Boston: Our First Trip!

Here is our Louisa preparing for her first big trip to Boston:

Oops! That's my other baby. Here is her younger sister at the airport trying to decide between Star and Us Weekly. Such a difficult decision!

The five hour plane ride from Portland to Boston was much less painful than we had anticipated. Luckily, Amos and I have a friend who works for Alaska Airlines, so Louisa was doted on by the lovely flight attendants who were eager to hold her and this allowed me to complete some work on the flight. I have to say, I am wondering how I will resume my monthly flights to and from Minnesota in the fall. Although I am always concerned my plane will have some fatal mechanical error, I have come to enjoy flying as I allocate that time to fiction, or non-fiction pretending to be fiction. But I realized on the flight back that holding a baby and holding a book is much more trying than I had thought. This is a disappointment since I am determined to begin Game of Thrones on my next trip.

Back to the trip! Louisa slept for a majority of the flight to Boston. We stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston which was lovely, grand and exactly as I had pictured it, although like a true Tuttle, no hotel is complete without a pool. So this hotel was, in fact, incomplete. But it was a block away from a huge park, near a number of restaurants and the room was spacious and clean and, most importantly, had cable.

After we got settled in our room, Louisa, Amos and I went to the local coffee shop so Louisa could meet my advisor. He has three little ones and was excited to hold a baby again. He ended up showing us a way to hold her that quickly settled her when her tummy was bothering her. Not only is he good at economics, he's good at babies!  I'm still confused by both. But it was comforting to see someone so at ease with such a tiny baby, and it convinced us someday we would be unfazed by crying babies.  We returned to the hotel where I worked and Amos and Louisa made an important movie.

The next day was my presentation. And despite my absolute assertion that I had never been more unprepared for a presentation, exam, or assignment in my long, long academic career and that there was a 70% chance I would start weeping in the question-answer session of my presentation, the presentation went exceedingly well. I was re-energized and inspired in my chosen profession and transitioning from economist to pastry chef seemed less appealing. 

We celebrated that night with my good friend Erik, who was also my prom date, and his husband Jaime. These are two people I adore, particularly due to their love of politics, Dolly Parton, and cocktails.

We had a great dinner of woodfire pizza, God's food, at a great restaurant which was the perfect way to end  such a great day. The next day I attended the conference while Amos and Louisa slept in.

That evening we had another great dinner with Amos's cousin, John, and his family and another cousin Lisa who happened to be in Boston visiting from Seattle at the same time. We went to another great restaurant (I had a BLT with basil mayo, awesome) and had a great conversation. And great onion rings.

We left early the next morning and, once again, Louisa slept contently on the flight home.

Note, Louisa was not at all scared of turbulence. Truly her father's daughter.

We arrived back in Portland late morning and managed to readjust quickly. The cats were excited to see us and were probably half as excited to see Louisa. We spent the afternoon unpacking, doing laundry and catching up on Game of Thrones (we LOVE Tyrion!) which I have found to be the perfect way to spend an afternoon with an infant.

As an aside, I have to say I love Boston as I knew I would. And I enjoyed my brief taste of real summer weather. My one issue (of many) with the Pacific NW is the lack of any real seasons (and TV shows are on Eastern Time! I can't stay up that late!) and I have come to appreciate the humid summer days of Minnesota and the East Coast whenever I get the chance. Boston was such a treat for me and a great break from Portland. It is such a historical, intellectual and beautiful city and spending time there made me consider looking at positions in that area. But of course, it is no Minnesota.