I've 'accidentally' booked a trip to Boston - day 6 31st December 2017

[Goldia]

Day 6 31st December 2017 New Years Eve! Fenway Park, Wahlburgers and fly home

It seems like todays’ snow day is the perfect day to finish off our Boston freeze-a-thon, so here is the last installment and the flight home.

I woke early at around 4am and then dozed on and off for a couple of hours until the others work at around 6am. The kids and DH finished up the Frosties and I packed up the cases while everyone showered. I took a few last photos from our room looking across at all the MIT buildings and the sunrise.

We checked out and they were happy to hold our luggage until our flight later. We didn’t take off until the evening so we wanted to make the most of our last day in Boston.

Today the temperature was a shocking -11 Celsius and the real feel was supposed to be -20, so of course we decided it would be a good idea to retrace our steps from day 1 and walk over Boston University bridge. Oh yes, it was cold again. I have never felt a cold wind on my face like this before it was crazy cold. I had wanted to experience the cold and snow, previous holiday research has found me looking at Scandinavia or Iceland, but I’m not sure we are cut out for the cold or a are cold people really. Since we’ve been back in the UK DH has bought a mountain warehouse coat in the sales so he is now fully prepared for our next holiday adventure (Florida in August).

Anyway, back to today, we wandered towards the Busybee diner we had eaten breakfast in on our first day but it was closed so we couldn’t stop for Sunday brunch. We carried on walking as I wanted to parks that form the Emerald Necklace. These are a series of parks which are linked together to form a greenbelt or necklace in Boston.
However, I’d forgotten about the railway line! We could see one of the parks the other side of railway but we couldn’t see a bridge over it so that we could get to the park! Oh dear, planning fail . We turned to head towards Boston city and did find a bridge – but it was closed. Instead of walking in the park we walked through a residential neighbourhood we were heading for Fenway Park.

Eventually we found a park we could actually get in to, but we were all feeling a bit peckish by now and decided to stop off for a good old fashioned American burger in Wahlburgers.

I was a massive fan of New Kids on the Block and so it was pretty awesome to be sitting at a table with this lovely smiling face looking out at us!

We were the only people in the restaurant as it was about 11.45am on a Sunday, I imagine on game days this restaurant is packed out.
DD ordered a cherry coke, DS ordered a diet coke, DH ordered a coffee and I decided the last day of the holiday and last day of the year deserved a celebration so I ordered an Angry Orchard cider.

Both kids ordered a Burger Melt which had a 1/3lb burger in a toasted sandwich, these looked amazing and they both really enjoyed them.

DH and myself both ordered the Double which is two 3oz burger patties with salad and pickles.

We also ordered a side of fries and a side of onion rings to share. Our server Colin did warn us that the onion rings were a large side and they were – but we all agreed they were the tastiest onion rings we’d had in a long time as they were very thin and crispy. The batter was a thin batter and not thick so there was a good onion to batter ratio.

I said to Colin at the end of the meal that we had really enjoyed the onion rings and found them tastier than the usual sort with a thick batter.

The bill came to $61.68 and we paid up.

A couple mor photos of me with my heroes and DS!

We carried on (well shuffled really as we were so stuffed) to Fenway Park which was literally just around the corner.

Fenway Park is the home of the Red Sox baseball team – that is about as much as I can tell you about the history of this stadium I’m afraid.

We continued walking to Boylston Street and were getting cold so we went into the Prudential shopping centre, we weren’t really interested in shopping and were just using it as a much warmer way to get through to Copley Square. It was nice wandering through, but it was fairly busy inside with lots of shoppers trying to get their last minute outfits for new years.

We headed back out into the cold and wandered past the library. In the square opposite people were setting up for the new years and there was a countdown clock telling us there was a little over 10 hours to go until midnight.

We ended up walking along Newbury Street towards Massachusetts Avenue heading slowly back towards Harvard bridge for the last time. It was still feeling incredibly cold with a bitter wind but we couldn’t resist two last photos one looking back towards downtown Boston and one looking towards our hotel in Cambridge.

DD had reminded us that we hadn’t had a dessert after our burgers so we headed towards the Flour bakery on Mass Ave. She wanted to try out the Boston cream pie that DH had tried earlier in the trip.

Unfortunately we just missed out on the last Boston cream pie so she had to settle for a chocolate cup cake instead. The frosting on this was very sweet and she couldn’t manage it as it was a bit sickly.

DS had the triple chocolate mousse cake

DH and myself both had the Eggnog cheesecake as we felt we’d missed out on cheesecake yesterday at Cheesecake factory. The cheesecake was nice, but it didn’t taste particularly Eggnoggy to me, just a regular cheesecake with nutmeg on the top.

