Arriving in Boston

I am finally posting about my trip to Boston last month. Actually it was before last month – it was back in late August when I flew out there. I am so glad I got to go and see Emily and family, and especially to meet Callista while a newborn. They don’t stay newborns very long!

My flight out was fine, but stressful. It looks so peaceful in the picture. It’s amazing that we can fly through the beautiful sky.

But it was hard on my nerves. I was so happy to finally arrive!

I was astounded to discover the Boston airport at peak capacity at midnight on a Wednesday. It was thronged! Who would have guessed? It was so jam packed at arrivals that the traffic did not move for 20 minutes. Even the busses were stuck. All these cars had long since finished picking up their passengers, and were just waiting, going nowhere. It was insanely loud and echoing.

Eventually the bus drivers got frustrated and started leaning on their horns. It didn’t do any good, because the hold-up wasn’t local; the gridlock started quite a distance further up. The entire airport was at a standstill. It was already extremely loud, and then when the busses started honking, I didn’t know how I was going to keep my sanity!

Meanwhile Bryan wasn’t able to get in because of the gridlock. He suggested we meet in departures instead of arrivals, because no one would be departing at midnight. I was dubious. You can do that? Apparently the road was open for him in that direction.

I was exhausted and didn’t know how to get to departures and didn’t want to get lost. And I had (as usual) FAR TOO MUCH LUGGAGE. (I really need to do something about my tendency to pack to heavy. I didn’t used to be that way.) Anyway, I followed his instructions and managed to drag myself and all my luggage to the departures drop off area, and it worked like a charm. We were out of there moments later. Who knew!

When I was talking with him on the drive back from the airport, Bryan theorized that what was causing me so much stress was the noise at the airport and on the plane. He recommended getting a decent noise cancelling headset. John had said something similar to me recently and had explained that listening to music with my little earbuds was not going to be as effective as a big, earmuff style headset. I was resistant to the idea of adding yet another big, bulky item to the already ridiculous amount of stuff I bring on the plane. But before my flight home I did just that – I ordered a noise cancelling headset for the return flight. And for wherever I go next!

Everyone was asleep by the time Bryan and I made it back, but the next morning – family!! This is Sharon, my (and Emily’s) mom, in the center. Then from the left, Phoebe and Thea, with Daphne on Mom’s right.

One of the first things I did was help Emily pull poison ivy. There’s poison ivy amongst the groundcover in the kid’s play area out back. I volunteered because I’m not usually sensitive to poison oak so I figured I wouldn’t be very sensitive to poison ivy either (even though it is a different plant). I got a rash, but barely, just a tiny, tiny bit on one of my wrists where the glove wasn’t long enough.

Emily is understandably reluctant to use round-up or other herbicides in her kid’s play area, but I think she’s going to have to. It’s impossible to get all the roots otherwise. Poison ivy puts out long, long runners underground and you can’t get it all by hand.

They have a huge, beautiful backyard with an expansive amount of grass, large patio area, another huge paved area for vehicles, a several-car sized detached garage, a giant above-ground pool, and this woodsy area with multiple play sets. It’s like they have their own park!

The houses in this next picture are the neighbors behind them on a different street. Those houses are newer and have almost no property. Emily is always happy to let the neighbor kids play in her yard.

They also have a huge side yard. That’s a portion of their detached garage on the right.

Looks like I didn’t take any good photos of the kids in their pool on this trip, but here’s a photo Emily sent me from another time. It’s the biggest above-ground pool I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a picture of the front of their house. You can see the new addition there on the right, on the top floor. Now they have enough bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs for everyone, so Emily and Bryan don’t have young children on a different floor as them at night.

They’ve worked very hard and their house is turning out to be an amazing space.

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