The Land of Dunkin' Donuts and CVS

Ahhh...yes. If you've been to Boston you'll understand the title of this post. When we arrived at the airport it was first things first. Hit the Dunkin' Donuts in the arrivals hall. Little did I know there was going to be one (sometimes two) on every block. It somehow became less special.

After all that volcano stress, we were very fortunate that our flight was scheduled to leave on time. The creepiest part of the whole thing was being at the airport. Normally a bustling place at noon on a Friday, it was like a ghost town. There were long lines at the desks were people were queued up to try and change their flights. We walked through that place like we were rock stars.

No lines at security!

This is the hall right after security. It would normally be packed. We saw airport shops we never knew existed. 

The flight was non-eventful which is always good. You would have thought it was going to be packed since the flights the day before were canceled. Nope. Good for us, bad for Aer Lingus. I got to see two stellar films, Precious and Crazy Heart. We got in some good-natured competition with the in-flight trivia game. You get the picture. 

Anywho, the whole reason we went was because Wes was running in the Boston Marathon. First things first, we had to get his number:

Then two days later he had to actually run the race.

Mom did a lot of this that day:

And dad, being the good husband and father, went for provisions:

It took awhile, but finally we saw him! Woot!

Mile 17

Then we hauled our cookies back into downtown Boston so we could see him again!

Just after mile 25

My sister and cousin were tracking him online and they would call us with updates. What an awesome marathon! My favorite place is close to the end when people are really struggling. I love screaming encouragement when they're standing there cramping up. It makes me feel like I'm helping. Well, Wes didn't need any encouragement because he was doing great!!! He ended up finishing in 3:06:30. You can get the blow by blow account on his blog here.

Once that was over, we were able to really enjoy Boston. The next morning we left the apartment and Wes finally made it down the stairs. 

Yes, he's going down in this picture.

Well, we saw all the sights Boston had to offer:

Boston is a lovely mixture of old and new.

Close up of the very cute weather vane.

Wes' favorite patriot: Samuel Adams. 

Fishing boats who brought in the delicious clams for all of the New England clam chowder I consumed.

The lovely Zakim Bridge.

The USS Constitution and Bunker Hill monument. No surprise Wes and my dad loved this part.

I felt a lot of self-inflicted tourist pressure to take this picture. I don't even care about this show.

We stopped by Harvard to absorb some smarts. I don't think it worked. 

Our picture on the boat trip. Someone offered to take our picture and we declined.

The lovely Boston skyline. It's one of the prettiest I've seen!

Thank you, America. Thank you for giving us a reason to put on sunscreen. Thank you for your unsweetened iced tea as a choice of drink in every restaurant. Thank you for your super-friendly people. Thank you for your reasonably priced consumer goods. Thank you for your cheap breakfasts and bottomless cups of coffee. Until we meet again!!!!