S.W. Basics of Brooklyn Cleanser, Toner, Cream, and Vegan Lip Balm Review

I have always tried to find the best skincare products for my face. I have always had sensitive/acne prone skin and a lot of stronger products have left me with red blotchy dry skin or more breakouts then normal.

One major change in my skin was becoming a vegan, my acne disappeared. I still get an occasional breakout but it's nothing compared to my teenage through early 30's. I am now 36 and only break out once or twice a month so to me that is nothing.

For 3 years I had been using DDF products. I used the DDF Glycolic 5% Exfoliating Wash, DDF Glycolic Toning Complex ,DDF Glycolic 10% Exfoliating Moisturizer. When I first started using them, my skin had a glow that I knew was from the products because for a few months in between I stopped using them and felt like my face looked dull and dry. After doing a lot of research on the products, I found out they are owned by Proctor and Gamble and are tested on animals. This alone made me stop using them. Also there are so many ingredients that I don't know what they are in the products.

So I searched and researched so many products trying to find the one for me. I kept reading about S.W. Basics of Brooklyn and how everything is organic and there are only a few ingredients in each product, all natural and vegan also! I couldn't wait to try them. I bought the 1 oz cleanser, 1 oz toner, mini cream and vegan lipbalm. They accidently forgot my lip balm so shipped me out the full flight of 4 of them. I was thrilled!

I finished all of my old products before starting the new ones. I have used the S.W. Basics of Brooklyn products for almost 2 weeks now before reviewing them.

When I use cleansers I am used to a lot of suds and foam, so this cleanser is a lot different, it doesn't have any foaming. I think we all have been grown to believe that foaming and suds mean more clean, for instance shampoos, toothpastes, soaps, etc. But that is not the case at all. This cleanser makes my face so soft and clean. You put a little on a cotton ball and wipe your face and neck. Then rinse with cool water. The ingredients in the cleanser are

• Rosewater*
• Vegetable glycerin*
• Tea tree oil*

*Organic


After I dry my face, I put a little toner on a cotton ball and repeat on my face and neck. The ingredients for the toner are

• Water
• Raw apple cider vinegar*
• Witch hazel from Wild Crops Farm, MO
• Essential oils of clary sage* and sandalwood*

*Organic
 
Then I take a very tiny amount of cream and put it all over my face. A tiny amount less than a pea size will be more than enough for your face and neck. The cream smells very good. The ingredients for the cream are

• Wildcrafted unrefined shea butter°
• Extra-virgin coconut oil*
• Extra-virgin olive oil*

*Organic
°Fair Trade

I then put a little lip balm on and my lips feel incredible. I love the lip balms, the Citrus one is my favorite, but they are all yummy scented! The lip balm ingredients are

• Candelilla wax
• Extra-virgin coconut oil*
• Cocoa butter*°
• Essential oils* (In citrus, cinnamon, and peppermint options.)

There is NO buildup of any product on my face or lips. My face has a nice glow to it and feels very soft. I did not breakout at all from using these products. Normally when I try a new product I break out until I get used to them, but not in this case. I am extremely happy and plan on buying a few other products from them such as the body scrub and exfoliant. They provide wonderful customer service and great products! I highly recommend them!

BluePrint Cleanse Review Day 3 of 6 - Can't wait for this to be over

Today has been really tough, I feel like I regret doing this. I have lost 7lbs since last Thursday when I started the prep, so that's 6 days I have lost 7lbs and I really didn't need to lose any weight. My husband looks sickly and he is a big guy, under 1000 calories for him just does not seem right. He has lost 10lbs already.

We received our 2nd batch of juice today for the next 3 days. I really can't wait until they are gone lol. I miss food! My husband completed day 2 since he is on midnight shift he is a little behind me on this, he just got up and ate a handful of cashews and felt so much better. He is going to finish the juices with some raw veggies to help increase some of his calories.


So far the Pro's of this are

The juice is organic and full of really good stuff
The juices are VERY good! 
I feel very alert at times and I haven't had any caffeine
My skin has a glow and my hair is shinier
My stomach is very flat
I don't feel hungry 


The Cons are
Not enough calories a day
Very pricey
Losing too much weight too fast
My mouth is very dry all the time even if I drink a lot of water
I have headaches on and off
My eyes feel different, almost like they are starving for food
Even though I don't feel hungry my mind wants food


Overall this just isn't for me. I am a vegan so I already eat healthy, maybe this is for someone who wants to lose weight fast and also for people who don't eat healthy to get back on track.

