Here is a little more detail about our Boston trip. (Not the race... that has it's own post!)
Packed and ready to go!
Not pictured: 3 ice packs. Hehehe...
The Drive
First of all, it's a long drive from Camp Hill, PA to Boston, MA! Paul and I chattered all the way to NYC. It got a little traffic-y there. I plan to find and alternate route home to bypass that craziness. But once we got on I-95 North, it was a straight (albeit 3.5 hour) shot to Beantown. We listened to some pod casts on the way, so we learned all about the moon landing, disassociative identity disorder, and heard Terry Gross interview Jimmy Fallon and Mindy Kaling. Terry gross always makes time fly!
I-95 with my game face on.
The Hotel
Our hotel for Saturday night was in Braintree. It was really nice and extremely reasonably priced. If you are taking a trip to Boston and want to stay a little bit outside the city, I totally recommend Candlewood Inn & Suites. They have a nice gym, free washers and dryers, and it's really clean and QUIET. Somehow, we got a suite. It made me wish I brought groceries to make us a round of pancakes in the morning!
Paul was very excited that our room had the EXACT
same microwave that we have at home.
Saturday Night
Our plan on Saturday night was to meet my cousin Alex for dinner. We left Braintree with 40 minutes to get us to the restaurant. Unfortunately, our GPS is super wonky and it took us over an hour to get there. After our GPS took us past Berklee for the second time, I totally lost it. Luckily, we called our cousin and he directed us to the restaurant. I have never been so stressed in my life and vow to never EVER drive in Boston again!
We had a delicious dinner and had a ton of fun catching up with our cousin. The boys ordered big slabs of meat. I had: Dirty Martini, roll w/ butter, seared Ahi tuna, a cup of New England clam chowder, and some sweet potato fries. Wow, it was SO delicious! I highly recommend the Stockyard in Brighton if you want a yummy dinner.
Sunday Morning
I was so freaking tired Saturday night, yet I just could not sleep in Sunday morning! I awoke at 5:00am but finally rolled out of bed an hour later. I got 2 free coffees in the lobby (score!) and then relaxed in the room fiddling around on the computer until Paul was up and at 'em and ready to go!
Yes, I drank all of these!
Watch out, Beantown! Megan is hopped up on caffeine!
Oh, and I checked the weather for the race the next...
Perfect conditions!
Look what I saw in the parking lot of our hotel. Clearly I should not complain about an 8 hour drive...
We vowed not to drive in Boston again, but I found really good directions to a cheap parking garage ($10 for the whole day!) so we took the risk. It ended up being a good decision. The garage was near the New England Aquarium, which we were going to visit in the afternoon.
After we parked, we walked about two blocks to the nearest T station and took a simple ride to Boylston Street. I had to hit up the Expo to pick up my race bib and packet. Paul got a lot of cool pictures on the way down Boylston Street and at the finish line.
I ended up buying the Boston jacket in an Adidas Tent on Boylston Street. I remembered how busy the Expo was the day before, and since I hate people, I wanted to spend as little time in there as possible!
Picking up my packet didn't take long. Would you believe I saw one of my elementary school teachers in the Expo? What a small world! Her daughter was running the race.
Sunday Afternoon
After the Expo, we took the T to South Station and ate lunch there. Then we walked a few blocks to the aquarium. Again, Paul was an awesome DOP (Director of Photography) and got some good harbor shots!
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We got to spend a lot of time at the aquarium. It was pretty crowded at first, and I saw a lot of orange jackets! Here are some of the friends we made...
Paul's shadow and fish.
This sea lion just stood up against the wall the whole time. Maybe he got in trouble?
We hit up the gift shop and chilled in the cafe for awhile because we were a little tired from walking around.
Reading my Boston Marathon Program and gearing up for the next day!
Then we took one more loop around the aquarium since it was practically empty by this time! We wanted to say goodbye to the penguins and the sea lions!
Sunday Night
We were really tired from walking around all day and wanted to just grab a quick dinner. So guess where we ate dinner the night before the marathon? DUNKIN' DONUTS. I know, it was weird. We actually say down in a TGI Friday's but walked out after looking at the menu and seeing that every dish probably had 12,000 calories and 50g of trans fats. I'm exaggerating, of course, but the food just looked really shitty.
This is what I had for dinner: Turkey, bacon, cheddar on a French roll.
It wasn't that good but at least it was cheap and not greasy!
