I'm Back!

I got back from Boston Sunday afternoon. It was quite a full trip. Fun too. :) So I thought I'd try to do a little mini day-by-day recap. Not sure how many details I'll be able to remember though. It all kind of blurs, especially anything that happened after 9 pm. Heh.

Tuesday 2/22: Got up early to make sure everything was ready for departure. Left for the airport around 9:30 am. Our flight was delayed an hour because it had some kind of problem leaving Boston so was late getting to us in Chicago. Once we got underway I couldn't have asked for a better experience my first time flying. I loved it and now am dreading having to travel by car the next time I go on vacation. After we arrived in Boston we picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel. We were under the impression that we were going to be staying at a nice hotel (especially considering the price we were paying), but as we would find out during the following days that was not the case at all. We decide we're hungry and want to go find some dinner. On the elevator we run into my parents' friend who says she and her daughter are coming with us. Another family decides to come to...and yet another tags along also. So we end up with 16 people for dinner. Because parking in Boston is horrible we walked to the restaurant, which was about 10 minutes away. The food was ok, but definitely on the expensive side. After dinner we walked back to the hotel. My memory gets a little blury after this point, but I do remember watching the last half hour of Veronica Mars.

Wednesday: My sister's birthday, and we're pretty sure she hasn't a clue about her surprise party that night. For breakfast I walked 5 minutes with my mom and my two youngest sisters to Dunkin' Donuts, and my resolve to go a week without eating Dunkin' Donuts goes out the window. This only occured because the hotel restaurant only served crappy food that was overpriced to boot. My family was the first to start making the 5 minute trek to Dunkin' Donuts, but by the end of the trip I think pretty much the whole team was going there every morning. On a side note, it was rather interesting to see another Dunkin' Donuts, but I can say with pride that our store is ten times cleaner. I could never work anywhere that is dirty and/or messy. So the day goes on. I can't remember what we did for lunch. Oh! My dad went to the grocery store to pick up my sister's birthday cake and while there he grabbed some sandwiches for our lunch. Not the best food ever, but it was better than nothing. After lunch went for a walk around the town with my mom and two youngest sisters. Stopped in Barnes & Noble and the drug store. Came back and got ready for the party, which was thrown by my sister's teammates. Wow, she was really surprised. I was afraid she was going to get an asthma attack or something. It made her feel really special though. Took a few pictures, ate a piece of cake, and then went back up to the room so I could watch Lost. Good episode, but it felt strange watching without my sister (who was off with her teammates of course, eating cake. *g*). It didn't have quite the same tension without the two of us watching together freaking out at every little sound effect. *g*

Thursday: Made the daily morning trek to Dunkin' Donuts. Then got ready to go to the rink. The big competition day was here! My sister's team skated very well and should have placed fourth, but fifth isn't bad at all considering it was a national competition. Went back to the hotel. Read some fanfic I had saved on my computer and took a short nap. My parents found a chicken place and brought chicken back to our room for dinner. Ate that and then my mom and I wondered down to her friend's room to chat. The party for that night ended up being in there. Wonder where it would have been if my mom and I hadn't gone in there first? It was hysterical that night. I don't know when I ever laughed so loud. I felt like I knew what Trixie camp must be like at times. *g* Somehow they found a pizza place still open so we got pizza at close to midnight. You could tell everyone was exhausted, but I don't think anyone wanted it to end. And people wonder why I don't want to hang out with my sister and her teammates. I tell you, the adults are more fun.

Friday: Go to DD for breakfast, of course. Get on the bus that is taking us for our overview tour of Boston. And it was an overview, let me tell you. We didn't really get to see anything in detail. Since I'd been to Boston before that was fine with me on some things, but others I wished I could have hung around longer. We did go by Harvard. I'd never been there before so that was kind of nice. Got back to the hotel in the afternoon. Took a nap for about an hour or so in preparation for what I assumed would be another fun-filled late night. Definitely guessed correctly that time. Went to the team dinner, which was a buffet. The food was surprisingly good. Got back to the hotel and people congregated in a different room this night. We lasted a lot longer than the night before too. It was after one before we finally went to bed. Everyone was a little hyper.

Saturday: This time my dad went to DD so I didn't have to go. Yay! Was able to get up later than I had since arriving in Boston. Since the team stuff was over we were now on our own, and I finally got to talk to my sister for the first time in days. (When she's on these team trips you hardly ever see her because there's always somewhere she's got to be.) We drove to Salem and saw The House of the Seven Gables. Then we just drive for a few hours all around Cape Ann. Saturday night we checked into our new hotel. Cost was half the price of the other hotel and it included breakfast and it included free internet so that meant I got to catch up at Jix. Another family, friends of my parents, moved to the same hotel as us so we went to dinner together and then they hung out in our room for a while. Went to bed around midnight.

Sunday: Got up in the morning to go to church, which I was impressed with. It reminded me of my regular church here at home. Not many churches I've been to do that. Came back and had breakfast at the hotel. No more DD. Woohoo! Sunday would be the first time in nine days that I hadn't had DD. (Unfortunately, I would start up again when I got back to work on Monday.) Left for the airport around 11 am. Flight was on time. Got to Chicago around 3:15. Found our bags and got our limo. My first time in a stretch limo, so I can cross that off my to-do list too! (Really, I had a very productive trip when it comes to experiencing things for the first time.) We were home by 4:30 and were thrilled to see that my grandma had left dinner for us! That was a wonderful surprise and I never knew homecooked food could taste so good. Before we ate though my mom and I went to the library so I could get my books that were on hold. Then we drove over to work so I could pick up my paycheck. Came back and ate dinner. Went to my sister's room so we could watch our tapes of Veronica and Lost. Then we watched the Oscars, which totally sucked. I really, really hated this year's Oscars. At least Finding Neverland won something. I thought for sure they'd get shut out.

That pretty much concludes everything that went on last week! I'm sure I've left something out.

Later...