Boston Recap

Day 1

So here it is. Finally I have a working computer and after several hours of trying I have uploaded a few pictures from our trip. This post would probably be more entertaining if Clark wrote it considering we were in Boston for the marathon he was running but since that is unlikely to happen I will give my version of our 5 day trip (and hold out hopes that maybe he will post his on version/addendum). We left on Friday and based on all posts prior to our departure you could tell I was REALLY excited to go on this trip. 5 days with no kids and just my husband. Sounded amazing. At the airport in Indy we had a nice dinner at Harry and Izzy's. Our flight there was uneventful. We didn't have seats together but in the end managed to get seats across the isle and in the emergency exit row so we had lots of leg room. When finally in Boston we had to go to the rental car place. The gal helping us was beyond nice so I just kept saying so far the people did not seem rude. Our drive to the hotel was stressful to say the least. I had been warned a lot that I would hate Boston driving. I have an intense fear of riding in a car (not better if I drive in case you were thinking that would be the solution). This fear of mine beats my phone phobia a million fold. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of riding with me (usually takes a few occasions for my true colors to shine) know this about me. Let's just say Clark is an amazing man to put up with me sometimes:) So we took a wrong turn on the highway. We basically got off when we shouldn't have and then had to figure out how to get back. Clark and I do directions very differently. He wants to look at his phone GPS map the entire time he is driving. I think that is dangerous and I prefer written directions to a map. Here I don't think either of us are wrong but our brains just work differently. It is usually a cause for arguments however. Finally we make it to our hotel. Now while this entire post is not going to be one big complaint, I was not happy with our save money choice. First of all, it was 2 double beds and not a king like we thought. We have 5 nights without kids and we aren't going to even sleep in the same bed. Okay. Things were starting great. We tried to change it but no luck. Also no chance we were sharing a double bed b/c we are used to sleeping in a king and I don't like to touch anyone when I am trying to sleep. So like roommates, we chose our designated beds and called it a night.

Day 2

We woke up early (funny how on vacation I was finding it hard to even sleep until 7am) and decided to go to the marathon expo and pick up his race packet and buy the Boston Marathon stuff. The place was packed. I guess I have never been in a running expo before because for all my 1/2 marathon races someone else always gets my packet. It was lots of fun just watching people go crazy buying stuff. Clark bought his fair share and I didn't say a word. He earned this shopping spree so whatever he wanted, he could get. He got a jacket, shirt, shorts and hat. Clark still talks about how funny it was to see about 30 registers in a row and all the totals were coming to 300-400+ dollars. He was really impressed by this. We spent the next couple hours walking around the expo trying all sorts of different drinks, and energy foods. We almost bought a cordless headphone set but decided we can get that at home just as easy. I am sure it will be something we buy soon b/c both of us liked it. I almost got the new garmin but then decided maybe I could just get that for Mother's day/birthday/anniversary combined (since we are even more poor after this trip). The following 2 pictures were taken at the expo. I had fun at this. It was great being surrounded by people just as passionate about the sport you love. I would have enjoyed it even more if not so packed full of people.

Day 2 Continued.....

Next up we hooked up with my brother, Robbie who lives just outside of Boston. A nurse at my work used to live in Boston and had given me a list to things to do while there. On that list was eating at Bartley Burgers in Harvard Square. It was a cold rainy day, and I was a little stressed b/c we had a hard time parking and then were learning very quickly that we needed quarters for the parking meters but nobody wanted to give us quarters. That was a pain. Anyhow, at the place you wait outside until they have a seat for you and Mr. Bartley takes your order. I should add he does not give you much time at all to look at the menu, so think fast if you ever go. I am making this sound like I hated the place. On the contrary, I ended up LOVING it. It is a small place and you sit with complete strangers, and it is loud, and you feel a little rushed (knowing that others are freezing outside waiting to get in) BUT the food was wonderful and it was a fun atmosphere. When I say wonderful, I mean it was the best burger I have every had and the sweet potato fries were awesome. I think it was the perfect place to meet my brother and somewhere he had never been. We then walked around Harvard square before my brother had to go do a show that night.