The kids and myself all had hot chocolates while DH had a coffee. We took our time over the cakes and drinks. I've no idea how much this cost as I haven't written it down and I can't find the receipt.

Eventually it was time to leave and make the final trek back to the hotel past the bleachers for the MIT playing field.

Back at the hotel we collected our luggage and changed out of our multiple layers in preparation for the taxi to the airport.

We did bag drop with a friendly Delta attendant helping us. We still hadn’t been able to select our seats for the flight and she explained it would be done at the gate. DH wondered if this was because we’d been upgraded whereas it was starting to make me worry that we’d be separated and all have to sit on our own all over the plane.

We decided to go straight through security which is not the easiest task when you’re all wearing hiking boots, but we managed to get them off and made it to gate A13 with 2 and a half hours to spare before the flight. We settled in and the kids messed about on their tablets while we waited.

Eventually some Delta attendants came along and made announcements that all the seat assignments would be called out in groups and that we should not approach the desk until our names were called. This made me feel a bit better as it seemed that everyone was in the same position with no seats booked.

When it was our turn we had been allocated 18 D and E and 22D and E. I was happy with this as it was 3-3-3 configuration so both pairs were in the middle of the plane and wouldn’t need to get up to allow the other passenger to use the toilet. However, the 2 kids had been sat together and me and DH together. So we did a little swap with DH and DD taking row 18 and DS and myself taking 22.

When we boarded I was quite jealous of DH and DD as they were in the little section of just 8 rows of seats at the front of the plane behind the business seats. This was quite a small little part and I thought this would be good spot for them.

Then when me and DS found our seats I realised we were also pretty lucky as we had the first row after the toilets area. This meant that we had extra leg room. I sat down and stretched my legs out and I couldn’t reach the wall with my feet ! Woohoo! DS had a little panic as there were no TVs on the wall but I explained these were in the arm of the seat so he calmed down a bit.

I sat in the middle seat and the man next to me was chatting about his trip, he’d been to see his girlfriend for Christmas as she lives just outside of Boston and he lives in North London so they only get to see each other a few times a year. He agreed with me that we were pretty lucky with our seats and short of an upgrade to business we were in a good spot for legroom. The flight attendant explained that we couldn’t keep our personal bags on the floor in front of us during take off and landing so we grabbed the bits we needed and then packed them away in the overhead bins. We decided this was a small price to pay for the legroom and the fact that no one could recline their seat into our faces for the entire flight.

We were pretty settled when there was a bit of a bump . The man next to me said it felt like someone had rear-ended us, which it turns out is exactly what had happened. The pilot made an announcement over the tannoy and explained one of the taxi trucks had skidded on the ice and bumped into the tow bar at the back of the plane . He said that we would have to wait for an engineer to come and do a safety check to make sure we were ok to fly. There were quite a few groans at this and many people were wondering if we would have to de-plane. But barely 2 minutes after the first announcement the pilot told us it was all fine and we were safe to fly. Now I would have rather they had waited for a full 10 minutes before telling us there was no damage as at least that I way I could have deluded myself that they had pretended to check for a little longer than 30 seconds, but clearly the maintenance guys didn’t like being out in the cold either.

We were pretty much ready for take off when one of the attendants came over and asked us if we would mind moving seats. Er, no we don’t really want to . My new friend said sure he’d move if there was space in business. Then the flight attendant explained that there was a lady with a dwarf baby who really wanted to have the cot set up but this needed to go on the wall by the toilets. Right, well I certainly didn’t feel like I could say no to a dwarf baby cot emergency, so of course I said that me and DS would move from the best cheap seats on the plane . I think she was surprised that I gave in so easily as she was incredibly thankful.

I popped forward to tell DH that we were being relocated as I didn’t want him to panic if he’d got up during the flight and not found us in row 22.

We ended up in row 32…by ourselves !

3 seats just for the 2 of us.

It turns out the dwarf baby had an elder brother who also moved seats with the lady and so the poor man not only had the baby and mother but also a young boy as well, while we had 3 seats for just us 2. This was great. We were excited again as it was a really busy flight and we didn’t see any spare seats around us. I sat on the aisle and DS sat in the middle.

After all this fuss the flight took off a little late but we really didn’t care! They brought around hot towels first and then we each got a bottle of the Dasani water.

Ah, this makes me think of Disney. Here are some random photos of the Delta menu for you to enjoy!

I had a gin and tonic or two and the chicken and rice.

It was ok. DS didn’t enjoy his meal at all. Eventually he spread out a bit on the spare seat with his legs stretched out and his head on my lap and fell asleep for most of the journey. I put on Moana and managed to doze off fairly successfully as I don’t think I saw more than 10 minutes of it.

