I left off about our travels the night we were in DC. We woke up the next morning in DC and left our car parked at the hotel, hoofing it to the metro station. Like professionals, we checked fair prices, loaded our metro cards, and hopped on the subway to metro center. Because the museums were not yet open, we grabbed a cup of coffee and went on a walking loop past the White House and around all of the monuments.
I'll pause here and say that if I was going to live in any big city, it would be D.C. I LOVE it there. Sipping Starbucks and walking amid the hustle and bustle of our nation's capitol, I reveled in the fact that I was surrounded by so much history. We made the corny joke about "You may not see the Trumps, but you can always see the Bushes!" as we walked past the White House. The color change in stone was noted on the Washington Monument. Pausing to soak in the fact that over 400,000 soldiers died fighting for our freedom in WW2, we admired the details and symbolism of the WW2 monument. As we headed toward the reflecting pool, we told Noah the story of Kilroy and told him about how my Pepa would stamp his woodwork with "George Lark was here." At the Lincoln Memorial, the boys looked for the face on the back of Lincoln's head and we sought out the word which was almost misspelled.
We walked back down the mall until we reached the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This was a "payback" visit of sorts. When I took the kids to D.C. back in 2010(ish), we skipped this museum because Will was the only one who wanted to go. Last November, I visited the Museum of Natural History with Josh and Unee, and I immediately regretted not taking Will all those years ago. The boys were not disappointed. After a few minutes in the ocean exhibit, I set a meeting time and decided to let the boys read all the details while I went to the gift shop and then to my favorite museum next door, the Museum of American History.
After visiting the museums, it was time to hike back to the subway, this time via Chinatown, and then to the car... the drive to Boston loomed ahead.
According to to google maps, the drive was supposed to take six and a half hours to get to Boston. Unfortunately, road work and traffic extended the drive to TEN HOURS. Speaking of traffic... the route took us through New York City. Holy cow. This Mississippi girl will NEVER, EVER drive in NYC again if I can help it. That was the most stressful drive ever, but we survived and arrived in Boston after 1:00am on Friday.
Way too early, we woke, dressed, and headed into Boston on the commuter rail train. This was a different experience, because it was a real Amtrack train! We boarded at the platform, took our seats (after an embarrassing fall down some steps), and the conductor walked up and down the aisles punching tickets and taking money. It felt like we were in an episode of Thomas the Train!
By 10:00am we had gotten our coffee and arrived in the admissions office of Boston University. Although BU had a very modern lounge with coffee and tea, the information session seemed much like the others we had heard. It was probably the lack of sleep, but the session seemed flat. Our tour guide did a good job, but we weren't "wow-ed."
Similar to Charleston, Boston University is a VERY urban campus- So urban, in fact, that one of their dormitories is an old Howard Johnson Motel. Will has decided that he definitely likes the idea of an urban campus because of the access to city life and culture.
After our tour ended, we began a long walk- twas a very long walk, indeed. From Boston University on Commonwealth Ave., we walked to Boston Commons, stopping by the finish line of the Boston Marathon. You know, just to tell it hello and that I would be seeing it again in 2020. :)
After a nice cafe lunch, I signed us up for a freedom trail tour led by a man in colonial dress.
Will was mortified, of course, because the man was shouting in Boston Commons, "Here ye, here ye the 2:30 tour will begin in 5 minutes." However, it turned out to be fun and we appreciated the fun facts and anecdotes that the tour guide supplied.
For example, in the graveyard beside Park Street Church, standing beside the grave of founder Samuel Adams, the tour guide pointed out the Beantown Pub. "Over there is the only place you can sip on a cold Sam Adams... while looking at a cold Sam Adams." Bahahaha
We finished our portion of the freedom trail at Faneuil Hall, walked back to the South Station, and caught the commuter train back to Natick. By the end of the day we had about 24,000 steps without exercising!
Friday night we spent another night in the same hotel, and then slept late this morning. Well, the boys slept late, and I got a great treadmill run in with my companion, Madam Secretary.
Today was a driving day. We made it from Boston to Erie, PA in about 8 hours.
We tried to make a pro/con list for Boston University, but each time we just kept coming up short. It just seemed like we didn't know much more about the school than we did reading about it on the internet, but here goes:
Pros for Boston University:
Urban Campus (VERY urban)
cool town/ history
Freshmen do community service together during orientation week
94% of students do at least one internship
Handshake Program (kind of like linked in for BU students)
If accepted, financial aid package would probably be better than W&M
Con's
Larger school- less personal feel
Career center seemed a little more formidable/ less accessible from what the guide was saying
Larger class sizes than the other schools
The next few cons are mine- not Will's
WINTER!!! Will assures me that this is NOT a con for him, but large amounts of snow were mentioned in several situations.
Distance from home- 20 hours is a LONG way.
Tomorrow we will complete the drive to Chicago and hopefully have pizza for dinner!
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