The trip was planned for over a year. Initially it was to be
a joyous family gathering spanning four generations. Then, with the loss of the
matriarch, it became a trip full of cousins, a beautiful new baby, closure for
some, sadness for all and yes, joy at being together. And memories….so many memories.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Meeting in Boston…or:
How To Get 4 People to a Temple in the Middle of Boston in
Time for a 6:00pm Baby Naming when 3 are Coming from Over 2000 Miles Away and
Another Coming by a 4 Hour Train Ride.
The day went pretty much as smooth as it could go,
considering it began at 4am, and ended at about midnight! We found the sure fire way to avoid LA
traffic. Leave for the airport at 4:30am!! Jon likes to get to the airport early. Especially if we have
to drop off a car, shuttle to the terminal, check in luggage and go through
security. He abides by Murphy’s Law when you’re trying to do so many things in
such a short time. Apparently, Murphy also sleeps past 4am. Everything went
like clockwork and we had 2 hours to sit at the gate. 2 HOURS!! I’ll stop.
The flight to LA was quick and uneventful, bags arrived in
one piece and off we went to hop on the rental car bus. And Murphy woke
up. Every rental car bus came by.
3 times. Except for ours. Why does that always happen…to everyone?? The dude
finally came and off we went. Kudos to Jon for having the forethought to book
the car “express,” so we were that obnoxious family that bypassed the endless
line and were told that our car was right outside and have a nice day.
Our luck was back, or so we thought. We hopped in our car
and proceeded to get caught in a traffic jam to end all jams. Made the 405 look like a back country
road.
Boston is notorious for it’s bad drivers. It’s even worse in
terms of its roads, bridges and tunnels.
Here, we experienced 9 lanes, trying to get to a toll that has 3 lanes
open, (during a Friday rush hour) which merged into 2 lanes to try to get through
a tunnel with an accident that temporarily closed a lane. Let’s just say no one moved, for a LONG
TIME. Welcome to Boston.
Our next obstacle was to get to South Station to pick Adam
up from the train. South Station
is in the heart of Boston. It’s 5:00 on a Friday afternoon. It’s a mob scene.
And we’d rather not have to park to find him. Let’s just say I’m really not
sure how we survived before cell phones. We called him, figured out where he
was, told him to simply cross the 6 lanes of traffic, and we’ll pull over
without getting a ticket and he can hop in the car. Believe it or not, it worked. And there we were.
Next step, get to the Temple in time for our new “great”
nephew’s baby naming. In the city, where they’re doing massive amounts of
construction, where Jon always seems to figure out where to turn after passing the
turn several times. We then try to figure out where to park after being
told there’s a parking garage that’s apparently hiding within the
construction. Miraculously, we
find the lot. Miraculously, I’m not freaking out. Too much. And then we ran.
We ran into the arms of our waiting family. It was a beautiful
naming, the baby is a dreamboat, and the Chinese Food dinner at our niece’s
house with Jon’s whole family was scrumptious. Then, a quick ride to the hotel where they didn’t give away
our rooms, as I feared, where we promptly collapsed and slept like the
beautiful baby we came to see.
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