Steps today 18,024, not such a good walking day, but we were in the airport by 4pm so not too bad. Breakfast was brought around at some point but I didn’t wake up DS as he hates the plane food anyway and I knew he’d just be grumpy when he woke and was better off sleeping.

We landed at about 6am UK time and wished each other a happy new year. It was an unusual NYE but it was still good. Lots of the passengers had been joking that we would get a glass of bubbly at midnight but no such luck.

DH said him and DD had enjoyed their little section of the plane and he was pleased with the legroom as he felt he could stretch out more than usual so I wonder if they were in PE? DD had slept a bit, but he said he hadn’t managed to sleep much.

We cleared passport control, collected our luggage and headed off home. I can’t remember much about New Years Day and I haven't made any notes at all. I know that we had to go and do some grocery shopping and we did some washing. I also know we didn't nap and we managed to stay awake until a reasonable time. DH was back to work on the 2nd January while me and the kids had an extra day off so we took down the Christmas decorations and did some cleaning.

And that’s it. The end of our unexpected Boston adventure . A fabulous city which is easy to walk and has lots to see and do. The food and drink was great, we really enjoyed Harvard and Boston Common. However, the overriding memory from this holiday is of the cold. But it was great and it did at least prove to me that it is possible to book a holiday just a couple of days before travelling and still have a great time.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our Boston holiday and we have given you ideas of things to do, places to see and where to eat. And if you end up going in the winter time pack lots of warm clothing!

[MrsSilverStar]

Sounds like a great, short and cold trip! I do like the point about it being easy to just book and go with only a few days notice...think we can forget that with all the Disney planning. Definitely keen to visit Boston one day. Glad you had a lovely time.

Now I'm not sure if I'm being really stupid, but I don't understand the dwarf baby story was that how the baby was being described?! Or would the baby have to be really tiny to fit in the space? I'm possibly overthinking this

[Cutiepie]

Fab trip & i have really enjoyed reading along Thanks for sharing

[Macca04]

Sounds like a fab trip, I have just booked New York and Boston for a week at the end of a May, we will have 2.5 days in Boston, probably not enough but it will give us a taste of the city. This report will help a lot. Thanks for sharing.

[Melbatb]

Thanks for taking the time to do the report - I loved the fact you did it all so last minute!

We have done several overning NYE flights - a bit strange because you never really know when it is midnight!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Sounds like a great, short and cold trip! I do like the point about it being easy to just book and go with only a few days notice...think we can forget that with all the Disney planning. Definitely keen to visit Boston one day. Glad you had a lovely time.

Now I'm not sure if I'm being really stupid, but I don't understand the dwarf baby story was that how the baby was being described?! Or would the baby have to be really tiny to fit in the space? I'm possibly overthinking this

See more...

Planning is one of my favourite things! I definitely over think things so I doubt there will be many last minute trips for us.

The flight attendant said exactly that 'there is a lady with a dwarf baby' I'm not sure the fact that it was a dwarf baby made it any more needy than a non dwarf baby. It was more that if you have a baby and want to put in a cot on the flight they attach the special plane cots to the wall that we were next to. They can't just have the cot on the seat. So the fact that it was a dwarf baby is pretty irrelevant. I wondered at the time if the attendant told me this to gain more sympathy, but I wasn't about to put up a fight for some seats at the expense of a mother and baby, so it didn't really matter that there was an additional consideration.

After we'd moved the attendant promised me some champagne but then never actually came back with it. Still we did have 3 seats for the 2 of us.

Thanks for reading and commenting along. I'll see you over in your DLP report.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Cutiepie

Fab trip & i have really enjoyed reading along Thanks for sharing

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You are welcome. I'm glad you found it fun.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Macca04

Sounds like a fab trip, I have just booked New York and Boston for a week at the end of a May, we will have 2.5 days in Boston, probably not enough but it will give us a taste of the city. This report will help a lot. Thanks for sharing.

See more...

You will have much better weather for siteseeing though! It's a fab city and you will be able to get around the freedom trail, just make sure you pack comfy shoes.

We loved NYC too, so I hope you have a brilliant time in both cities.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Thanks for taking the time to do the report - I loved the fact you did it all so last minute!

We have done several overning NYE flights - a bit strange because you never really know when it is midnight!

See more...

Thanks for reading Mel.

It was weird being in the air. Before the flight I was joking we could celebrate NYE several times, but the reality is we left at about 8pm Boston time and landed in the early morning so you're right we didn't have a midnight really. Still it was worth it to see Boston in the wintertime was pretty cool.

[mitch-fishguard]

Excellent read. Looking forward to november now. Will take a lot of what you said on-board. Thanks