June 18-20, 2007, Boston : We survived the flight from San Francisco to Boston with little ado. We have two video ipods along, each preloaded with twenty-odd movies – primarily Disney and Pixar with a leavening of Aardman Studios, Hayao Miyazaki, and (unfortunately) Dora the Explorer. This works extremely well, apart from the battery life – they’re done after two hours. We also have an empower iPod seat charger, but this flight (a United 737) had the outlet disabled. Kade prefers to watch his without sound (or more precisely, without earphones), which seems to help with the batteries. Next trip, we’ll add Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
We’re staying at the Omni Parker house, at the corner of Church and Tremont Streets downtown. Quite a storied place – they claim to be the oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States. JFK proposed to Jackie Bouvier at the restaurant here, and Ho Chi Minh was a waiter, presumably not at the same time. Arrival logistics were a bit of a challenge, as Don refused to bring car seats and laura didn’t want the kids in a taxi without them. The final plan had laura traveling ahead by cab with the luggage and the others taking the Blue Line to Government Center. The subway is much noisier than the ones in Toronto or Montreal; Kade’s eyes were quite large by the time he disembarked. Sierra asked what would happen if she lost her T card, and was greeted with the usual Kingston Trio song about Charlie riding forever ‘neath the streets of Boston.
On Tuesday, we took them on a Duck Tour of Boston. This is the usual bus tour, but conducted in a World War II vintage amphibious vehicle (a “DUKW”, in military parlance); after the obligatory drive past Faneuil Hall and the Common, it crosses over the Museum of Science bridge and drives into the Charles River. The amphibious portion goes under the Longfellow bridge and past the band shell before returning. A 90’s innovation, these have become quite popular; when the Red Sox (finally) won the World Series in 2004, the victory parade used them as transport. Our driver claimed to have been part of this flotilla, and regaled us with tales of transporting middle relievers Leskanic and Meyers through crowds estimated at 3 million. To hear him tell it, people were swimming after them as they entered into the Charles in the cold October rain.
Wednesday was the New England Aquarium and the Boston Common. The former was a bit of a disappointment; we have all gotten spoiled by our hometown one in Monterey Bay. In Boston, there’s a single central tank that is smaller than just the Kelp Forest in Monterey. Sierra and Kade did like the penguin exhibition- after the recent spate of movies, this is the Aquarium’s biggest draw.
The Common was a hit by virtue of its playground; 3000 miles away had the same feel as the one 3 minutes from our house .
Some of the pictures in this set have an artistic blurriness- Kade and his buttery fingers got hold of the camera one morning during breakfast.