Boston, MA – 2017 Boston Marathon

Good walking shoes.

That is my number one tip for a trip to Boston, MA.  Good walking shoes and a bottle of water. If there is one thing I learned from my trip to Boston, it was that walking everywhere is a must. Between the very tight streets and crazy drivers, it was not a place a family from North Dakota should be driving. We learned quickly that the best, and most efficient form of travel, was walking. So we walked, and walked, and walked some more! According to my fitness watch, we walked 14 miles on one of the days. Good thing I brought good walking shoes!

Besides walking everywhere we needed to go, we also spent our time doing marathon stuff.  That includes checking out the expo, scoping out the start and finish line, and cheering on my mom as she ran the marathon. The Boston Marathon is a tough marathon to get into because they have strict qualifying times. My mom qualified for the 2016 marathon, but was unable to register due to the surplus of faster runners. However, she managed to qualify for the 2017 with an even faster time! This time she was fast enough to get into the marathon.

Since my parents are avid runners, I have been a spectator at a lot of races and a handful of marathons. None of them compared to the Boston Marathon. The amount of people running mixed with the sheer number of spectators made the entire experience amazing. And I wasn’t even running!

You may remember seeing my mom in the fun anniversary session we did this fall!  If you missed it, check it out here.

Look at all those porta potties! I guess you have to be prepared when there are 30,000 runners signed up.

Sightseeing – Boston, MA

All of that walking I mentioned before paid off with some amazing sightseeing! One of the best parts of Boston is the architecture. There are old buildings covered in stone and brick right next to new skyscrapers covered in metal and glass. The way this city has pulled together the old and new is just fascinating to see. Each building is unique and each has its own history behind it.

If you are traveling to Boston, The New England Holocaust Memorial should be on your must see list. The six columns are breathtaking and no picture does it justice!

Patriots Day – April 17, 2017

After all of that sightseeing, and walking on average of 10 miles a day, it was time for my mom to run the Boston Marathon. We always strategically plan out our viewing locations for marathons. For any other race, our planning means we always see my mom when she passes by. However, when we got to mile 13 and I saw the amount of runners, I was actually worried we would never see her!  Thankfully, we spotted her shortly before she spotted us. Can you find her in this crowd of runners?

My mom finished the Boston Marathon with a personal record run time and qualified for 2018. We will see you next year Boston!

Ready to look back at some of our past trips?

South Padre Island

PNW Trip – Part 1

PNW Trip – Part 2

PNW Trip – Part 3

~~~

Alecs Kay Photography is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer in Fargo, ND

akpphoto.com