What better time to be in the Cradle of Liberty?

We are minutes away now from the end of a rather dismal chapter in American politics, as the House votes to end the 2013 government shut down. So, before Nicole goes back to work, we post our trip to see a true East Coast fall and remind ourselves about the origins of our democracy.  Hello Boston!

It is true that California doesn't do much in the way of seasons. The trees go from green to yellow to bare.  By contrast, Massachusetts looks like a firebox -- all golds, oranges and reds. While I would like to report that our first stop was the Boston Public Garden to see the turning of the leaves, that would be a lie. We were hungry and the leaves would have to wait.

Our first stop in Boston was Hei La Moon in Chinatown because THERE IS NO DECENT DIM SUM IN WASHINGTON.  We have been craving a good chau siu bao for months.  There is none to be found in the nation's capitol and, believe me, we have looked.  Maybe the terrible partisanship in DC is because of the inability to come together over tea and har gow?

In any case, Hei La Moon was the real deal: carts bedecked with dumplings, bottomless pots of tea and barely polite waitstaff.  It was awesome.  But not to be outdone, the nearby Gourmet Dumpling House has amazing xiao long bao -- soupy pork dumplings -- and serves the until 2 in the morning. On the same day we had our dim sum feast, we had more dumplings at 10:30 that night! For the record, yes, four of our meals on this four-day trip included dumplings.

Ok, back to the leaves.

We took a stroll through the Boston Public Garden -- almost familiar because we read Make Way for Ducklings countless times to the girls when they were young.  The ducks look about the same; our girls, not so much.

Make way for ducklings.

Duckling #2 strikes a pose.

We did some historical sightseeing as well, taking the Freedom Trail with William Molineux who looked pretty good for someone born in 1717.  We toured Faneuil Hall (the "Cradle of Liberty"), Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. We also took a day trip to Sturbridge Village and saw how New Englanders lived in the early 1800s.  With the current government shut down, at least we could go back in time to learn about our country's origins.

We also got a chance to visit with Cousin Emelie who started her freshman year at Harvard!  She gave us a great campus tour and even snuck us in for a peek in Annenberg Hall (which, indeed, looks like the Hogwarts dining hall).  Ed and Nicole are probably not ready for the girls to leave for college just yet, but we hope they'll be as smart and gracious as Emelie!

Of course, we couldn't leave autumnal Massachusetts without a visit to the countryside for apple picking!  We picked a peck!  (And bought some cider as well.)  Well worth the trip.  

Empire apples!

Sophie photo bombing my apple picture.

We're looking forward to our next East Coast adventure!  In the meantime, back to work!

Greetings from the Nation's Capitol (Under Construction)

Dear Friends,

It has been over a year since we posted our travels to the Honeychurch Chronicles.  There's been a lot going on.

To recap briefly, after nearly a year and half after leaving her job, Ed and the girls started asking Nicole questions like, "What do you do with your day?"  This struck her as unfair, having caught up on 2 seasons of Mad Men, the Battlestar Galactica series and all 6 books of the Game of Thrones.  Much discussion ensued.  But since the girls were in school all day and there was no one around to play with, Nicole started doing some teaching, then a little consulting and finally was lucky enough to land a job working with her excellent friends at Twitter.

And then she got the call.

It is in fact one of those I-need-to-sit-down moments when the White House calls.  President Obama was looking for a new Deputy Chief Technology Officer to advise him on Internet policy and the White House wanted to know if Nicole would like to throw her hat in the ring.  At that moment, no answer but "yes" seemed appropriate.

To make a long story short, Ed, Nicole and the girls discussed the opportunity at length and agreed (in Sophie's words) "if we don't do it, we'll probably regret it."  Several months later, here we are:  a rental house in Georgetown, two girls doing beautifully in school and on traveling soccer teams, Ed working on new and exciting projects, and Nicole sitting in the Executive Office of the President.

Well, until today, when Nicole got furloughed.

So, this seems like a good time to reboot the Honeychurch Chronicles.  This will be a purely personal account of our adventures.  Do not expect to read about Internet policy or the Administration's position on anything.  But this is a marvelous new journey for our family, so we thought we would share it with you.  And I've got some time on my hands for at least a little bit.

Stay tuned.  More to come.