This trip was dead center of the house project, but it was a good thing in that it forced us to get out. Alyce’s first cousin was getting married, and his future wife was from the Boston area (outside the city). So, this was a great reason to get to the area for the first time.
I can’t find any notes for the trip, so I’ll be going entirely by memory and pictures. I booked everything with Citi thank you points. Our flight was on Jet Blue non-stop to Boston. The group was staying at the Hilton Doubletree Northshore. I don’t think we got any pictures of the room, but it was pretty standard.
A lot of our group was on the same flight over, so Alyce’s uncle arranged a van to bring everyone to the hotel, which was nice. The first night, we pretty much checked in and then there was a lot of hemming and hawing over dinner plans. We broke away and went to a restaurant with just our crew and Alyce’s sister, Emily, the first night.
It was fine, and I don’t even remember which restaurant it was (edited to add – I located it in Google – Daniela’s Café and Market). What I can remember is that James all of a sudden said he was feeling bad then puked right in the middle of the restaurant. He probably had drank too much milk…or who knows, but it was gross. Fortunately, he made a pretty quick recovery.
The next day, we reserved a car and were going to go visit a town and a beach. The rental car place (Avis) called me and said they did not have a car…then they called me back and said they did right after we decided to change plans. We ended up getting the car and keeping it the rest of the trip.
We walked through Manchester by the Sea and then down to Singing Beach. James had a blast and made some new friends running around out on the beach. It was a nice day overall. At least until we had to go back…I walked and got the car, which was parked back in town. When I pulled up to grab Alyce and James, Alyce looked like she had lost all the color to her face. It was her turn to feel bad and get sick. Unfortunately she felt too bad to make the rehearsal dinner that evening. I felt fine, and she told me to go…so I did. The rehearsal was very nice and we hung out some at the hotel bar afterwards.
The wedding was a day wedding on Saturday. The ceremony was at a church and the reception was at the Bride’s family home. Everything was very well done and enjoyable. We had a great time, and fortunately Alyce was back at 100% to enjoy it.
Our last day, we went into Boston proper and walked the Freedom Trail and spent a good portion of the day at the Children’s Museum. Boston seemed like a cool city, and I hope to return to spend some more time there soon.
So that’s the very quick trip report. We had a great time – thanks to Paul and Alex for giving us a reason to make the trip and Congrats!