Our Magical Summer, Part 2

Since we lived in a 600 square feet apartment and had no car all summer, we had to be intentional about planning outings every day to stay busy.  Luckily, Cambridge and Boston offer a tremendous number of family friendly activities -- many of them free!  We managed to visit the Boston Children's Museum, New England Aquarium, Franklin Park Zoo, Boston Library, the MIT Museum and the Museum of Fine Art.  We also went to the beach, an art studio, a chocolate factory, and we met up with Jordan's cousin and her family for an afternoon.  Nonna and Papa even came up and spent a week with us.

When we didn't have a major destination planned, we visited nearby parks.  The parks in Cambridge are amazing.  There were at least 4 awesome parks with water features, all within easy walking distance of our apartment.  A few of them were staffed with high school students who had crafts and games for kids to play all summer long.  

We also stayed busy by taking swimming lessons four days a week.  Afterwards, we often stopped for drinks at a nearby restaurant.

Jordan took seven classes over the summer and most of them were engineering courses, so he was very busy.  During especially busy weeks, we tried to stop by his classroom or crash his study sessions.

But the best weeks were when Jordan was able to join us on our outings.  Some favorite activities with him included the Boston Duck Tour, the beach, and taking the ferry to George's Island.  Nonna and Papa joined us for that trip, too.

 

But easily, our favorite family activity was watching the 4th of July fireworks from the MIT Boathouse on the Charles River.  We had to arrive at the boathouse by 5:30pm to reserve our spot even though fireworks didn't start until 10pm.  It was a long night of waiting, but we were with a large group of Jordan's classmates and the girls were very patient.  One of Jordan's classmates was nice enough to take Clara and Evie sailing, too.  And when the fireworks started, it was well worth the wait.