BluePrint Cleanse Day 2 of 6 Review

I haven't had caffeine since Saturday and I feel a lot better than I thought I would. When I started juicing Sunday I just didn't have the cup of green tea and even though I was drained, I related that to the juicing. Today was much better, I felt a lot better, more alert and my face has a glow to it. I swear my hair looks more shiny also. I have lost 6lbs already, I really don't want to lose anymore weight. I need to make myself drink more water, I haven't been drinking the 12 oz between every juice, I do drink water just not enough. I noticed I am very thirsty all of the time between the juices.

I was fine at work with the juices, I drank juice #1 at 6 am this morning before I left for work, then I took #2-#4 with me in the cooler that they provided with 5 ice packs that came with it. My juice was VERY cold. I drank Juice #2 at 9 am, Juice #3 at noon and then #4 at 1:30. When I came home I had #5 then went for a walk for an hour.  I noticed on my walk it was a little harder walking up the hill that I have no problem with any other time. My body isn't getting enough calories I can tell so I can't wait until this is over with so I can eat more.

Even though I don't feel hungry while drinking the juices and even between them, the smell of food is driving me crazy! On our walk we smelled someone cooking on the grill and then in the park we could smell the food coming from the country club. Our sense of smell is crazy right now and that's what makes it so hard, smelling food. It doesn't help either that my husband and I talk about all kinds of food when we walk. He has so many things he wants to cook for me, I can't wait!

When I came home I had #6 which is my absolute favorite the Cashew Milk. The Cashew milk has little chunks that didn't mix up well even though I shake it but the chunks are SO good, since there is no chewing going on, I chew those little pieces and pretend I am eating something and the taste is creamy and YUMMY. It's very sweet like melted ice-cream. I felt very good after having it.

One thing I knew before but know even more now is that my husband and I both are obsessed with food and love to talk about it, eat it, take pictures of it, talk about it some more, and of course cook and bake and experiment with it, so this has been VERY hard for us.

Tomorrow my 2nd and last shipment arrives, I have 4 more days to go :)

BluePrint Cleanse - Day 1 of 6 Review

Well it's 9:17 pm and I made it through the first day of juicing and let's just say the only thing that made this day better was the last drink #6 Cashew Milk. Today was VERY hard and very depressing. I miss food so much and the smell of everything that my kids are eating is driving me crazy lol. I came upstairs to get water and my oldest son was eating some spicy french fries and the smell of the spices was so intense. My sense of smell is so strong, it was after being vegan but I swear the 3 day prep and today juicing made it even stronger.

I honestly felt like I wanted to give up after today, drinking only liquid is crazy to me now and then I wonder what is the point if I am going to go back to eating the way I was before which was very good but I did eat vegan burgers, vegan sausage, etc. I guess I am resetting my body and cleansing out everything bad that is still in there. I feel very good right now but I did feel so drained today. I could barely lift my dumbells and do my lunges, my legs felt so weak.

I went out to my mom's house tonight to help her with her garden and I just felt very drained. My husband and I both joked with each other today about how crazy we were to do this and that we had to finish since we spent a lot of money on it, if it wasn't for the money I might stop because I miss food that much.

There are 4 green juices, 1 spicy lemonade and the cashew (dream) milk. The green juice is tolerable, it's not horrible and it's not great, it's ok. I got it down easy and was thankful there was some sweetness from the apple in it. The lemonade was very good and a nice change. The cashew milk was SO good and tasty! It fulfilled everything and made it all better. Tomorrow is Monday so the rest of the week I will be at work for most of the day so hopefully keeping very busy will keep my mind away from this and hopefully the week goes fast.

I am down 5lbs already from the 3 day prep and today. I know it's water weight though. I will let you know how the rest of the week goes! Wish me luck!

BluePrint Cleanse - 3 days of Prep before starting our 6 day Cleanse

My husband and I have always wanted to do a juice cleanse together, ever since we watched the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. We went out and bought a Breville Juice, all the ingredients to make a green juice, then literally that was it, we made the juice, drank it and we were done. It wasn't that we didn't like it, we did, just the time and effort to do it, we lacked.

