Normandy Farms and Boston

So the plan was to set up camp at Normandy Farms in Foxboro  MA, set the dogs up in a Canine Coop for the afternoon (compliments of our glamping experience at Normandy Farms), and then head for Boston for the afternoon.--- this did not happen.

We got to Normandy Farms, which was very nice with 4 pools, 2 baseball fields, a large dog park (where our dogs Fiona and Phoebe got in a dog fight with another dog or as the lady said "tried to eat her dog" ---  nice --), disc golf, bike park, fish pond, basketball court, salon with full on massage, pedicure and manicure facilities.  This place was swank and too swank for us.

Couple of things went wrong...

1.  Check out was not until 2  so even though we arrived at 11 we could not get into our campsite until 2...so we had to go park in a field next to a bunch of tents ---
2.  Everyone just stared at us --- literally as if we had three heads --- probably because we had 4 dogs
3.  There were people everywhere--kids riding bikes  people walking dogs, people walking everywhere --weaving in and out of the roads and this made it hard to travel with the trailer through the campground
4. Phoebe and Fiona got in a fight with a dog in the dog park -- and Phoebe had a cut on her foot after --- where she promptly bled all over the car and trailer
5.  John pulled down a road where a RV was pulling out and had to try to back the trailer up-- and he ran into a tree ---- yes people were still watching us and --- no--- no one helped
6. I was stressed the whole time about the dogs and the amount of people so I was not in the best of moods and neither was John by the time we pulled into our campsite at 2.
7.  The 2 Canine Coops were in the Dog Park --- and John and I did not want to leave the dogs in there after the earlier melee so Boston was out until the evening.

Normandy Farms 

I don't mean to be a total downer ... So Boston was fun -- when we finally arrived there!

We did not get into the city until 6 so we missed the visitors center and Freedom Trail maps but luckily the Freedom trail is marked with a red line down the center of the sidewalk. We walked around and saw some really old neat buildings, Sam Adams grave site, where the Boston Massacre occurred, and some street entertainment.    That was a lot of fun! We hope to come back to Boston again because we really did not get to see was much as we would have liked.  The city reminded me of my Dad --- so much history.  It would have been really fun to have him there because we would have had our own personal tour guide.  :)

Site of the Boston Massacre 

A cool pub on the freedom trail -- Maybe Ben Franklin had some brew here?

Boston townhouses 

Street performers -- this guy flipped over the group bending over

The square on the freedom trail

Grave site of Samuel Adams

Boston skyline

Historical Building on Freedom Trail (I am embarrassed I do not know the name of this!)

We also got to see some friends from John's Clemson program, Erik and Anita Simon. Erik just graduated from John's program this summer and actually lived with us for a couple of months last spring while he was wrapping up his classes.  His wife moved to Boston in March of last year for her job at an architecture firm and so we had a roomie for a couple of months!  We met them in the Savin Hill area of Boston and had dinner at the Savin Hill grill.  It was fun to see old friends and also walk around the neighborhood.

Erik!  

We left Normandy Farms on Sunday the 30th to head to Maine. Great fun!  We loved Maine but we hope to be back to see Boston soon!

C+J and 4 happy to be on the road again pups

Lessons Learned

1. Our dogs need more training -- surprise, surprise

2.  No more glamping for us -- at least with 4 dogs

3. Don't try to shove so much in a day --- just causes stress :) breathe!