All Aboard!!!

Sunday June 7th- Litchfield Train Ride Day!!

After a lot of planning and corralling, thanks to Leslie,

10 1/2 "Litchfields"

{some of true Litchfield blood, some in name, some by association}

boarded the Greenbush commuter rail line for a trip to Boston.

For those of you not familiar with the area, the Greenbush line of the MBTA's Commuter Rail

uses old tracks from the Old Colony Railroad which (until 2007)

hadn't been in use since 1959!

Click here for an unofficial Wikipedia version of the history.

The "Aunts" and "Uncles" remembering riding the old version of this train

and have been interested to ride it since it opened.

So we finally set a date.

Dan and I got to Greenbush around 11am

where we met up with

Larry & Leslie

Thad & Helen Ann

Ray & Lillian

Fred

Matt & Willy

It was Willy's first train ride. And of course he loved it.

He was shy at first with this whole gaggle of rowdy adults (I think we scared away some other passengers, but oh well! there was plenty of room for all of us) :) But soon enough Willy was saying "CHOO CHOO!" and very excited to be riding the train.

And finally he loosened up a little more and showed off his current version of the award-winning smile.

Everyone was impressed, of course!

We got to South Station and took the Red Line to Park Street then the Green Line to Government Center, walked up through City Hall Plaza to Fanueil Hall. We had lunch in the summer sun at the Salty Dog's outdoor patio. It was the perfect day. Mid-70's and sunny but not unbearable! Perfect!

Thankfully we ran into a nice mid-Westerner who took a whole bunch of photos of us! Here we are:

Ray, Dan, Helen Ann, Fred, Matt, Leslie, Larry, Jen, Lillian and Ray

with Willy in front

After lunch we walked over to Long Wharf, looked at the sailboats, and of course I found some flowers worthy of a few photographs:

Since we were over by the Aquarium, we figured we'd save a few steps and took the Blue Line over to Downtown Crossing then took the Orange Line back to the Red Line to South Station [thereby covering EVERY MBTA train line in one day! figured if Willy was going to ride the rails for the first time, he might as well ride 'em all]

We were early of course, so we settled into Clarke's for one more drink.

Uncle Thad was having a ball entertaining Willy. I'm not sure who was having more fun, uncle or nephew.

So silly!

We took the 5:10p train back to Greenbush. This might be the coolest shot of the day. Matt spotted these cups stuck in the fence on the way into South Station, so I had the camera handy on the way out.

For those of you who don't know Willy, let me explain. The boy doesn't say "yes" or "ok" he says "Oh boy."

It could be matter of fact. Excited. Overjoyed. Overwhelmed. Exhausted. Sad. Crying. Half Asleep.

There are many different versions. But 99% of the time, an affirmative answer is "Oh boy"

So this was perfect.

Saturday night when Kris told Willy that he was going to take the Choo Choo with Daddy and Auntie Jen and Uncle Danny the response was a mix of shock and excitement- so a long, dramatic "Oh booooooooooy!!!"

And as we waited for the train to start up... "are you ready to go for a ride, Willy?"

OH BOY!

{priceless}

And then that was enough excitement for one day. Sitting and playing with Uncle Thad, I'm told that Willy lasted until somewhere around Quincy when he crashed hard. Sound asleep (I say "I'm told" because I too was sound asleep! A half day in Boston is not normally a big deal for me, but apparently I'm still very much on the mend, because I was wiped too)

After unofficial nap time, we all reconvened back at Larry and Leslie's for birthday cake for Larry (Happy Birthday Larry! Today's his birthday). It was a great day! :)

Other things:

* went back to work today. was a long day. but i made it :) still no word on the results yet, but i promise i'll keep you all posted. thanks for all the kind and encouraging words and emails. love you all.

* going to the Sox game on wednesday night. fantastic seats. yankee game. and my 29th birthday (yes, celebrating 29 for the first time- for real). looking forward to that!