I have read so many reviews online about the BluePrint Cleanse. This seems to be the highest rated one, but the price is what really kept me away from it. Then it went on sale on Gilt City, the biggest percentage off was for the 12 day cleanse that was $585 which is 25% off. This does not include the shipping. Shipping overnight with a cooler is $10 per day per person. It does say on the Gilt City site description that it can be split into 4 - 3 day cleanses. I still made a phone call to BluePrint to make sure that my husband and I both would be able to do a 6 day cleanse with this 12 day package. The guy assured me that yes, the way the voucher codes work with this, is you have to enter them in 4 times, 1 for each order. He also told me that when BluePrint offers a discount that it's usually 10-15% off, so I knew I was getting a deal. I was in the car on our way to Whole Foods in Wexford, I didn't want to wait any longer because some of the packages were already sold out, so I completed the order and then said OMG I just spent all this money on juice, it was hard to justify that much money for a total of 72 plastic bottles of juice. My husband and I decided to do the Excavation Cleanse which is the highest level one, because we both are vegans so we have already detoxed a lot of the bad stuff out by changing the way we eat.

When I got to Whole Foods, I went straight to the juices and sure enough there was BluePrint Cleanse Juices,

 I got really upset because I knew right then, if I had waited until I got there, I would save the $120 in shipping. I sat there with my phone calculating how much I would spend at WholeFoods vs. Gilt City + Shipping. I figured out that I would need 4 cases of the green juice which would give me 10% off each case, 1 case of the lemonade, and 1 case of the cashew milk. This would bring my total now to $616 vs. $705 ($585+$120 shipping). I then assured myself that:

#1. Whole Foods probably didn't carry that many cases of juice since it expires within 6 days, so we would either not have enough juice, or we would have to drive back down 1 hour and 10 minutes one way to get the 2nd batch of our juice supply.
#2. We were not ready at that moment to start juicing, you have to prepare 3 days before and we had not.
#3. We were going to be getting our juices freshly made at our doorstep along with emails supporting and tips included during our first juicing cleanse.

I got home and saw in my email that Ebates had already applied the 4% cashback award to my account for linking to Gilt City, so that was $23.40 off bringing my total now to $681.60 which is $56.80 per person per day. This sounded a little better :)

Day 1 of Prep- May 30th, 2013

I normally only have 1 cup of coffee every morning and that is my only caffiene for the day, I drink water with lemon in it the rest of the day. So today I woke up and made green tea instead. I put 2 tea bags with 12 oz of water and brought it to work. I packed my lunch with fruits and veggies like I normally do, just leaving out the Clif Crunch bar and nuts that I usually include. I finished my green tea in the morning when I got to work and felt a little tired. Around 9:00 am I snacked on my organic cucumbers and really enjoyed them, it's amazing how much better organic foods taste, the flavor is so much more defined.

Snacks for work- Organic Celery, Cucumbers, Red Grapes, Clementine and Red Delicious Apple

Steamed Broccoli and Mixed Greens covered with Guacamole

Within another hour I ate my organic red grapes, then went for a walk at lunch time. I could tell I felt alittle less energetic than I normally do. I came in from my walk and ate a clementine. When I got home I ate my apple and never did eat the celery. I felt very tired when I got home from work but I didn't take a nap.

For dinner Tom made me steamed organic broccoli with organic mixed greens covered in the guacamole he had made the day before, it tasted so good! I still felt very tired after supper, so I drank another cup of green tea.

After dinner, we went for a walk in the park, I started to feel a little more energetic. I came home and had a small cup of orange juice and then I felt great.


2nd Day Prep-May 31, 2013

I was wide awake at 3 am and had a hard time falling back asleep. I finally did and then didn't want to get up at 4:30 when my alarm went off. I got up and had a banana and orange juice and felt great. Even before my green tea, I felt very good. I made a 12 oz cup of green tea to take to work with me and I sipped on it all morning. I had to make myself eat my grapes and cucumbers before noon, usually I am always snacking away but this time I had no appetite. I went for my afternoon walk during my lunch break and couldn't believe how good I felt.

In the afternoon I ate 2 clementines and then for supper I had steamed broccoli, edamame, and mixed green salad with only orange zest and pieces of orange, this was incredible! I never had orange on my salad and it was very tasty! I got a lot of my housework done also, so my energy level is a lot more than it has been in the past when I tried to give up coffee.

Our juices arrived today a little after 10:30 and my husband just got home so they didn't sit outside, thankfully because it's almost 90 here. When he opened them they were still very cold, and he put them all in the refridgerator. He texted me at work asking me if we want to start tomorrow instead of Sunday and drive to Whole Foods to buy the juices we would need for Tuesday since our next delivery is Tuesday, I told him no, we need to do our 3 day prep. That cashew milk is going to get me through everyday, looking forward to it so much!