While walking around, Robbie took us in a a music store to show us his CD in the store. It was cool to see your brother on the cover of a CD in a store. He was embarrassed that I made him take a picture but did humor me and allow it. I promised not to post it on facebook b/c that would just be "horrible." You can hardly see it but he is the picture in the right upper corner.

Before leaving my brother, he told us we had to try this ice cream place. It was good, but I was still too stuffed from lunch to get my own.

Day 2 ending.....

I have no pictures from the evening of day 2. I actually took very few pictures on this trip. Not sure why. After going back to the hotel and getting cleaned up, Clark and I went to the North End for dinner. It was a weekend with thousands and thousands of marathoners in town (we were told by the car rental lady this was Boston's busiest weekend each year) and yet Clark and I against ALL advice have to attempt to drive ourselves. By time we got there we were so annoyed at each other, that it was not a very fun evening. We argued too much. Every place we wanted to eat was full. Finally we just picked a place with no wait and ate. It was ok. The food was good. The wine was good but our moods could have been much better. We did stop (for the first of two times) after dinner at Mike's Pastry (also on the do not miss list). We took it back to our room. By time I got back safely in my room, I wanted nothing to do with eating, so I just went to bed and had my canoli in the morning. It was fantastic. Clark and I both thought it was yummy. Glad we don't have Mike's Pastry here or I would weigh significantly more.

Day 3. Finally we decided to use the T and not drive downtown. As you can imagine, I was happy with this plan. This is a picture of Clark on the T.

Our Day 3 plan included a Duck Tour. We both really enjoyed this. You ride around in a bus/boat and get a tour of the city with someone telling you all the history. I loved every part of it except the loud girls behind us that kept shoving their legs into our seat. Still if you go to Boston, I highly recommend doing this!! This first picture is the ONLY picture of Clark and I together in Boston. Very sad.

While the above picture looks like we were on the black Duck actually we rode on Penelope Pru the pink one. After our tour we at Cheesecake Factory. Clark wanted something he knew and basically did his carb load.

The evening of day 3 we went to my brother's concert. His band is called the Adam Ezra Group and they were doing a charity even at Showcase Live where all the proceeds go to Feeding America. I have never actually seen my brother in concert. It was great. They did a great job. It has been a long time since I have gone to a concert of any kind. He got all the musical talent of the family. Oh I guess I forgot to mention my brother is the bass guitar player in the band. After the concert, Clark frantically tried to find a store to buy some throw away clothes to keep him warm before the race. He planned to bring a pair of scrubs and forgot them. After trying many places (CVS, Walgreens, etc) he had to give up b/c this was the night before the race and we had already been out later than he would have liked (although neither of us were going to miss seeing Robbie in concert).  Clark was a ball of nerves before going to bed that night. He was pacing all over the room setting out all his stuff. He seemed like an adult with ADHD to me. I would have been 10X worse I am sure. Finally he called it a night early and I spent the rest of the evening watching tv.

