i got into harvard law. what, like it's hard?

after spending our morning around boston (more on that later), we connected with my friend trish and her husband to have a tour of harvard university and then head out to dinner.

we got there a little early and poked around a little as we waited.

i may or may not have changed out of my orange tank top i'd worn earlier that day into a pink tee, in honor of elle woods (of course)!

 the grounds were beautiful.  and, more importantly, organic.  heh.

when trish and her hub arrived, we started our tour.

she explained that all tenured professors got their portraits hung on this wall:

we headed into the library to look around.

looked in this room, which houses all sorts of harvard-related antiques and is used for mixers and other social gatherings:

then she took us into an especially quiet corner of the library, where she pointed at these:

pulled this one out:

 and flipped through it to show us this:

we thought this was super cool.  heh.

after we were done in the library, we headed across campus and through these gates into harvard yard:

after learning that we wanted to scoop up souvenir tees, she led us here:

there were lots and lots of cute options to choose from for everyone.

the bean couldn't care less and played hide-and-seek with us.

maybe one day i'll rock this one:

we headed off campus to enjoy some seafood at a trish & hub favorite.

their rolls were fabulous.  fresh, hot, soft, delicious.

the teen chose the "vegetarian box," which we were amused to find was literally a box full of noodles and mixed veggies.  the plate was set on the table with a chinese-style take-out box upside down on it, and the server pulled it off with a flourish to reveal the goodies inside.

i'd gone with the crabmeat-stuffed jumbo shrimp.  they were just meh, but i was more interested in the company than the food anyway.

when dinner was over, we decided to walk it off with a quick trip to a nearby park.

and to cap off the night, they took us to this fantastic ice cream shop right next to the campus.  oh, it was so good.

the bean enjoyed a taste of everyone's picks and then threw on her new sweater.

somehow, the teen and i managed to sneak off with trish for a girls' night out - at the movie theater, for the midnight premiere of eclipse, the newest twilight movie.  we got there with two hours to spare (anticipating crazy crowds, which we were shocked to find didn't exist) and chattered and giggled as we waited.

it was such a fun way to wrap up our time with her, since we'd all thought we wouldn't get to see the movie anytime soon.  funny how things work out, huh?

takin' off, sucka!

day one was hectic. after frantically finishing the packing and dropping mollydog off, we headed off towards LAX and my mom's house. she lives nearby and we were leaving the car at their place after she took us to the airport. of course, there was major traffic in the tunnel to LAX and my stepdad ended up guiding us around it, leaving moms at home. the pri-YES only holds so many peeps.

strapping the bean into the ol' carrier made walking through the airport super easy:



we picked up some lunch:


we hoovered it up, hopped on board and were stoked to find on-board wi-fi available:


happy campers:



for take-off, the bean happily accepted a lollipop:



she fell asleep and stayed that way for a full two hours:



i love flying.



we had a quickie stop in philly. so much so that this is all we saw of it...for now, anyway.


hello, boston!



our home for the next two nights. thank you, priceline.

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next stop: newport (after stopping to visit the witches in salem)!

checking in

so we're on day three of our road trip extravaganza and have learned some fun tidbits about massachusetts:

* they love them some dunkin donuts. there's one on every corner, and sometimes they're right across the street from each other.
* traffic here is about as shitty as in l.a. but it's kinda cool to drive in tunnels under the bay.
* "turnpike" is fun to say.
* the accent is cute. like, our trolley driver called the arena "the gaaaaaahhhhhden."
* it's really green out here.
* drivers are pretty stinking impatient. folks honk their horn if you don't take off a nanosecond after the light turns green.
* parking anywhere is a pain in the ass.
* mmmmm, lobster rolls.
* the history here is amazing (which I'm sure will apply to the entire east coast). seriously, it's awesome to see buildings, landmarks, etc. that have been there since the 1600s. incredible.

we even got to squeeze in the midnight premiere of "eclipse" that capped off a great afternoon with my SFAM trish and her hub. we're still not adjusted to the time difference and have been sleeping till 10. d-oh!

but we're having a blast, and the girls are great travelers. good times. plus, I'm writing this post via the iPad as we head down the highway.

rhode island, here we come!

sweet, sweet iPad

in the midst of packing for the big trip, i managed to squeeze a little project to tote my fabby iPad in my carry-on:

it's a little long - there's a bit of a gap at the top when i close the flap, and i can't slide it in with the hello kitty skin attached to it, but that's okay. it works, and i love it.

by now, i've made so many of these things that i can pretty much complete it without having to check the tutorial too often.

cute, right?