We combined our now-traditional trip for Easter with a visit to A’s college choice.

Happily, he’s going to be heading to the Boston area for the next four years, and it seems that the rest of the family is quite happy about that decision, too.

We’ve been to Boston or other parts of New England several times now, and the kids will always treasure memories of our last, best family vacation to Maine.

It makes me happy that my kids love the area that is a second home to me, and I’m even more excited for A to find his own way around the area.

It’s also nice that we have been there enough times that the kids have their favorite places to visit or have seen new places they’d like to try next time.

Knowing the area will definitely help ease my nerves next Fall, and I think sharing familiar, local experiences will give the siblings plenty of things to talk about or share on future visits.

Even though, this was a short trip, it provided some memorable experiences. For one thing, we took the dogs along and stayed at a dog friendly hotel right in the middle of one of the busiest squares in the area.

We narrowly avoided any incidents with the nonplussed squirrels that were everywhere. Apparently, city dogs have been very well trained to ignore them. My boys on the other hand were just as confused as to why they were suddenly able to walk up to the wildlife and it didn’t try to run away.

Another fun turn of events happened on the ride up, when G awoke from a car nap with some red watery eyes. Nothing says fun family trip like a raging case of pinkeye! Especially when the whole family has been contained in a car for 6 hours. In a panic that our weekend was about to become very infectious, I decided to try to find us an urgent care and see if I couldn’t get some kind of relief for him and preventive treatment for the rest of us.

I found one that was close to the hotel, but worried that they might close before we reached the area. Then, I noticed a button for a virtual appointment. Well, why not? I quickly logged in, got G set up, and got back on the road.

A few moments later, a practitioner joined the call and quickly confirmed the diagnosis. Even better, she was able to call in a prescription for us to a 24-hour pharmacy located just blocks from the hotel. Within 45 minutes we had a diagnosis and a prescription in hand, without deviating from our itinerary! Most importantly, G got relief, and the rest of us were spared any further infection.

Coming out of the pharmacy with his script was one of the few moments that I’ve ever felt like maybe I know what I’m doing as a parent. There was something extremely satisfying about “making it work,” and having all three kids a little bit in awe of how I managed things. That’s a feeling that I don’t have very often.

By the next morning, G was well on the road to recovery, and we were on the road to another one of our favorite haunts, Salem. While it isn’t 100% dog friendly, there are a lot of places to walk and exercise the boys, and we can work our plans around them. This time, we decided to visit the House of Seven Gables, which was thoroughly enjoyable and educational.

Then, as difficult as it was, I gave A some time on his own to do some exploring. Color me stunned when he volunteered to take E along with him. I was encouraged both by her enthusiasm to head off with him, and his willingness to take her with him.

Of course, I sat with a small knot in my stomach the entire time they were gone, but that quickly disappeared when they came back bearing a box of cookies from A’s favorite college find: Insomnia Cookies, and excitedly chatting about the various sights they’d seen.

One other “first” for us was sharing two hotel rooms. Four people and two dogs in one room, with one bathroom, has caused some unnecessary tension before, so I decided the best way to give everyone a little space was to get two adjacent rooms.

As luck would have it, the hotel ended up placing us across the hall from each other instead of next door, but it all worked out really well.

This is the third Easter trip we’ve taken without Steve. That first year was our first holiday without him and it was terrible. Last year was the first time that we all seemed to understand that this was our new normal, and this year, I finally felt like we found a groove.

While it will never be the way it’s supposed to be, I know things are going as well as they can when the kids frequently refer to things Steve said or did, or how Dad would be reacting to various things we saw. Even more importantly, they are laughing at things that they know he would find funny.

It’s a gross detail, but Steve had the uncanny knack for finding hair in his food almost every time we went out to eat. The first few dozen times it happened, we were pretty grossed out by it, but eventually, we felt weird when he didn’t find one. Over the course of the weekend, A found a hair, or something else a little suspect in his food, not once but twice! Although the ick factor was high, we all took it as the sign that it was surely meant to be.

I am eager for A to begin finding his own way in my favorite city, but I’m also not sad about the fact that I’ll get to revisit the area more over the next few years, and having a sign from Steve that he’s clearly keeping an eye on him helps, too.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears weekly in the Times News