Day 0 – Destination: Boston

Thursday was primarily a travel day, as we spent more than six hours in the car and in the air, driving to Kansas City, then flying to Boston. Three years ago, we spent time in Toronto before flying on to Europe. Last year, New York City was our intermediate destination. This year, we chose Boston as our stopover, though our time there is extremely limited, as we will be back in the air on Friday night.

After reading three Rick Steves books cover-to-cover, we pared down to only relevant chapters.

Emmie spent her morning at basketball camp, Gee Gee made the drive from Ottumwa to Ankeny, and I spent a several hours in the office, knocking out as many tasks as possible before vacation. By early afternoon, we were all in vacation mode. The van had been loaded, and we were on the road to Kansas City. The trip south was uneventful, with everyone in the van except me grabbing at least a few minutes of sleep along the way.

Emmie and Eilidh were the first to fall asleep.

After a quick pit-stop for gas in the run-down hamlet of Ectonville, we parked our car in downtown Smithville, Missouri, for dinner at the well-rated Chop’s BBQ and Catering. No one was starving, so we decided to share a meal of pulled pork, burnt ends, baked beans, cheesy potatoes, and French fries. The food was solid and the kids ate more than expected, enough that we ended up doubling our original order of meat. We learned Noah is a big fan of burnt ends!

Noah and Emmie posed for a photo in downtown Smithville.

Pulled pork, baked beans, cheesy potatoes, and burnt ends.

We parked the van, rode a shuttle bus to the airport, checked Eilidh’s bag of food, and worked our way through the security check. Eilidh loved pointing out our airplane, and the time waiting to board our flight went by quickly. This was Eilidh’s first flight as a two-year-old, meaning she had graduated from a lap seat to a full seat. She wasn’t a fan of this development and spent a few minutes screaming before Amanda moved Eilidh to her lap for comfort. In the end, some Biscoff cookies from the flight attendant were the needed treat to make her happy in her own seat.

The flight itself was smooth, and the kids each got a turn with at least one electronic device: that is, Kindle, iPad, or iPhone. Noah and Emmie played Minecraft while Eilidh enjoyed Animal Doctor the most. Noah reports his playing time was mostly unremarkable, as he focused on exploring a cave and starting a portal. Once we landed, we retrieved our bags, loaded into an UberXL for a 10-minute ride to our hotel in nearby Chelsea, Massachusetts.