Life Is Beautiful.

Staycation:

DAY 4

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Swimming in a Hotel

Late Thursday morning, we parked at Alewife, hopped on the T and got off at Harvard Square. Ian loves riding the T, and when faced with the decision between "find-metered-parking-in-Cambridge" and "park-at-Alewife-and-take-the-T," it was a pretty easy choice.

Taking cues from previous rides on more crowded trains,

Ian insisted upon standing during our ride.

If you're local and you've never been to the HMNH, go.

It. Is. Awesome.

We had a fantastic afternoon and LOOOOOVED it.

Um, I really wish you could have been there when Ian turned a corner and saw the Pteranodon skeleton.

There might have been jumping and giddy laughter.

Ian liked it, too. =)

Further glee was experienced when we found the Pliosaur.

It's Ian's favorite marine reptile.

Ian has a favorite marine reptile. He'll tell you so.

And it's a pliosaur.

Heaven. Heaven. Heaven. Heaven.

I love me a man who wears a baby.

Annnnnnnnnd, the obligatory Ian-in-Harvard-Yard shot.

You know, so we can compare his five year-old on-campus shot

with his 18 year-old-Harvard-Freshman-shot.

Blake is so smart and perceptive.

He also insisted upon holding the pole on our ride back to Alewife.

Okay.

So what you need to know here is that

"swimming at a hotel"

means

"going to a water park and having the time of our lives at a hotel."

We went to a hotel in Danvers that has an entire water park.

It was an enormous amount of fun, it was.

...and here's the only shot of me in a bathing suit I'll give ya.

About 2 hours into our water play, Blake fell asleep.

Sitting up.

In a pool

So I got dressed and took him back to our hotel room.

Joe and Ian stayed for another 2 hours.

(side note: Joe and Ian did another 2 hours the next morning)