I am laying here in bed trying to sort out some decisions that have come up. In life, there’s mostly a lot of mundane choices, but sometimes there are brief windows of opportunity. The phrase “you only live once” flits through my mind.

I think that term was trending a decade ago. This time ten years ago, Tim and I were living in Pennsylvania and we had a 13-month-old toddler. It was fall and I wanted to go see the leaves in Boston. We found a train trip that would take us there. So we packed up our tiny daughter, diapers, clothing and a Pack N Play and rode the Amtrak out to Massachusetts like crazy people. I had one of those front baby carriers, so I could just slip Eliana under my coat. Which is good, because it was freezing out there in late October.

The room that Tim booked turned out to be in a hostel. We had our own bedroom, but shared a bathroom. We ate meals in a cafeteria and everybody else was from some other country because most American families stay in hotels. From there, we traveled on the light rail that criss-crossed the city. Trains may seem like a weird choice, but you have to remember there is no parking in east coast cities. If you do find a spot, it’s wicked expensive.

We visited both Harvard and MIT. At Harvard, we took the official tour were we learned about old architecture. We also toured the amazing Harvard Field Museum, which includes an impressive collection of dinosaurs and megafauna. At MIT, we got to look at the history of robots, including some pretty famous prototypes. The difference between seeing something in real life versus a photo cannot be emphasized enough.

We walked around downtown Boston, and saw the historical sites of the Revolutionary war and some famous homes. Mostly it’s lots of brick, but the gorgeous leaves were everything that was promised.

I’m really glad we took that trip and jumped on the opportunity because, when are we going pop over to Boston these days? It’s over 3,000 miles away. Life is long, but some opportunities are fleeting. We live each day only once, so we have make them count.