3rd day of Prep - June 1st, 2013 (Juicing Starts tomorrow)

I woke up at 3 am this morning again, wide awake, I finally fell back asleep until a little after 5. Even on the weekends, I don't sleep in. Sleeping in for me would be 7 am lol. This morning I had a banana and orange juice again with a cup of green tea. I did a lot of cleaning and laundry. I thought about food a lot today, I love my husband's cooking so much and it feels like I will never eat it again but it's only 9 more days to go not counting today. You have to slowly eat other foods after juicing, you pretty much have to do the prep after juicing to get your body used to solids again. I am just day dreaming about his homemade chili and cornbread, biscuits, my lemon cookies, his deep dish vegan pizza, omg I am hungry. I just nibbled on some celery right now and for lunch it will be steamed broccoli.

I did weigh myself today and I have lost 4lbs already just from 2 days of prepping, I wasn't doing the juicing for weight loss more of a detox and cleansing. I don't think it's healthy to lose weight really fast so I hope I don't lose too much more when juicing.

For lunch I had steamed broccoli, then we went to the store and bought stuff to make salads. We also bought some more organic red grapes. Nothing seems to be satisfying me today.

-this afternoon my husband and I admitted that we regret doing this, what did we get ourselves into, we spent so much money on this and now we wish we wouldn't have. We have been so tired and hungry today, today has been the worst. I had a few teaspoons of Earth Balance Peanut Butter, it was like a little happy party in my mouth. The taste was so incredible. I miss food so much, yes I am still eating food and haven't even started the juicing but I already miss all the meals that Tom would make me. This feels like torture, hopefully it gets better after we start to juice..why did I pick 6 days again? lol

Tom opened up a bag of almonds and cashews, these are raw right? I had a small amount, I feel like I cheated on the prep but it doesn't say you can't have those, I really wish they would have given a lot more foods that you can eat. I think the main thing is to cut out processed foods, dairy and meat (which we don't eat anyways), sugar and coffee.

Today we took a break from working out, we workout 6 days a week so it was our normal day off.

Looking forward to starting the juicing tomorrow!

Surprisingly Vegan Waffle Mix - Gluten Free, Non-GMO & SO YUMMY!

For my birthday a good friend of mine bought me a Belgian waffle maker and this 2 pack of waffle mix Surprisingly Vegan Waffle Mix and let me tell you, I LOVE THIS! The waffles come out perfect, the texture of the waffle is absolutely right on and the one thing I love the most is the little grains that I can see in the waffles, I am guessing this is from the English Walnuts and Ground Flax Seeds that are in the mix. This mix makes perfect fluffy waffles!

The ingredients listed on the box are Gluten-Free Oats, English Walnuts, Ground Flaxseed, Crystallized Coconut Palm Nectar, Sea Salt and Vanilla Beans

I have been eating waffles for dinner on some nights, 1 waffle really fills me up!

The best thing is you only add water and you are ready to make some YUMMY waffles :)

On Amazon you can get 2 boxes for $16.99

• Pack of two, 20-ounce boxes (40-ounces total) of Surprisingly Vegan Original Recipe Gluten-Free Waffle Mix
• Each box makes approximately ten waffles (56-gram/serving); 20 servings total
• Vegan (contain no animal products)
• Wheat free, gluten-free and kosher
• Delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare -- just add water!

 I was just researching the waffle mix and found this right here. Also to read more about the product and the company, their website is here.

The Waring Belgian Waffle Maker is incredible also. The model I have is the WWM450PC. My husband melts some Earth Balance Vegan Butter and that's all he needs to put down on the non-stick surface using a basting brush. I don't add any more butter to the waffle and just use Organic Maple Syrup. The setting used to make our waffles is 5 1/2, this made a very light crisp on outside and a soft, fluffy, airy inside.

