Vacation: Swimming and the Aquarium

When we finally arrived at our rental house,  the kids were not too impressed with the outside.  They thought it looked like a haunted house.  Go here to see pictures.  I thought it was great because it had 4 bedrooms and was right on a little lake (Long Pond).  We even had our own little private beach.  

After we got settled Greg turned right around and headed back to Boston. (We had just spent several hours in Boston traffic earlier that afternoon).  Greg just started some remote classes at MIT, but he has to be on campus at certain times.  It fell during vacation and since our other vacation plans fell through we decided to head east for vacation.  So this was Greg's view:

And this was mine:

While Greg was gone the kids and I swam and went grocery shopping.  There was a great floating dock out in the water.  At first the younger kids were afraid of it because it moved, but then it became the favorite spot.  All of the kids, except Jacob, could touch the bottom all the way out there.  The kids were awesome at helping and taking care of Jacob.  I only swam with them the first day.  The rest of the days Greg or I would sit on the beach and just watch.  Greg couldn't swim because of his arms otherwise he would have been in the water with the kids.  I thought it was too cold!  I couldn't believe the kids were so content.  It was amazing to have that available to us anytime we wanted.  It was definitely one of the favorites on our vacation.  Yeah for Long Pond and the Apley House!

Adam and Anna on the floating dock

Jacob coming up to the beach

What a view!

Lizzy helping Jacob

 

 

The 5 Finches who turned into Fishes

Greg came back to us Friday night.  Saturday morning we got up and headed back to Boston.  This time we opted to park and ride the "T" into town.  We headed to the aquarium right on Boston Aquarium.  I don't know if it was the week we were there or what, but it was so crowded!  You would of thought we were going to an amusement park there were so many people in line.  We did not love the aquarium.  It was difficult to get a good look at most of the exhibits because there were people everywhere!  We generally do not love big crowds.  Also, I was expecting a lot more.  There is a great aquarium in Chicago, and even the zoo in Omaha has a pretty nice aquarium section with a shark tank and everything.  I just thought the New England aquarium would be the aquarium to beat all other aquariums, but it fell short for me.  I did really enjoy seeing the sea turtles and Anna loved the seals and sea lions.  It was also sooo expensive.  We really could have went to an amusement park instead.  Not worth the money for us.  Crazy!

I love this picture!  We were trying to get a picture for Anna of her and the seal, her favorite animal, but Jacob kept getting in the way.  She is trying to smile and still get Jacob out of the way.  So funny to me!

Jacob had to have his picture taken by himself, too.  I don't know if we ever even got one for Anna.

We enjoyed watching the trainers with the seals and sea lions.

We did like the touch tank, too.  All of us, except Greg (his arms just couldn't get wet yet), were able to touch a Manta Ray.  That was pretty cool.

Patiently waiting at the touch tank

Jacob having a little fun waiting for the Imax movie to start.

This was the only time we made our way to Boston.  The rest of the time we spent our time in Plymouth.  I really wanted to do some of the historical things in Boston, but I didn't think the kids would enjoy that too much.  I hope I will get to tag along with Greg on one his trips to MIT.  The aquarium wasn't our favorite, but I like the feel of Boston.  The "T" was great and it seems like a really fun town.  I hope I get to go back soon.