Shears in Boston!

Despite Boston showing some (typical) crappy weather on Tuesday and Wednesday AND despite the flight issues Ben and Jen had getting home last night, I think a good time was had by all. I know I thoroughly enjoyed having the four of them here and would do it again.

Our plan of having them stay in our apartment while we stayed in the bed & breakfast across the street worked out perfectly. They had more room to spread out, we could hang out with them after Eliot and then Alison went to bed and they could be as noisy as they needed to be. The only drawback was that since we have just the one bedroom, the kids had to sleep in the same room as the parents—that wasn’t hard on the kids but I know it made for harder sleeping conditions for Jen. Ben could sleep through exploding hand grenades so I doubt he noticed anything.

Kent picked them up Friday from the airport and once they got to the house, we headed over to a nearby park. That gave the kids a chance to run around and play while we could start sorting out what things they wanted to do here. We ended up touring the New England Aquarium and the USS Constitution on Saturday; Sunday we headed over to Boston Common and the kids played in the Frog Pond, plus they rode on their first ever carousel. On the way home, we stopped by Dunkin Donuts so Alison could have her first ever Dunkin Donut experience. She’s now completely hooked.

Monday we checked out the zoo—if you look on the left side of Alison, you can see the hind legs of a napping male lion. Tuesday was pretty dreary but the rain held off long enough for us to walk around the North End. Later that afternoon while the kids napped, Kent and Ben took a tour of the Sam Adams brewery (you may have to provide your birthdate to enter that site). Yesterday we took the Red Line to Harvard Square and then had lunch in Cambridge.

I’m sure you are curious about the cats—and too bad if you aren’t since I am going to write about them anyway! Overall, all three cats did well. Both Eddie and Wally tend to hiss if they smell other male cats and Ben and Jen do have a couple of male cats. So Wally and Eddie were a little hissy at first. As usual, both Eddie and Chloe stayed out where the action was. I think they do that so they know where the trouble actually is and can run away if the situation calls for it. Wally had a harder time of it since he really is a big scardy-cat. His tail was down most of the time and he hid in my closet in the very back behind a suitcase—unfortunately that closet is in the bedroom, where of course the kids slept. So we had to make sure a door was ajar so he could escape during nap time.

Eddie started seeking out Ben for petting by Saturday night and Chloe did too either Sunday or Monday. Last night, Wally finally really came out. His tail was up, he hopped from my lap to Kent’s lap while the kids were very close by and he also finally stopped hissing. I sort of think maybe Ben and Jen started smelling more like us and less like their own house, plus we’d done a few loads of laundry which I’m sure got rid of some their cats’ smells.

All in all, the cats adjusted just fine. I don’t know that Wally would ever seek the kids out for attention but at least he did no harm.