Love That Dirty Water

THIS is the week I have been waiting for! It is our residency at the Hanscom Air Force Base, which is in MA! I've already blogged about this, so if you keep up with me, you already knew this, but I'm writing it all the same.

On Saturday, I got to go home, which is where I snapped the most adorable photo of MCT's newest TAD, Freo! And yesterday, we got a lot of stuff in before and after arriving on base and prepping for this coming week.

We started the day out with a trip to Concord, because it's only about 15 minutes away from where the base is.

Did you know that they close Walden Pond? Because they do, apparently. We wanted to visited to see all things Henry David Thoreau and were sent away because RUDE. I understand running out of parking but we weren't allowed to be dropped off by the gate either, while tons of other (smarter) people just parked down the road and walked over and were apparently welcome.

Shot heard round the world and such

We got lost in downtown Concord for a bit, of course. There were actually a lot of things that I wanted to see there! I haven't been there since I was a kid and I definitely didn't understand it's literary/historical significance back then. After we found our way, we visited the Old North Bridge because FREEDOM! It's where the Battle of Concord/the first battle of the Revolutionary War took place. Paul Revere and all that (more on him later).

Next we went to the house of my life idol, Louisa May Alcott. I'd been there before (technically, I think I'd been to the Old North Bridge before as well, but Louisa May Alcott is cooler in my humble opinion) but I was still very excited. I love Little Women so I think the idea that it is set in that house and that you can actually go in there and see all of the things that inspired such a classic is phenomenal.

Orchard House. Because old houses get cool names.

After that, it was time to meet our contact at the base. So far, the air force has been the hardest base to get onto. Our contact had to meet us at the gate and they had to print us passes that actually had our pictures on them! Can't lose that, otherwise, I'll be in big trouble...

After a quit turnaround, we met my mom back at a Stop and Shop so that we could ditch the truck and go into the city (Mom doesn't have a pass onto the base, so we have to go to her because I am not driving that monstrosity of a vehicle in Boston...).

Have I mentioned that Boston is the greatest place on Earth? Because I think it is. First off, they've got some great snapstickers!

We drove around for a while to show Melissa a lot of the different sights and sounds and then we started to follow the Freedom Trail into the North End for some sight seeing and dinner. We walked to Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church (I told you that you'd be hearing more about that guy!). They both closed before we got there but Melissa really only cared about seeing the outsides and wasn't too concerned with touring them, so that was fine.

After that, we got some really wonderful Italian food (what a surprise, considering that we were in the North End, aka Little Italy). After that, it was time to head for the base, but not before snapping a great pic with my mom! Somehow on the drive home, we conned her in to helping up out on laundry day, so we'll be heading back to Dedham this afternoon!

Happy to be home.