Day 4. Marathon Monday

Today was the day. The entire reason we were in Boston. Clark qualified for the marathon at the Disney marathon 16 months prior and this was HIS (and 27,000 others) day. I know he doesn't think it (b/c I am not good at showing it but I was VERY excited and proud of him). It was weird not to have to get up at a crazy early time for the race. He wasn't leaving the hotel until 8am. I was up before him (early riser). He got up and was just as ancy as the night before. He was trying hard to scarf down some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but was having a hard time forcing himself to eat so much. I am really going to try hard to see if he will write a post about his actual race experience. I can only write what he told me. I did not go to the waiting area with him b/c there were no buses that would then take me to the finish. So after he left, I got ready and waited for my brother to take me into Boston and watch the runners. I was adamant that we leave early b/c I did not want to miss anything. The plan was to drive to the closest green line T station and take that in from there. That was the plan. Plans as we all know do not always work out.  Robbie actually picked me up early. I was shocked but so appreciated it. Then the plan fell apart. We were stuck in traffic. I was freaking out b/c one we were going to be late and two, I thought I was going to die with the Boston driving. We sat and sat and sat. He all along thought our plan to go to this particular T station was a dumb plan and he "knew better" considering he lived there. I wouldn't hear of it (at first) b/c I was sure the traffic would be even worse trying to drive in ourselves. Finally when it was clear that if we did not do something, I would miss the entire race, I caved and told him to take over and do what he wanted. I was in tears b/c I wanted to be able to see Clark run by and was sure I was going to miss it. In the end Robbie was right. Had I listened to him sooner we would have been there so much earlier. His plan worked perfectly. We drove in town and parked in a mall parking lot and then took the T to near the finish line. The T was packed like sardines. I mean sardines. It took a much longer time than normal but this was to be expected given it was Marathon Monday and certain stations were closed. To make a long story short, we made it. We found a spot right before the last turn into the finish line. We did not make it in time to see the elite girls finish since they started 30 min earlier, but I did get to see the elite boys finish. They were unbelievable. The winner set a new course record and a new world record (that did not count b/c of the downhill and tailwind). I stayed in that spot for the next 1.5 hours while waiting for Clark. I got 3 updates on my phone so I roughly knew when he would be coming by. Although Robbie and I yelled and yelled he did not see us but that is ok, I saw him. He looked great. He finished in 3:30:52 and I could not be prouder. He doesn't think I was proud b/c I didn't say it until he asked but let me say it again here in writing......Clark amazes me. There is nothing this man can't do. I am very proud of him and his accomplishments!!  Again for all the details during his 26.2 miles I am just going to make him blog that himself. I think he will do this for memory sake. After he was done, Robbie and I found him among the sea of people, and Robbie took us back to our hotel. That was the last time we saw Robbie. It meant a lot that he hung out with me for the day b/c I know watching a bunch of runners is not exactly his cup of tea. We napped at the hotel and then cleaned up for a nice dinner.

Pre race photo (doesn't he look nervous)

Later that night we had reservations for the Top of the Hub restaurant. This restaurant is located on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Building. We couldn't get anything before 8:30 (b/c we waited until last minute to make reservations) so we first had round one of drinks and appetizers at PF Chang's. We ended up going up early and there were all kinds of open tables and they sat us early. We had a great view of the Boston Harbor. The food was delicious. I had my share of wine. It was by far our most romantic dinner of the trip. I thought nothing was going to spoil this night. Nothing except some traffic which then caused a fight that then went downhill from there. Without going into any details, this was our worst over night yet. I was up crying until 3am and nobody was happy. My dear friend Cathy got a sob story of a facebook message from me in the middle of the night. *For any new comers to my blog you will quickly realize I write all the good with the bad. Raw honesty is all you get from me. I could sugar coat the entire trip but that would not be an accurate account of our vacation* Just felt like I had to make that disclaimer there. I got next to no sleep that night. What probably did not help (aside from the fighting) was that I had taken my first ever 5 hour energy early that evening. So it was likely a combo keeping me awake.

Luckily, we made up in the very early morning hours and our last day turned out great. I was incredibly tired but tried hard to be in non confrontational mood. Our last day we drove to the T station and took the T (to assure no fighting over driving). We decided that we could not leave Boston without going again to Bartley's Burgers. It was just as good the second time around. Then we went to the Museum of Art and walked around. Finally we went back to the North End for a great Italian dinner at Giacomo's. Since this was directly across from Mike's Pastry, we had to revisit there as well. We hung out in our hotel the rest of the evening and got up early to leave for home. The return travel was uneventful. All in all, the trip turned out well and we will both hopefully remember it as a happy experience. If ever done again (b/c now I have a goal of qualifying for Boston even though I have never done a full marathon and can't seem to do a 1/2 without injury), we would do a few things differently. We would stay in town to minimize driving. We would pay more for nice hotel and we would for sure argue less and take better advantage of our kid free time:)

Stay tuned for Clark's detailed race report (which he has agreed to write....yeah)!!!