We're There!

Car-top Carrier (to replace the one that split open 20 minutes into the trip): $180
Bottle of Children's Tylenol (to combat the fever Ellie had on our entire trip): $6.50
Tolls between Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts: $31.50 (!!)
A good, old-fashioned family road-trip: Priceless


Well, our trip up was less than ideal, but all in all I'm thankful that we made it safely with no major problems. So, I'll just start at the beginning in telling you about how the day went:
Ellie woke up with a runny nose, by lunchtime she was coughing, and by nap-time she had a fever. I was really not sure what the best thing to do was at this point, so we just gave her some Tylenol and kept our plans intact.
The day got a little hectic by about 3:00 because we still felt like we had a lot to do before leaving (which we had planned to do around 4:00), and Ellie was so clingy (I can't blame her, the poor thing felt awful!), that it made it really difficult to get anything accomplished.
We pulled out around 4:15 with the Fwagon packed to the gills, including a car-top carrier we had borrowed from a family at church. When they gave it to us, they mentioned that it had a tear, but that it was only in the outer lining and assured us that they had used it several times with no problems.
Well.... we had to stop at school for Daniel to drop off some paperwork and Ellie and I got out of the car. When we did, I noticed that the stroller handles were visible through the carrier. Daniel returned and I asked him if he had packed it that way on purpose and he informed me that, no, the "harmless" tear was now a gaping hole through which all of our stuff was about to escape! Good thing we stopped and saw it!
Thankfully, we were close to a mall, so we dropped into a Sears and picked up a new one (which was killing me, because I knew I could have probably found one on Craigslist for 1/2 the cost, but what was I going to do?)
We were pretty close to Matt and Jennifer's house, and luckily she was home, so we drove over there to re-pack the carrier. The only casualty was a bag of Rosie's food which busted open. We pulled out of there about 30 minutes later (now 7:30!), leaving a trail of kibbles flying in the wind!
From here things got much less dramatic (aside from the fact that we were 2 1/2 hours behind schedule). The weather was nice, no traffic, even though she didn't feel good, Ellie was sleeping soundly. However, since we were so off-schedule, the plans for stopping at a hotel for the night were greatly affected.
You see, I had printed out several dog-friendly hotels along our route, and we weren't going to reach any of them by the time we wanted to stop. The first one was in New Jersey, so when we were about an hour out, I called and they were booked! The second one was on the other side of NYC, so we called, there were rooms available, so we decided to stop there. Except, we hit horrible traffic (even in the middle of the night!) going through the city and surrounding area and by the time we got to the exit for the hotel it was like 5:00 am!
Ellie still sound asleep, we decided to stop for gas/caffeine and just drive the rest of the way.
My mom was kind enough to talk on the phone with me (even though it was 3:00 am in CA!) to help keep me awake while I drove, and we pulled up to Cambridge at about 8:15 Saturday morning!
What a night! Glad to have it over-with and I hope on the way back we are able to travel fever-free and stop after 6 hours or so!


The apartment is nice, it has a great view of the Boston skyline and is really close to lots of restaurants and shopping. We've done some exploring in the neighborhood, but haven't ventured outside of Cambridge yet. I think we're all just starting to fel rested after the trip, and now I'm coming down with whatever Ellie has. :-(
We wandered upon this burger place yesterday, which I think is pretty famous, but honestly, we were just really hungry and it smelled good, so we ate there! Now, I have to say, I'm not usually a big hamburger kind of girl, but this one was GOOD!

Tonight, after a failed attempt to cook lasagna (I thought the oven was on, and after waiting 1 1/2 hours the timer went off and the lasagna was still frozen solid!), we picked up a pizza from a place across the street. Now, I didn't bring the highchair for Ellie, I figured a booster seat would suffice for the month.... except we got here and there is no table... or chairs! (Honestly, there really isn't any space for it, but still, I guess I just took for granted that there would be a place to sit and eat!). Anyway, here we are "improvising" for dinner tonight at the coffee table:


If we get through this month without trashing the carpet, it will be a miracle!