Now I am craving waffles :)

House Remodeling In Progress

Right now my house is a mess, we have had a guy here fixing the drywall problems that the previous owner caused (he didn't tape the drywall together) in our sunroom and family room. He has been working on it for 2 weeks and will be next week also. We are leaving for DC next weekend just for a night. I promised my youngest brother we would go for his 20th birthday next Saturday. The Painter will start painting in 2 weeks. First we are having the Kitchen, dining room and living room upstairs and hallway stairs going up and down all painted. That will take a few weeks because it's his side job so he won't be able to do it everyday. After that we will have our family room and sunroom painted, I haven't decided on the colors yet for downstairs. I want to change it all around and make everything nice and new looking. I don't know how many more years I plan to live here, at least until the boys are done with school which would be 4 more years since Graham starts 9th grade and Gage starts 11th. Wow time flew by :(

I received the rest of my chairs yesterday from Allmodern.com I am a little disappointed in some of the finishing on them, I am not sure if they are spray painted, but the Charcoal Gray one I received that came straight From Emeco had a very noticeable flaw in the finish so they are sending a replacement. The green chairs match my paint choice almost perfectly, they also had a small amount of discoloration but not so much, they gave me 10% back. As much as the chairs cost ($260 each) I expected perfection. I love the fact they are made with 111 recycled Coca Cola plastic bottles, that to me makes me feel like I am heading in the Going Green direction that I am aimed for. I have so many things on my mind about what I want to change, my future,etc. I have to take one step at a time. I have everything I want right now but I long to take care of animals, mainly rescue farm animals. I am going to start out by volunteering at Happy Trails, a Farm Santucary in Ohio, it's about 45 minutes away. This will give me time to really think about what I want for my future. I am willing to give up the fancy clothes and numerous vacations we take every year to stay home and care for animals that will love me and that need my love. I am realizing what is really important in life and I don't want to let these thoughts go away without doing something about it. We only live once and I want to make a difference.

When I was on Fab.com looking around I found this skincare line called Sprout Skincare and everything is made with natural products, you could eat it if you wanted to, no chemicals or anything. I took the time last night and made the Face and Body Scrub. It actually came out very well!

 For the Body Scrub, the ingredients said Shredded Coconut, Coconut Oil and Sugar, I put these in a food processor and just added a little more of the sugar and oil until I got the consistency of body scrub, it smells amazing and works very well, I tried it this morning.

 For the facial exfoliant it said Almonds, Sea Salt and Oatmeal. This one I ended up putting some coconut oil in it and still couldn't get the consistency right until I put alittle in my hand with water and then rubbed my hands together and rubbed in all over my face and it was perfect! My skin felt so soft and my make up went on so perfectly.

I stand by my Pure Coconut Oil, this works wonders for blemishes, cuts and dry skin. There is no build up either. One day I went back to using one of my other body lotions that was Bath and Body works and it left a build up on my skin, you would think the coconut oil would break you out because it's an oil but if I don't break out from it, no-one will, it's amazing stuff and you can get a jar of it at Trader Joes or Amazon and many other places for less than $8 and it will last forever if you use it just for your skin/body/hair.


This morning Tom and I went out to my mom's house to pick some fresh vegetables. We came home with Green Tomatoes, Red and Yellow onions, Peppers, Corn and Eggplants.  Her garden is amazing! It's So big and beautiful and has so many different kinds of flowers and vegetables. A lot of hard work has gone into this, pretty much day and night everyday so far this summer.

My mom volunteers her time to helping Club Pet in Transfer, PA, a non kill shelter. She spends her weekends cleaning the pens for the dogs and helping out. This weekend she took a dog from the Trumbull County Pound so the rescue could make room for him and that way he wasn't put to sleep. He is such a sweet dog, his name is Mooney, heartworm positive and starting treatment tomorrow. I hope he finds a good home. We think he may have been abused because he gets scared when you first try to pet him then he loves the attention. I really hope someone adopts him!

Rhode Island and 2 Days in Boston

While still in Rhode Island, we got up and headed to Newport. We parked the car and walked the Clif Walk which was beautiful.

 Next we found a pizza place for the boys in Providence, Bob & Timmy's Grilled Pizza (this will be on the new Man vs Food next month) Gage and Graham said the pizza was great!

For lunch Tom and I had Garden Grille Cafe in Pawtucket, RI on our list and I am so glad we went! They had incredible food.

Sweet Potato Fries

I had the Tofu BLT -Smoky Tofu, Chipotle Aioli, Arugula, Tomato on Multigrain with Avocado, I could not believe how much the tofu tasted like bacon, it was scary! Tom wanted my sandwich after having a bite. VERY VERY GOOD!

Tom had the Seitan Mushroom Burger-Sweet Potatoes – Caramelized Onion – Arugula – Tarragon Aioli – Spelt Roll very good also

 Then we went right next door to this INCREDIBLE vegan bakery! Wildflour, oh my this place had SO many delicious, yummy, incredible, gorgeous, decadent, mouth watering desserts!!! We picked out a variety and went outside and shared them. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!

