I’ll start out with why we chose to go to New England for Independence Day weekend. It really had nothing to do with the actual holiday and everything to do with the Sage Francis show in Providence on the 4th. Like I’ve mentioned before, Sage Francis is my favorite hip hop artist. Providence is his hometown, and the end of his tour for his latest album. As far as the road trip went, the odds were not in our favor. Not only does the North East Coast have a terrible traffic situation to begin with, it was a holiday weekend AND a hurricane weekend. Hurricane Arthur decided to pass through right during the trip we had been planning for months. So our 7-hour trip turned into FOURTEEN HOURS. Yes, you read that right. DOUBLE the time. With a two-year-old and a two-month-old. We left Virginia in the early afternoon of the 3rd and didn’t end up getting to Boston until almost 5 in the morning on the 4th. It was a horrifying experience I hope to never relive. As soon as we got there, we bathed the kids (and ourselves) and crashed out. Three hours later (of course) the kids were up for the day. I took them for a stroll around downtown Boston and found the Freedom Trail. We didn’t get far before it started seriously pouring (it had already been drizzling throughout our entire walk). Ugh. So we cut our Boston trip early and headed for Providence. My friend Marisa from New Haven met us at our hotel. (If you’re a regular on my blog, you know we’ve been friends since I was about 20 years old in Hawaii and she visited me in Tanzania.) It was great to see her. Our babysitter (who we found on Care.com) arrived shortly after and we took off to the show. It was a bit difficult leaving my babies with a stranger, but they did great and the babysitter was awesome. Also, the show totally made the 14-hour drive worth it. It had been way too long since I had seen some good live music, and I really needed it. The next day we slept in (a little) and drove back to Virginia. The way back was entirely more reasonable, which was a relief because we’re planning another trip to Boston in late August for a tattoo convention. I feel like we didn’t really get time to appreciate the area and I’m hoping to do so next time we’re there!