On the last day, our flight back was at 5 pm, leaving us plenty of time to exhaust the children by trekking around historic Boston. Still, by the end it was an open question of who exactly had tired out whom.
We started at the Boston Common
which had a baseball field and some monuments. Most importantly, of course, it had an entrance to the subway, something that had been on Charles’ “must do” list since Mom mentioned its existence to him. After viewing the historic graveyard next to the Commons (Corwin noticed that some of the crypts were set in the outside walls of the graveyard and asked “why are we walking on those people’s graves?”) we headed down in to the subway, historic in itself as America’s first subway.
Charles found it all very exciting. Mom and I thought it was neat to see Charles looking out from the subway car at the Charles River but Charles himself didn’t think much of it.
At the end of the run we walked around a bit of Harvard Square, but there wasn’t much interesting in the way of historic sights, so we went to a toystore (where Corwin, again, had to use the staff bathroom). Corwin got a light magic wand with sound effects and Charles got a little carrying case with a couple of trucks and some road signs. Both boys carried their toys around for the rest of the day.
We went back to the Commons on the subway (after which Charles wondered why we couldn’t just do that until it was time to get on the airplane). We then headed out on the Freedom Trail to see history. We ended up hiking from the Commons all the way to the harbor, with just a brief stop for some ice cream. While we were there Charles managed to make a mess where he was eating and Alice wiped her sleeve in it the instant Charles cleared a path for her.
In the same building was very nice map of Boston with little lights embedded in it. As you pressed a button next to a label, the corresponding light would turn on so you could see where everything was. The boyen loved it, but despite the wide expanse of buttons
they still managed to fight over the same buttons.
Shortly after moving on from there, Charles collapsed, claiming he was “tie-warred”. Even walking off without him wouldn’t get Charles off the ground. I finally told him “if you walk to the next place, we’ll head back to get on the airplane afterwards”. Charles perked right up and walked with us down to the harbor. He even had the energy to chase Alice around a circular plaza there and didn’t complain the entire way back.
On the return we stopped by the Boston Gardens and watched the swans for a bit.
Corwin was good too, only complaining once, even though it was quite the hike for him as well. Corwin was even able to remember three different things about Plimouth Plantation when Mom quizzed him on the hike back.
Finally we made it back to the van with all of our loot and children and headed out to return the van to the rental car company, which was a bit exciting because my GPS mapper didn’t take some construction in to account and we ended up having some difficulty getting back on track. We made it and got on the shuttle bus to the airport in time. Charles was so excited about it that he sat in the back despite another family having already grabbed the seats there.
In the airport, Charles just charged straight ahead for the next gate, completely oblivious to anyone else. He was saved from running in to people several times only by quick action on their part. At least a couple of times I called out to him, which made him stop and turn around, thereby avoiding a collision. But he’d just look at me, upset because I had impeded his progress while the other person moved past him so that when he turned forward again, Charles could see that Dad had just been seeing things.
Beyond this, Charles melted down at any indication that we weren’t heading for the airplane at top speed or not boarding the instant we could. I hear of stories of other parents, who have to chivy and browbeat their children in to picking up the pace to get to a bus, train or airplane on time, but I can’t imagine what that would be like.