The Great Patriotic Boston Adventure

Warning : you are now entering the tons of pictures zone.

Words that describe July 3rd, 2010 are as follows: fun, hot, sunny, laughter, stairs, squished, smiles, cameras, sunscreen, walking, music, maps, more walking, friends.
Do you know what the definition of a successful trip is? When you're already planning the next trip before the current one is even over. That's what happened on Saturday. We had the best time in Boston that we can't wait for next years trip!
I said on Friday that we were going to take the train not the subway, but I was wrong. We took the subway after all and sure enough, Katie and I loved it. We both agreed that even though we weren't next to each other, it was more fun and much more of a real adventure on the way home when we were squishedwithinaninchofourlives than the way there when we had seats.{You're probably rolling your eyes at this, but we find happiness in the small things. If we had to be squished every day going to work we probably wouldn't be as enthusiastic.} Moving on.
Joy, Katie, and I minutes after we stepped on the train headed for the city. Joy didn't enjoy the ride home as much as Katie and I did. That's ok because really, we had enough enthusiasm for the whole group.
Paul Revere upon his stately steed.
With my very bestest friend and very favorite person to ride the subway with.
It's easy to be deceived by the smiles in this picture. You might get the impression everything was fine and dandy and we were all cool,calm, and collected. In theory, it was a good idea to add the Bunker Hill monument to our trip because we were all about sight-seeing, but in reality, we had just walked at least three miles in the blazing hot sun with very little water.
Do you know how many steps the Bunker Hill monument has? 294. And I almost passed out by step 40. If only I was making this up. It was a very humiliating experience. The problem, besides my lack of water and the 101-degrees, was the monument was so narrow and crowded on the inside and people were behind us and coming down so I couldn't stop to rest or turn around. Thankfully, Joy joined my "I will not faint and fall down all these steps" boat so I wasn't alone. We finally reached top and rested for about 3 minutes before the decent down the stairs. I wish I could say the way down was uneventful, but my flip-flop slipped and I almost smashed into the wall. I told you it was humiliating. One more thing before I end my tragic story: the whole way up I was thinking about the previous time we visited Bunker Hill with Grandma and how even she didn't have as much trouble I as I was having. Granted, it was about 30 degrees cooler with many less people but still. I can't talk about it anymore.
Jimmy was the mastermind and main map-reader of the trip. Here he is consulting with Christopher and Johnny about the fastest and coolest way to get from the monument to the concert. I think he was also trying to avert any more possible catastrophes involving a certain young lady who will remain anonymous.
Johnny and Joy who both manage to look quite respectable despite the circumstances. I wouldn't dare post what I looked like.

Yay! We got to the concert grounds before it started and--this is big--made it in before they ran out of wristbands! We camped out on the lawn and passed the time by playing games, eating, and drinking LOTS of water.

The Boston Pops in all their patriotic glory. I love all the colors! The general consensus in our group was that the sing-along was the very best part of the night.
Mr. Toby Keith was the guest of honor and graced us with three songs{only one of which was patriotic}. He didn't have the best{read: it wasn't great at all}stage presence, but I think he just wasn't that excited about the dress rehearsal. He was much better on Sunday for the real show.

Isn't that a beautiful picture? I didn't think they'd do the confetti since it was just the rehearsal, but I'm so glad they did. Johnny chased down a white piece of confetti for me to put in my scrapbook. ;-)

And so our trip ended with the wonderfully crowded subway ride back to the car, then the car ride back to the house. Of course, we discussed everything in the greatest of detail on the way home{I tried to keep them off the subject my little fiasco}. I personally think half the fun of an event is talking about it afterwards. And you know what? even if it would mean almost not making it up those steps and almost getting run over three times by the policemen clearing the way for Toby Keith{that is another story for another day}, I would do the whole thing again tomorrow.

And that, I believe, is the sign of a really successful trip.

The beautiful fourth of July sunset.