Monday, August 3, 2009






Onyx Hotel, Boston

Asha loved it and the kids had a great time. This contemporary designed hotel was decorated in bright, whimsical colors and patterns and our two rooms were nicely secluded in their own alcove so that we weren’t bothering other people (much). One room had a King and the other two doubles. The kids shared a room which had its own issues (like sleeping or not). Afternoons they had popsicles for the kids and the Wii but it was at a very inconvenient time, 2pm. Who is hanging around the hotel in the middle of the afternoon?
During our stay, there was major construction happening outside the hotel which made loading and unloading the cars a pain, but other than that it wasn’t a big deal. The hotel’s location is very central but it’s on this one block street that isn’t particularly nice (not unsafe though). We were able to walk almost everywhere we wanted to.
The hotel lounge had breakfast in the morning (but we never ate there). Instead we walked around the corner to a coffee shop. It also had a free wine hour in the evening, or you could have cocktails at the bar.

Driving to Poughkeepsie


Driving to Poughkeepsie
It was raining. Boston to Poughkeepsie is about 4 hours across Massachusetts on 84 into NY. Coming out of Boston, the number of cops was incredible. They must be waiting for people to speed through the tolls. On the toll road there are lots of fast food stops and gas stops so you don’t have to get off the toll (the rest areas have food courts with Mexican, sandwiches, pizza, ice cream, etc). Of course, you miss any good food places that require exiting the toll road (such a different approach to travel then Canada’s don’t miss our small towns approach).