Day 13: Home

---

---

The trip home was rather relaxing, leaving out of Boston Logan airport with a lunch stop in Chicago Midway. Both flights were just over two hours, about the perfect length for our kids before they get crazy. The pizza in the Midway food court was not exactly good, but tided us over until we got home. We landed at Houston Hobby just after 3:00 pm, 13 days after leaving.

We have been reminiscing with the kids about what our favorite cities, events, and attractions were, and it is funny that each time we get different responses. Every city had a different personality and different pros and cons regarding our form of travel. We were able to see Baltimore, which is not typically seen as a tourist attraction, but was actually very clean and had some interesting attractions around inner harbor. Annapolis was a quaint little town, but we were not able to fully experience it because of weather and poor car-free infrastructure outside of the historic district. Washington D.C. was a great experience because of the location of our hotel, and overall ended up being a very cheap place to visit because of the free attractions. The historic district of Philadelphia was very intriguing, but once you left this area, the 'regular' city life was full of energy and personality. New York was, well, New York.

Finally, we didn't get to talk a lot about Boston as it was at the end of our trip, but it was a very likable city with a laid back feeling and residents who care a lot about the appearance of their city. More than once we saw someone pick up trash and deposit it into the nearest recycling container (or, in the more extreme case, chase down the person who carelessly dropped it). The city felt more liberal than others which was noticeable in the various signs posted about what some people felt. To us, it felt a lot like Austin, Texas, but on a whole different level. However, the people were very nice and never appear to be rushed. I don't think I heard a single car honk during our time there, and cars also stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, even if there was no sign posted.

Aside from the cities, the 'Freedom Tour', as we have begun to call it, was a great way to experience the history of the American revolution first-hand. The girls are able to recall various key points and sites, which is exactly what we wanted to give them. In fact, the first thing we saw on TV after returning was a show about Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell on PBS, and the girls immediately shouted out what they knew about it.

Our travel methods were probably of the biggest concern to people we talked with here at home, and there are also various pros and cons to the choices we made.

-Traveling light in a single suitcase was definitely a good thing. Having to wash laundry and be conscience of the 50 lb weight limit on our suitcase were the only major concerns, but neither of these ended up being any more than a small nuisance, mostly at the check-in counter of the airport.
-Traveling car-free had more consequences, and this is what ultimately limited our ability to find cheap lodging in Boston and in any other city afterwards. However, the cost savings was substantial, especially since we would have to be renting a van at over $100/day at the low end. In addition, several of the hotels charge $20 or more per day for parking. Thinking about it now, we could have chosen hotels with a higher rate or used taxis and still saved over having a car and staying in the suburbs or neighboring town.
-Traveling without a complete night-by-night itinerary was not a complete success, and we ended up staying in better hotels at lower rates whenever I was able to find sales in advance of our trip. This is expected, but there is a balance required in order to give us freedom to move or not move based on how we are feeling or whether we wanted to spend more time exploring an area. The balanced approach would still be to find those great deals and then fill in gaps before and after these deals, which is basically what I was able to do for the first week of our trip. However, given the choice, we would have probably spent another day in Philadelphia or New York if we did not have non-refundable travel plans on subsequent days. So it is basically a trade-off between cost and flexibility (and the cost is magnified because of the high demand cities we were traveling through).
-Traveling for a longer period of time, with no precise end date, was a definite positive for Jessica and I. We never felt like we were on a ticking vacation clock and instead were able to just sit back some days and flow with our surroundings. I never dreaded going home in xx days. In fact, the decision to come home felt perfect for us--it was right when we felt satisfied about everything we had seen and done.

Trip cost breakdown:
(All numbers are per day average)
Food (eating out + grocery) - $31
Lodging - $112 (11 nights total)
Transportation, tips, general expenses - $19
Flights/Airport parking -
The cost of our flights was kind of hidden because we used free credits to get home, so I can't fairly represent this.

The category that we spent the most amount of effort in controlling was food, as is evident by the number of times we brought lunches or ate in our hotel room. It was surprising to me how much dining out costs in most of these cities, especially if you make an effort to avoid chains and fast food restaurants. Lodging costs ended up being only slightly above what I had expected, and the low average was mostly due to a few cash + points offers from Holiday Inn, a price match guarantee from Expedia, and the previously mentioned good deals on Washington D.C. and Baltimore hotels.

-Jason

Our Freedom Tour was AMAZING! Words cannot explain the excitement and fun we had traveling through these historic towns learning the local cultural and most importantly being together as a family.

Overall, packing one suitcase was wonderful. Not only did it simplify traveling between the cities, it also helped to concentrate our time on being together not on the things we were tagging along or forgetting in the hotels. But next time, I am definitely buying one of those tag-a-long suitcases that attach to each other. Therefore instead of one HUGE suitcase, we will have 2 little suitcases attached to each other. Then when checking baggage on the Greyhound and at the airport, we won't have the issue of our bag weighing too much.

As far as doing my laundry myself, it was no big deal. It helped too that twice during our trip the hotel had a laundry facility on site.

Can't wait to scrapbook our travels and we are already dreaming about our next adventure.

-Jessica

---