Start at the beginning

I have decided the best way to chronicle my vacation is to start at the begnning. My last day of school was Wednesday, the 16th. That night my friend Stacey and her family came out to visit for two days.
Stacey was my best friend in Florida. Her son Kyle was 5 and Ali was about 18 months, and we did everything together while our husbands were out to sea. At that time, Stacey was pregnant, she had Ryan a week before I moved to Maine. We kept in touch through e-mails and phone calls. Her husband Nick has been transferred to Great Lakes, but while they were moving, they were coming up to MA for her sister's wedding. Perfect time for us to get together! Here is me and Stacey and Ryan, the newborn, our first night.
Thursday we had breakfast in Salem and then headed to Boston so I could give them the "Lisa's tour of the best of Boston in one day"
We hit the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues, here is a picture of the kids on them and the whole Lutze family on Mrs. Mallard.

Next was the Swan boats. After the Swan boats we headed down Newbury Street, admiring all of the shop windows on the boutique end, laughing at the tee shirts in the French Connection UK store, then we went to Hard Rock Cafe. Here are some pics of the kids with guitars and Nick eating lunch.
After Hard Rock, we went over to the Hancock Building to get the best view of Boston from the observation tower (not to mention a moment of weightlessness if you jump just as the elevator starts its' descent) only to find out it has been closed since Sept 11th 2001. Bummer. Guess I haven't been there in a while!
We continued on down Newbury street and I introduced them to some of the the classic Boston stores such as Newbury Comics where I found a perfect pin for school. It says "Gangsta Nerd" on it and I can't wait to wear it tomorrow. We then stopped for Ice Cream at Ben & Jerrys, here are the kids at their table eating.
As for my funny story for the day, well the Cow Parade is in Boston. They have all of these life sized cows (ceramic? porcelin?) around the city painted and decorated. The kids had fun pointing them out. At one point, Nick said (to himself) "What's with all these fu**ing cows?" Of course, Ali heard it, and the next cow she saw, she said "Look Nick, another fu**ing cow!"