After the wonderful food in Rhode Island, we were on our way to Boston. Boston has been a city I have wanted to see for the past few years, so I couldn't wait to get there. When I did, I noticed how clean it was compared to most of the big cities I have been to, I loved the buildings and how beautiful it was. We spent 2 days at the Hilton on Broad Street. This hotel was beautiful. We wanted something in walking distance of the fireworks on Charles River (I will get to that later). We had booked a suite with 2 beds and a foldout bed couch, but when I checked in, they said that wasn't available so instead they gave us 1 suite with a King bed, living room with a fold out couch and a connecting room with 2 beds. That was a better deal and didn't cost any extra. My oldest son Gage took the 2nd room and Graham took the living room.

The first night we walked down to Newbury Street, if you are there to shop, you need to go here. On the way down we walked through the Boston Commons, beautiful park! Newbury Street was great, they have SO many stores, Madewell, Jonathan Adler, Betsey Johnson, the list goes on. I spent time in Madewell and found some great deals, they were so much better than the online sales. I found out we have a Madewell store now in Pittsburgh.

Gage and Graham wanted wings, so Gage found a place called Whiskey's that had great reviews.

We were having trouble finding a Vegan place around us. Being in Boston, I thought there would be SO many, but we weren't coming up with much. One place was My Vegan Thai Cafe that was on our way back to the hotel. I am so glad we went, they had a HUGE menu of Thai food that was completely Vegan. I even asked the lady is everything Vegan and she assured me. I guess seeing a menu full of Vegan Shrimp, Chicken, Beef,etc, I start to doubt that it's vegan. Tom ordered Beef and Vegetables and I ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken and White rice with Vegetables, it came in a huge serving.  The food was VERY good and I was more than full leaving there.

The next day we walked around Boston checking out all of the historical sites.

 Down by the Boston Commons we went to the Clover Food Truck which is all Vegan Food Truck. Tom found it online and found where they were going to be.

BBQ Seitan Sandwich and French Fries with Rosemary.

 I love kitties and spotted one in the window on our walk

My boys of course wanted pizza so we walked down to Regina Pizza

Tom and I walked through the Quincy Market and could not find anything Vegan. I was very suprised that a big city like this didn't have more options. So we walked back to the hotel and the boys wanted to relax, so Tom and I walked back down to My Vegan Thai Cafe.

Fried Wontons ground veggie-chicken, tofu, mushrooms, ground vegetables and spices wrapped in wheat flour and fried until crisp. served with our own savory dipping sauce

Pineapple Fried Rice stir-fried rice with thai curry, veggie-chicken, dried mushrooms, bean sprouts, pineapple and mixed vegetables

Beef With Vegetables veggie-beef stir-fried with mixed asian vegetables in a mild brown sauces

After eating lunch we walked back to the hotel and rested, we had planned a long night for the fireworks. When we were on our walk down, we found this Boloco and decided to try it for dinner, it was more like a Chipolte. I ordered only a Berry Smoothie and Tom tried a burrito and wasn't impressed at all.

My Berry Smoothie, Gage's Cookie Monster milkshake and Graham's Nutella Milkshake

Once we were done we headed down to Charles River, there were 1000's of people. An employee at the Hilton told us that there were going to be an estimated 1 million people and I wasn't too thrilled about being around this many people. Jennifer Hudson was performing and a lot was going on for this event. Once we got done there we were overwhelmed with how many people and didn't want to be pushed and shoved so we were going to head back up to the Boston Commons park to watch that show. So we took the boys to Whiskey's again to eat, the waiter there told us that the show down at Charles River was the biggest and suggested we go back and since my boys wanted to, we did. We walked back down and found a perfect spot and within a few minutes an announcement came on that everyone is being evacuated due to the lightening the show was delayed. I couldn't believe it. As we were walking out, we asked a Boston police officer how long the delay was and he said 3 hours, this would mean the fireworks would start at 1:30 am in the morning. We all agreed that we weren't going to wait, so we walked back to hotel, came in our rooms, turned on the tv and they had let everyone back in! The show was minutes away from beginning. I felt like I was going to cry, we had planned out our vacation to see the fireworks in Boston and now it wasn't going to happen. I guess it down poured so we would have been soaked, I keep telling myself that to feel better. The only fireworks we saw were the reflection of some off of the building across the street from our hotel. Other than missing the fireworks, I did enjoy Boston :)