chowder), we were exhausted (we'd been up since 3:00 am), so we went to bed early.

The Night Heron. I can't imagine anything better than a B&B in Cape Cod!

The next morning, we ate the best breakfast! Homemade granola and yogurt, pumpkin bread, fresh fruit, and hot chocolate. The owner, Lorraine, sat and talked with us while we ate.

Our room - The Green Tea Room. It was exactly the kind of room I imagined should be in a Cape Cod B&B.

We reluctantly checked out and we headed out to Brewster for church at a tiny branch.

We noticed that a majority of buildings on the Cape have these faded wooden shingles, even the church. Does anyone know; is it called clapboard?

Check out our sweet ride. Since we got to the car rental place late in the day they offered the convertible at the same price as a regular car - we took it!

After we left church, we walked around Chattam Beach.

Chattam Lighthouse

We'd heard that we needed to eat at a place called Nickerson's. We learned that the name changed to Chattam Pier Fish Market. We walked all over, trying to find the restaurant, but we finally found out that it was in this building where people came to buy fresh fish by the pound. We ordered our lunch and sat by the ocean on a bench. It was definitely the most expensive meal we've eaten that has come out of a styrofoam box!

Although lunch was good, probably because it was so fresh (caught that morning), but what we really loved was the lobster bisque that we bought there. We warmed it in the microwave in our hotel room that night for dinner. Y.U.M.

We checked into our hotel outside of Boston, in Peabody, late that afternoon, rested up, then set out to find Walden Pond. Chris and I are reading Walden together, and let me tell you, that is a chore! There are a lot of great nuggets of wisdom, but I'm not sure we'll ever get through it. But we've read enough to appreciate what Thoureau did. We mapquested directions, but still had a devil of a time trying to find the pond. We kept thinking, "Why isn't this place better labeled??" We finally found the pond, and then took these pics (the book in the pictures is Walden, in case you couldn't guess)

It was getting dark and the mosquitoes were coming out in droves, so we left soon after. Once we got back to our hotel, Chris looked a few things up on the computer and was reminded that there are two Walden Ponds near Boston . . . we went to the wrong one!

The next day, Monday, Chris was scheduled to be scrubbed into a couple of cases at one of the hospitals there, so I had the day to myself. He had the car, so I couldn't drive anywhere, but I don't think I would have dared by myself. We were quickly learning that the streets in Boston are very hard to get around in, and they are not labeled very well! So, I spent the day exercising, reading, writing, knitting, and sleeping. It was awesome!! Chris made it back around 4:30, and we took off for the North End of Boston.

We barely made it into the Old North Church before they closed, but we did get to browse the cute gift shop.

Paul Revere's house.

We ate dinner on the patio of an Irish Pub called Goody Anne's. It was great food!! The North End is also full of Italian restaurants and shops. We were told that Gelateria had a great gelato, and that we had to try something at Mike's Pastries. So we ate gelato for dessert (YUM), then got some pastries for later. We missed our exit to our hotel, then wandered around for quite awhile in a not-so-nice-neck of Boston. We made sure the top was up on the convertible!

Chris didn't have anything scheduled for Tuesday, so we got up for an early session in the Boston Temple.

It was beautiful! It's been a long time since we've been to a session together (we usually switch off watching kids), so it was wonderful to sit in the Celestial Room after the session for as long as we wanted.

We found out that the real Walden Pond was in Concord, just a few miles away from the temple, so after our session, we walked around the pond. It was much better labeled, and it was beautiful.

A mile or two away from the pond was Louisa May Alcott's house, which we toured. It was so fun! We learned that Emerson's house was just down the road, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's house was down the road in the opposite direction.

We walked around Sleepy Hollow graveyard, trying to find the graves of all these literary folks, but we couldn't find any of them.

But check out how close this house is to the gravestones!

We walked around this shop lined street and ate lunch at the cutest restaurant called Market Street cafe. Great italian sodas! We loved Concord!

Afterwards we drove up to Salem to tour the Salem Witch Museum - weird, but very interesting.

These are the names of the people condemned for being a witch.

We stopped for some Brigham's Ice Cream, which we ate after dinner. Although we couldn't bring any of it home, like our Brigham wanted, we did promise to take a picture.

I left the next day so Chris could have the next two days in the hospital. What a great trip!! Thanks, Chris, for the good times, and thank you, Mom and Dad Weight, for taking such great care of the kids.

So the kids started school on Sept. 7th. This is Annie's last year of elementary school (!!), so it's fun that all three kids are together this year.

They needed jackets - it was a blustery first day of school!

Annie, the big 5th grader

Noah, the 3rd grader. He thinks it's very uncool to smile in pictures these days.

Brigham, the Kindergartener, is following Noah's suit. Kindergarten here is half day, which is very good for Brig. When I picked him up after the first day, I saw him leaning against the wall, looking forlorn. When he saw me, he ran to me and started to cry. I thought, "Oh great, he got into trouble on his very first day." But no, he told me that it was just a really long time to be away from home. But after that, he's loved it. He runs out with a big smile on his face and tells me all about his day. He's also learned the Jefferson school song, and it melts my heart to hear him sing it.

Also, notice the shirt? I don't like it much, but it's Brig's absolute favorite because it's his "chinese shirt". To him, the designs on it look like chinese characters. He and Chris picked it out together, and Brig immediately announced that he was going to wear it on his first day. I cringed, but decided that it was a battle not worth fighting.

So, after two days at school, I asked Annie and Noah if they like Jefferson or Lomond better. Noah said he didn't know, but Annie immediately said "Lomond." I must admit, there are some things about Lomond that we probably won't see anywhere else. But I have noticed that they don't micromanage things here as much as they did at Lomond, which I'm happy about. The kids have made some great friends, and they have wonderful teachers. We're happy here!