The Gabrielsen Seven

FRI - After school, Alice's best friend, Emily, took her on a surprise birthday date. Alice got her very first pedicure, then got Olive Garden takeout and ate it at Emily's house - fun! Then Alice went to her friend, Spencer's, birthday party. All the regular friends were there, and she came home smelling like campfire smoke. The rest of us did chores, Paul and I packed for Boston, and we gave goodbye hugs to the kids before bed.

Also, Charlie bought a 3-D printer off Facebook Marketplace.

SAT - Up at 3:30, and to the airport. Once we got to the gate, our flight got delayed two and a half hours to change a plane tire.

At home, the Gabrielsen grandparents were giving the kids a fun time with treats and shopping.

We ended up with a 4-hour layover in Philly since we missed our earlier connection, so we got Geno’s cheesesteaks and played card games.. Then a quick flight to Boston, into our rental car (thanks, Greg!), and to our hotel near the airport. They gave us a huge corner room, though very noisy outside. We went to the nearby Target for groceries for Sunday, then crashed into bed at 11.

Grace and her companions doing a musical number at the Mexico MTC.

SUN - Good hotel breakfast, then to sacrament meeting at the Revere ward. The building was so pretty, and the talks were really touching - a teenage boy and his dad sharing how they “came to Jesus”.

We changed clothes, then headed to Mt. Auburn cemetery. It’s a huge arboretum cemetery built in 1831, with about 100,000 people buried there, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The weather was amazing - cool and cloudy with a little rain. We had fall colors, fallen leaves, birds, interesting tombstones, crypts, ornate buildings, monuments, memorials, ponds, etc. We stayed there for 4 1/2 hours, sometimes walking, sometimes driving, and loved it so much!! It was raining when we left.

A pic from back home.

We headed to see the Boston Temple, but we couldn’t get very close with the gate being closed on a Sunday. I took a picture through the fence.

Then to Middlesex Fells, a cool forest. We hiked around in the rain, got lost, found a little bridge, and had a great time! Back to the hotel at dark to cook our frozen Chinese food dinners over a very small burner in our room.

Home team eating dinner in Riverton.

MON - Downtown Boston day. Since it was Columbus Day, all the downtown parking meters were free all day, so we decided to brave it, and got a great spot. Then we walked around all day. We started in Beacon Hill and Louisburg Square - really cool old (expensive!) townhouses with great rooflines, copper, black, gold, old brick, cool door knockers, brick streets, homes of Louisa May Alcott and Robert Frost, etc.

Acorn Street.

Massachusetts State House - closed for Columbus Day, but pretty on the outside.

South Meeting House and Old State House - just looked at both from the outside.

Granary Burying ground - Really cool old gravestones, including Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams. We were unsuccessful in finding my 6th great grandfather, John Hutchins.

Faneuil Hall - cool old meeting hall with a humongous painting and lots of cool details

Quincy Market - really cool domed eating hall, but the rest of it was really crowded with lots of shops and food places that weren't that interesting

Customs House Tower - it is now a Marriott hotel, really beautiful central dome, and a nice, quiet, air conditioned lobby to sit down and eat our snack

Charles Street shops - our favorite was a really interesting nut shop, with so many exotic flavors.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross - AMAZING ceiling and stained glass windows. Biggest Roman Catholic cathedral in New England. We LOVED it!!

Then back to the car to drive to Quincy, birthplace of John Quincy Adams. We went to Tony's Clam Shop for a lobster roll, crab cake sandwich, and clam chowder.

We visited the beach there, with a view of the bay.

Then to two churches: Bethany Congregation Church (for obvious reasons), and United First Parish Church (where John Adams and John Quincy Adams are buried in a crypt).

Then to the first Dunkin Donuts ever,

(fun weather back home)

and finally to Revere Beach (first public beach in the US) to watch the last of the light. Really nice way to end the day. And Paul is so nice to drive in this insane city - he gets honked at many, many times a day!

TUES - Rhode Island day. We drove 90 minutes through bad traffic to the Rhode Island State House in Providence. Beautiful rotunda, state reception room, and library!

Then to Newport, RI. We did the Cliff Walk along the ocean. Cold, windy, and overcast, with the perfect bench when we were ready to relax and enjoy!

Then the Breakers Mansion - the most expensive home in the state, built by the Vanderbilts in the Gilded Age. Very impressive and interesting, with the beautiful decor, the way they lived, and the 2-story butler's pantry.

Then we needed to find somewhere to change for our date, so we went to the public library. I do not recommend. Very awkward to bring dress clothes, makeup bag, and curling iron in!

Fancy anniversary dinner at White Horse Tavern (first tavern in the US). Our first taste of beef Wellington did not disappoint! The rest of the meal was great too, but not as great as our 20 years of marriage. I love Paul so much!

(Rainbow back home.)

By now I was very sick with a cough and cold. We drove 2 hours back to the hotel, and I went straight to bed wrapped in blankets for my chills. Then in the middle of the night, I ripped everything off because I had a burning fever.

Skeleton family by Grace.

WED - Paul brought up breakfast from the buffet. I decided it was worth trying to go to Harvard. 45 minutes through bad traffic, then we walked around the campus a little. I was not doing well, burning chest/throat, out of breath, etc. We sat at a bench and called Grace for her p-day, then read her journal pages. We love hearing from her - she's headed to Chile on Tuesday night!

Mexico City temple.

We had planned to do more at Harvard, but I was bad off, and my chills were starting back up. We decided just to go home, where I immediately fell asleep. Meanwhile, sweet Paul did our laundry, filled the car with gas, and got groceries. We had rotisserie chicken for dinner:) We watched some shows, then went to Revere Beach again as the sun went down, and we read Grace's email. Then we played Wingspan back at the hotel. By now Paul was no longer able to deny that he was getting sick too. He had a horrible deep wet cough. We went to bed.

THURS - We set our clock to get up early so we could go tidepooling, and Paul even rallied enough to bring up breakfast, but we were soon back in bed, both so sick. I added "room spinning" to my list of symptoms, and Paul blew his nose a ton and had that deep cough. After more sleep, we convinced ourselves to drive an hour to Gloucester to tour the Hammond Castle, since we'd already paid for our tickets. This medieval castle was built by a prolific inventor in the 1920s to have a place to show off his huge collection of artifacts, as well as to use as his laboratory. It was really cool, but we were quite a mess, and went straight back to the hotel afterwards to nap, eat cold rotisserie chicken, and watch shows.

Back home on their river walk.

And Alice got to go to the Disney Worlds Collide tour at the Delta Center!

We discovered this view out our hotel window from our sick bed.

Grace's group had their MTC departure photo shoot.

FRI - We slowly got up at 8 and got breakfast. The dark, drizzly world outside would have been so inviting if we weren't still sick. I was a little better, but Paul was not, and we were both deeply weary. But it was our last day, so we went out, letting the housekeeping staff know they could finally have a chance to clean our room! We started at the Boston Public Library - so many beautiful spaces in there!

Then to Trinity Church, the first church we've been to that we had to pay to enter (if you were sightseeing rather than worshipping), but it was really cool too.

We crossed a couple other places off our list because our strength was wearing down, then went to the Jewish part of town to Michael's Deli. Paul got a reuben, and I got a brisket and Swiss. I think we would like them better under different circumstances.