The Colonnade Hotel, Boston, 7AM
Well, there you go: our first vacation as a family of four is under our belts. (Photos from the Boston leg are coming up on The Cut in a few days.)
Not gonna lie: I thought that taking a six-hour (each way) road trip and sharing a room with a newborn and a toddler (in Boston; we had separate rooms in Maine) would be sort of seventh-circle-of-hell-ish…but it turned out to be not just okay, but great.
Last year, on my son's second birthday, my favorite photograph of him was one in which he was out-of-focus, too excited to stand still for even a second.
This year: same thing.
Yes, that is a bouncy castle. In our backyard.
{ The best-ever (and easiest) banana bread, made in bulk for the many weekend guests we've been having lately … }
{ … The Christmas Music Box (with moving train and lights) that I brought back from Maine, because apparently I have turned into an 80-year-old woman who cannot resist an adorable seasonal knickknack … }
I've been visiting Ogunquit, Maine pretty much every summer since I was four years old, so there was no way we were moving without one last trip up north (as a bonus, I had a credit at the hotel I had booked - and then had to cancel - for a vacation over the summer).
October in Maine - or anywhere in New England - is obviously beautiful, but the benefits of visiting during this time of year go beyond the leaves. Sure, it might be a little chilly…but the cooler temperatures mean that hotels that usually run $400+ a night are more in the $100 range, that you can get a lobster roll without waiting on line for an hour, and that the beaches are still gorgeous…but completely empty, perfect for seagull-chasing and such.
We have only a little over half a year left as residents of the East Coast, so Kendrick and I have made a decision: it's choose-your-adventure time.
The thing is, as (relatively) new parents you spend a lot of time saying "Oooh, that sounds fun!" and then not doing whatever it is, because you can't find a babysitter/it's too hard to get out/you're exhausted (and once your kids are finally in bed you would really rather lay on your couch and stare at the television than do anything else). It's very easy to put stuff off until later.
Except we don't have a ton of "later" ahead of us, so it's time to start with the yes-ing.
We're doing it. All of it.
