Boston, finale!
Sunday we had to get up early for the Duck Tour. A Duck is an actual WW II vehicle that can travel on land (top speed 40mph) and in water (top speed 6 knots) and was used to transport things like weapons. Now they are used to transport tour groups around the city. We learned a lot of interesting stuff about Boston, like how the Puritans started a huge landfill project that 1) did away with most of the major hills, 2) moved the Charles River and 3) made the Big Dig a huge engineering challenge that involved freezing layers of soil as they slipped slabs of concrete in to build the tunnels. Daniel was not really down with the Duck Tour, and he wriggled and fussed for most of the 80 minutes we were on it. But he did spend a few minutes in the captain's chair and got a little sticker on his onesie that sported the phrase "I drove a duck!" The tour guide said he was the youngest one ever to do so.
(Picture courtesy of another Duck Tour patron; we didn't have the camera along, and she was kind enough to email the pictures a couple days later.)
We ate lunch at Vox Populi, which was supposed to be fancy, but was slightly disappointing. Boston has this thing called "Restaurant Week" where upscale restaurants have prix fixe meals at reasonable prices - $20 for lunch and $40 for dinner. We had the lunch, and while it was good, it didn't knock my socks off (had I been wearing any. Keens, remember?)
We walked through the public garden, which is lovely, and has bronze statues of a mama duck and her ducklings. Thanks to the Caldecott Award-winning Make Way for Ducklings, the Boston public garden is a famous spot, so they put up those little bronze statues as a tribute to the author and illustrator. Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures because 1) we forgot to bring the camera, so all we had was the cell phone camera and 2) there were kids sitting on all the duck statues.
Later in the afternoon, we met up with my good friend Pam, who used to live in Boston and was happy to drive up for the weekend from Syracuse so we could meet up. We hung around, had coffee, went to a bookstore, and went to the top of the Prudential tower to get a look at Boston from the 50th floor. It's kind of like going to the Empire State Building in NYC. They charge eight bucks a person to walk around their skywalk, so we just peered from behind the ticket counter; as much as I'm willing to spring for good food, good espresso, and good Duck tours, no way am I paying eight dollars to walk around a building if it ain't already an art museum. Pam met Daniel for the first time, which was neat, because she moved away from Madison not long before he was born. As a matter of fact, she was the first person I told when I found out I was pregnant (other than Stuart and our parents and brothers, of course). Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures, even on the camera phone. D'oh!
We walked around Newbury street for a bit, which is famous for shopping, and it is way out of my league. You can smell money there. In fact, a lot of Boston is like a big outdoor shopping mall. I imagine it's hard to live there for long without wanting really expensive stuff, like clothes and designer furniture. I used to enjoy shopping more, but now that everything I wear is pretty much guaranteed to get drooled, barfed or peed on, shopping has lost a great deal of its appeal.
Monday morning, Joe had to go into work for a couple hours, so Daniel and I spent some time walking around the park across the road from his apartment. I watched some kids splash around in a fountain, and I watched some soccer moms get snippy with the park ranger because he was enforcing a "no bikes" rule. "It's not like you ever enforced this rule before!" one of them hissed. I hope I'm never that bitchy around my kid; that poor old guy was just doing his job.
We had a couple of hours before I had to go to the airport, so we decided to spend it walking around Cambridge, a map of which looks like this:
We strolled around Harvard University. I should have been more impressed than I was. If you can smell the money in Boston, you can taste it on the Harvard campus. Some nice people took our picture in the Memorial Hall, though.
And that's really about it. We spent the weekend walking around and seeing a lot of stuff, taking cute pictures of my kid, and eating really good food. Good times were had by all. I leave you with the sweetest picture of all:
(Picture courtesy of another Duck Tour patron; we didn't have the camera along, and she was kind enough to email the pictures a couple days later.)
We ate lunch at Vox Populi, which was supposed to be fancy, but was slightly disappointing. Boston has this thing called "Restaurant Week" where upscale restaurants have prix fixe meals at reasonable prices - $20 for lunch and $40 for dinner. We had the lunch, and while it was good, it didn't knock my socks off (had I been wearing any. Keens, remember?)
We walked through the public garden, which is lovely, and has bronze statues of a mama duck and her ducklings. Thanks to the Caldecott Award-winning Make Way for Ducklings, the Boston public garden is a famous spot, so they put up those little bronze statues as a tribute to the author and illustrator. Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures because 1) we forgot to bring the camera, so all we had was the cell phone camera and 2) there were kids sitting on all the duck statues.
Later in the afternoon, we met up with my good friend Pam, who used to live in Boston and was happy to drive up for the weekend from Syracuse so we could meet up. We hung around, had coffee, went to a bookstore, and went to the top of the Prudential tower to get a look at Boston from the 50th floor. It's kind of like going to the Empire State Building in NYC. They charge eight bucks a person to walk around their skywalk, so we just peered from behind the ticket counter; as much as I'm willing to spring for good food, good espresso, and good Duck tours, no way am I paying eight dollars to walk around a building if it ain't already an art museum. Pam met Daniel for the first time, which was neat, because she moved away from Madison not long before he was born. As a matter of fact, she was the first person I told when I found out I was pregnant (other than Stuart and our parents and brothers, of course). Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures, even on the camera phone. D'oh!
We walked around Newbury street for a bit, which is famous for shopping, and it is way out of my league. You can smell money there. In fact, a lot of Boston is like a big outdoor shopping mall. I imagine it's hard to live there for long without wanting really expensive stuff, like clothes and designer furniture. I used to enjoy shopping more, but now that everything I wear is pretty much guaranteed to get drooled, barfed or peed on, shopping has lost a great deal of its appeal.
Monday morning, Joe had to go into work for a couple hours, so Daniel and I spent some time walking around the park across the road from his apartment. I watched some kids splash around in a fountain, and I watched some soccer moms get snippy with the park ranger because he was enforcing a "no bikes" rule. "It's not like you ever enforced this rule before!" one of them hissed. I hope I'm never that bitchy around my kid; that poor old guy was just doing his job.
We had a couple of hours before I had to go to the airport, so we decided to spend it walking around Cambridge, a map of which looks like this:
We strolled around Harvard University. I should have been more impressed than I was. If you can smell the money in Boston, you can taste it on the Harvard campus. Some nice people took our picture in the Memorial Hall, though.
And that's really about it. We spent the weekend walking around and seeing a lot of stuff, taking cute pictures of my kid, and eating really good food. Good times were had by all. I leave you with the sweetest picture of all:
Comments
Love ya! Glad you had fun, and didn't get squished in a Big Dig tunnel like that poor woman did when Becca was up there.
It will take a lot of trips and a lot of determination, but I'm ready for it.
Thanks for sharing all the pictures--I've only been in Boston the one time (exclding airport visits) and I miss that area already. And Daniel is just too adorable for words.