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AWe are now without wifi, so it'll be a few days before you get full recaps. But fear not, we are having a great time!

And our accommodations for the next two nights...

Ellerman Family Vacation 2013: Best Day Ever, Part 1

Updated with more captions.

We have tickets to get into an indoor waterpark in exactly an hour, and a free happy hour that precedes the pool outing. What does this mean for you? It means I am only telling you a little bit about yesterday's activities. My favorite day so far.

We started the day with a hearty little-bit-over-a-mile-walk. A local lady who saw us consulting a map stopped and suggested we take the bus then train. HA. What, lady? These five year olds love a brisk walk in the morning. No, really. Not a single complaint.

Our destination was the Boston Children's Museum. A lovely experience. Imaginative, fun and just a really enjoyable experience. The pics speak for themselves.

This climbing contraption was awesome. And this dude, G, went all the way to the top!

 This guy was not so sure. He came back down a few times and just didn't really get that confident about the climbing.

 The orange speck towards the middle right is C.

The red shirt standing on the floor is K.

 

 The white shirt at the top is our little mountain goat.

 Brothers united.

 G and I got separated from the other two for a bit, so we explored the energy section.

 This was hard, y'all.

 And this was even harder.

 And this....oh boy...

 Reinforcement came.

We had a good time jumping, rolling and goofing about in the power area.

 

On we went up the stairs in hopes of avoiding the really large field trip groups. Other people's kids, egh. In the upstairs area we entered into a room that was all about some PBS show of which we'd heard, but looked cute. And there was water! We donned protective gear.

Concentration is key when responsible for water flow.

He could have stood there all day if we didnt urge him to explore elsewhere.

Splashing is good and fun, but like I said, if there is a computer near, this one would find it. He sent an email to GG here.

We would have sent more emails but a group of kids came along and irrated us so we moved on. And found Arthur's neighborhood! We love Arthur. G checks out at least two Arthur books per library trip, and who cares of we've read each one a thousand times?

In Arthur's neighborhood there were scenarios from different Arthur books. Here Arthur goes on an airplane. Much to his brother's dismay C piloted the plane first.

G was a backseat driver.

Now, G did get to fly, but a swarm of kids came in and I did not get a good picture of him. I wish I had gotten a picture of the kid G damn near body checked when G thought Other Kid was going to try to take his place in the pilot seat.

Oh look, Mr. Ratburn.

Right after we were in Mr. Ratburn's classroom, an MIT researcher asked us to volunteer for some study, and we did. Not sure what they were researching, but I guess they choose participants based on cuteness, because we were selected out of a crowded room.

Research was done, and we played some pinball.

Crawling around a bit.

Construction room.

And barbershop.

G gave him a fade and took a little off the top.

And played a spot of checkers. We played and very carefully placed the checkers back in order.

A children's museum is exhausting to young and old, and refueling was necessary before we marched them on to another site.

Now we have to board our flight home, more about this day later tonight from the comfort of our cozy couch.

Ellerman Family Vacation 2013: Day 3, Boston, Boston, Boston.

So, back to yesterday, the day of walking. We walked, and we were a little tired and full of reasons to bicker and fight. But these moments came and went and overall we had a great day.

We started with a mile stroll to the Old State House, where we picked up our sightseeing cards. And since we were there, we explored the museum a bit and got a little history lesson. Here we are reading our little passes-each of us were given a card with a resident of Boston during the revolution, and we got their names, occupation and political view. I was a female shopkeeper who sympathized with the British because I sold their goods. Anyone else surprised that a female owned a store back then? I was.

 Then we pushed buttons to learn the lay of the land. Illuminated now is the 2.5 mile Freedom Trail. This button pushing device might as well have been the only thing in the museum, it was a big hit.

 Oooh. A mini Old State House. Neat. But where are the little people that go with it? is what we wanted to know.

 Dad did a little more reading then we moved on to a hands-on room.

 Puzzling.

 Brick laying.

 And, then we headed out of there. Ocean creatures await!

We hustled over to the New England Aquarium just in time to see the harbor seal training.  Awesome. One thing I love about Boston is that its a museum town-all the informal education sites have amazing programs.

 We learned that they brush the seals' teeth. Interesting.

 And, they train the seals to paint, just see below. The one seal paints while holding the brush in her mouth, while the other uses a strap attached to his flipper. Keith would not let me buy a painting. I would appreciate if someone would give him grief for this. I need one.

 I dont know why, but watching these seals made me feel like I could train Elvis to do this. It's gonna be a long summer, Elvis!

 Once the training is done we headed on to the penguins.

 But got distracted by the touch tank.

 And the new computer interactives.

 This kid could be in the middle of the Sahara and could still find a computer. We call it the Oupa Gene.

 We're still not at the penguins, but we did get to chat with some fellow feeding the fish below...

 We pretty much had him to ourselves.

 And then we went to see the penguins. Cute and little. What was not cute was the five minute sibling argument as to whether these are adults or baby penguins. One might think that a parent reading the plaque that clearly stated that these 12 inch penguins were adults would stop the argument, but one would be wrong. Its just plain fun to "agonize" (antagonize) your brother, whether you are right or not.

Once the Great Dispute was settled, we moved on to watch a Fur Seal training. Another very well done program, and we had front row seats.

 Don't you feel like you were there?

 Next stop is the tropical tank.

 Then a few poses, with animals made of marble and of plushiness.

 The wee one did not want to talk to Alba the Turle.

 But would pose with Dad. And overall that little one was not happy to be leaving the Aquarium. Not happy at all.

We set off on foot in search of lunch and Paul Revere's House. And on the way to lunch I spied Mike's, of the cannoli of the day before fame, and nary a soul in there. Made a mental note that we needed more goodies from there, then resumed search for lunch.

 Which was found, in the form of more pizza and paninis. It is the little italy of Boston, you know? This was our lunchtime view.

 And unlike the Seal painting, I got my way and we got some macaroon cookies. Someone gets a little stingy with desserts when he's tired, let me just say that, though he had no problem eating those cookies today.

 Then a few wrong turns later we found where the famous blacksmith and Midnight Rider lived.

 Here, and on other tours, we learned that that Paul Revere never yelled anything as Longfellow's poem claims, Paul probably just politely delivered his message of either one if by land, and two if by sea. And the "by sea" meant river, and the British were called Regulars, not British. If I had a quarter for every tour guide that told us these few facts, I could probably go buy that painting. Made BY A SEAL. I really cant believe it's not in my possession. <sigh>

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah. Paul Revere. No pictures inside, but its just as well, no one wants to see pictures of the inside of a shoebox. And he had 16 kids! Lordy. Also a favorite with the tour guides: Mr Revere was the original minute man. Ba-da-dum!

 C found his garden to be lovely.

 Now. We were scheduled to go on a whale watch. And we were in line, and we saw this cool boat depart and met some other ladies from Georgia and were so excited. So, so excited. And then, 10 minutes after we were supposed to depart they had some type of mechanical failure. No whale watch for us.

That's right. All in one day, no seal painting and no whale watch for me. Sad face.

 But life goes on and the kids are restless so we gotta get moving. We trolley'd it over to Ole Ironsides for another fun session of waiting in line. Again the wee one didnt want to be in the pic. He was in a great mood.

 An eternity later we boarded the ship and explored the top deck.

 C got into the fighting spirit for this picture.

 Since USS Constitution is on the far other side of town, we hopped back on board the trolley to ride closer to our hotel for a fine hotel floor dining experience. And a quick swim in the YMCA pool and an early bedtime.

An even busier walking day awaited us!