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Hello Spartans, family, and friends! It's been an exciting couple of days to say the least and there's a lot to cover, so I'm just going to get right into it!
First I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all of the parents, chaperones, and students for making our departure run so smoothly. It went better than we planned it and it is because all of you did such an outstanding job of being prepared and on time. We can't thank you enough! Checking in and security were a breeze. Once we got to the gate, we had a few minutes to get breakfast before boarding the plane. We were delayed by about 20 minutes due to weather, but it wasn't too bad. The main group that went through Atlanta had some extra air time because we flew all the way around the storm. It added some time but it was certainly better than a longer delay. Things were tight once we got to Atlanta, but the airline (Delta), held our connecting flight and planned it so that our arrival and departure gates were adjacent. We got off one plane and directly onto the next! Once we departed
Atlanta, we were able to make up for the delay and actually landed on time. We got off to a great start!
Once we landed in Boston, we hit the ground running. We met up with our tour directors, Danielle and Donna, collected our luggage, and got on the bus. Danielle and Donna take care of all of our logistics. They handle reservations, plan our day, and overall make sure we have a good time. They are great at their job and we appreciate them so much! First on the agenda was FOOD! We went to the North End of Boston into Little Italy where we were able to pick where we wanted to eat. From all accounts, the food was wonderful! Personally, my calzone and cannoli were incredible!
We then headed to the USS Constitution. Your homework for tonight is to research her nickname! She is the oldest, actively commissioned warship afloat in the world and gained fame during the War of 1812. The Navy has meticulously restored the ship to its original condition, so it was very neat to be on board. Talk about bringing history to life!
Our next appointment was at Fenway Park
for our tour! The 101 year old stadium is home to the Red Sox and we had an awesome tour! We even got to go into the pressbox which provided us an unbelievable vantage point and a behind the scenes look at the stadium! There is so much history and so many neat stories that from the ballpark. I highly reccomend a tour if you're ever in Boston!
Our final stop on day 1 was Faneuil Hall for dinner and a little shopping. It was the perfect day to unwind from a very long day. The food was very good and we had plenty of time to spend some of your hard earned money! After shopping and watching some street performers juggle knives and ride unicycles, we departed for the hotel. Our
real final stop was at Target where we bought an entire pallet of water! Thanks to the dads who negotiated $3 cases! We had a minor event at the hotel that led to a later night than expected, which is why there wasn't a blog post last night. Everyone is doing great and I am so proud and thankful for my wonderful Bixby folks as well as
Danielle and Donna for taking care of everything 😊
Day two began by picking up our tour guides, Cheryl and Carol who took us ALL over Boston today. The two bus groups had to split up for most of the day. We all did most of the same things, but in a different order. My account will be from the bus 1 experience. First up was a quick hello and background about Boston at Columbus Park. We then walked into the North End where our learned about the city and its incredibly rich history. We made a stop at Parul Revere's House and then at the Revere statue before going to the Old North Church. Revere was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about Revere's midnight ride to warn the colonists that the British army was going to Concord to seize weapons the Patriots were beginning to stockpile.
After the church, we took a short walk up to Copps Cemetary and learned about some of the burial practices in history and then departed for Harvard. The campus was busy from last week's graduation! There were lots of people moving and workers cleaning up from commencement.
It was very neat to be on the campus of our country's first university and where so many great Americans went to college! We stopped at the John Harvard statue, which is nicknamed "The Statue of Three Lies." Your homework for day 2 is to find out what the three lies are!
After the walking tour of Harvard, we broken for lunch. There were several choices and by all accounts, everything was very good. We left Harvard and headed to Lexington. During the drive, we had an amazing history lesson about some of the events that led to the American Revolution, including many of the taxes levied on the colonists, the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, and the battles at Lexington and Concord. It was so neat to hear the story of the birth of our country where the events actually took place! We got to see the greens and Lexington and Concord where the Shot Heard 'Round the World was fired. Along the way we stopped at the Orchard House which is where Louisa May Alcott lived. On the drive back into Boston, we took some beautiful backroads and which made us forget we were in a
big city. The countryside is beautiful!
Once we got back to Boston, we made a quick stop at the Public Garden for a photo opp at the duck statues and then departed for dinner at Ryles in Cambridge. The food was
very good! Our travel company, Smithsonian Student Travel has its headquarters in Cambridge, so we got to meet our tour consultant, Jennilee! We work with her year round to make sure every trip goes well. She works very hard for us, ensuring that every request is filled and that everything runs smoothly. After talking to her on the phone hundreds of times, it was great to finally meet her. Thanks for always taking such great care of us, Jennilee!
Our final agenda item was the Prudential building in Boston. It is the second tallest building in the city and has an observation deck on the 50th floor which provided an incredible view of Boston. We could see for miles! The drive home proved interesting when bus 2 got a flat tire. Everyone handled the situation very well. Bus 1 was dropped off at the hotel and then went back to pick up everyone from bus 2. It
was an inconvenient delay, but thankfully, nothing more.
I have to brag on our kiddos for a moment. This is the sixth time I've done this trip and this is by far the largest group we've ever had. I expected everything to go well, but I had a few concerns regarding the size of our group. We couldn't be having a better time! The kids are unbelievably well behaved! I am beaming with pride for them right now. I also want to thank our outstanding parents and chaperones who are helping to make everything run so well. With such a large group, we've had to rely on our chaperones a lot more and it has worked out perfectly.
That's it for the first two days! We hope you've enjoyed the recap and hope you'll leave us a comment! If anyone would like to leave a personal message to be read over the bus intercom system, feel free to do that too 😊 We love embarrassing teenagers!
PS: Happy 34th birthday to our awesome 7th grade counselor and chaperone, Sandy Rayon!
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Susan Mason
non-member comment
Tired just reading this!!
Thanks for the update! You guys have had some seriously packed days! So glad to hear that things are going well. The tour company sounds phenomenal. Get some rest!!