After dinner, it was time to head to my cousin's house, where we would be staying that night. Before I went to bed we had time to play a game of Salad Bowl with him and one of his roommates. Salad Bowl is HILARIOUS and will be a game played at our game nights from now on! All you need is pencil, paper, and a bowl. It is a cross between Catchphrase, charades, and Password.
Even though the accommodations were very comfortable, I had a hard time falling asleep that night! I had a pretty important race to run the next morning and I just couldn't get my brain to calm down...
Monday Morning/Afternoon
The Drive Home
Running a marathon is not bad ass, but driving 8 hours home is. The first part of the trip was fun. I told Paul all about the race and he told me all about his adventures in spectating... and believe me, he has some adventures! The middle part of the drive home was very stressful because once you get to the Bronx and the George Washington Bridge, shit gets really confusing. The last part of driving home was a struggle to keep awake. I started to hallucinate. The telephone lines looked like dental floss flapping in the breeze.
Food and coffee kept me as energized and awake as I could be. What does one eat after running 26.2 miles you ask? Anything she wants!
I ate a small bag of these directly after the marathon.
For the drive home.
Santa Fe chicken panini from Starbucks for my post marathon meal Part 1.
(That was just my warm up!)
Crispy chicken, bacon, and swiss sandwich from Arby's for post marathon meal Part 2.
...with a side of 'tater cakes...
...and a McD's milkshake for dessert!
You would think food like this would make me sick since I rarely eat it. Nope. I have a stomach made of steel, I guess.
So that was our Boston trip! If you actually read this whole thing and you are not my mom, you deserve an award!
I apologize if you are craving a milkshake or something right now!
Have you ever been to Boston?
What's the longest you've ever driven to get to a race?
What's the longest you've ever driven to get to a race?
Do you enjoy aquariums? Paul loves them!
Of course your Mom read it and loved it! I think the sea lion was in "time out".
ReplyDeleteYay!
DeleteI read all your blogs!!! :)
ReplyDeleteOkay next time I will call a post like this "A post only my mom and Aunt Joanne will read!" :) hehehehe Seriously, thanks for being a loyal reader!
DeleteI truly enjoy each and every one of them... even if I don't comment a lot! :)
Deletesounds like such a fun trip! i've only done driving in boston once, and it wasn't even on marathon weekend. it was a nightmare. i'm glad that you figured it out and had a stress free marathon-eve :)
ReplyDeleteI am glad I'm not the only one who thinks it is horrible. I have driven in Philly and NYC and both are cake compared to Beantown.
DeleteLast night as I was flipping through stations I saw a show called "The Science of Cats" and thought "Meg would probably watch this with me" :)
ReplyDeleteTGI Fridays is awful, but man is their Jack Daniel's sauce addicting. I think it goes perfectly with everything!
I will have to look that up on my DVR!!! :)
DeleteAward for me, read the whole thing!!
ReplyDeleteAmazing trip, aside from the GPS issue you did a really good job paving things out. Hotel and the food choices looked great.
Yes! You get the award!
Deletelmao that Boston road picture always cracks me up!
ReplyDeleteIt's so true too. I've driven in NYC a couple times and it wasn't even bad.
DeleteOK, I am gonna call you out on posting everything you ate after you ran because I know you hate it when people do that! But at least we know you're not starving yourself like a lost of people who post on WIAW.
ReplyDeleteI also had to comment on what you said about the George Washington Bridge. It is SO stressful! We purposefully don't take it when traveling. We usually take the Tappenzee Bridge as well, which is out of the way a little bit, but well worth it. But when we were coming back up from SC, the GPS took it upon herself to reroute us without telling us, and we ended up having to go through the city. I was so stressed out as the co-pilot that I ate an entire 3 lb bag of Swedish fish while sitting on the bridge! Not kidding!
LOL you can call me out on anything! But yes, at least I wasn't like "I ran 26 miles and then had a smoothie and a few almonds" hahaha :) I do not blame you for eating all of those Sweedish fish. My cousin said he took the Tapanzee Bridge too. If I had been by myself, I would still be in the Bronx right now. Seriously. Paul navigated as best he could (it was soooooo confusing as you know!!) and I tried to do what he told me to. I can't believe we made it hOME AND I made it to work the next day!
DeleteLOL...you can always make me laugh, even after a 12 hour stressful day of parent teacher interviews! Bravo Meg :) I really laughed at the sea lion comment....LOL. And the 'F You Boston driving picture!' So perfect ;)
ReplyDeleteUggggh I am so sorry you had conferences today (we call them conferences hehe) but at least they are OVER :)
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