Boston, Part 2

 Next stop was with former Boston roommate, Rebecca, and her husband, Eric, and adorable dog, Miles. We spent two days with our ever-game host traipsing around downtown Boston, the first day tracing all the key landmarks in Make Way for Ducklings and the next, baffling the girls by visiting the site of the infamous Big Dig, trying to convey to them our astonishment at the green parkland where the interstate used to be, parts of the city now connected that we had never known were near each other. It rained most of the day, and the girls were good sports, so we rewarded them with a Duck Tour. Neither of us had ever gone on one of these classic Boston tours, which make use of WWII amphibious vehicles to move from road to river and back again. Except for the tour guide's reference to a degree in American history as a degree in Useless Information, and her suggestion that Edith would go to Harvard some day, we enjoyed her banter about a city we already knew pretty well but hadn't seen from the tourist angle.

In the Frog Pond on Boston Commons

At a great new playground on the Esplanade

I think that's Jack she's riding

Checking out a fountain on the new, post-Big-Dig Greenway

Awaiting a Duck Tour outside the revamped aquarium

Duck Tour

The city as seen from a boat on the Charles

A fellow amphibious Duck Tour vehicle there on the right

Getting this memorial to the Armenian genocide built on the Greenway was one of Tom's first major projects at the Statehouse; he was happy to see the completed installation.

The Lowell, Mass. mills are a set-piece in U.S. history classes, and I enjoyed seeing them in person, even in passing. I'd  like to return to explore further.

With Boston friends at a Lowell Spinners minor league baseball game. L to R: Eric, Emily, Rebecca, Andrew, Toby, Gregg, baby Henry (in Gregg's lap), Gabe, Jenn, Tom, Alice

We'd been hoping for awhile to get Edith and Alice together with Toby (7) and Gabe (4). They hit it off!

Caption?

At 9 weeks, Henry was attending his first professional baseball game, much like Edith did in Durham in the summer of 2005

I'm not sure she watched much more of the game at age 8 than she did at 7 weeks.