Please come to Boston

In the ongoing tradition of Alan cooking up cool stuff on weekends, all of us but the boss, who felt that his injured legs and feet wouldn't hold up to being cramped in the car and walking all day, went to the New England Aquarium and Quincy Market yesterday.

Everybody loves penguins

Yes, we did have fun.

You might think that lugging a two-year-old through all that stuff might prove challenging, but our Miss Peggy was an angel. She slept all the way over, sang all the way back, and had a ball in between. What a trouper that kid is.

Myrtle, the Green Sea Turtle

She loved petting the cownose rays.....as did everyone..... How cool to have fish that want to be touched and swim right up to your hand like trapezoidal puppies. They feel amazing! Squooshy and yet velvety at the same time. I only left the side of the tank because there were a lot of other people who wanted to touch them too and I felt that I should make room.

Cownose Ray

We did the whole tourist thing too...walked through Faneuil Hall, ate at Dick's Last Resort and were duly insulted....as it happened we had one of the funnier servers and since sarcasm is a favorite font around here, we had a good time. Food was good...you can't beat seafood within blocks of the ocean....well, harbor, but close enough.

I've been to Boston to visit the market and aquarium twice before and passed around the edges once on the way to Gloucester. Both other aquarium experiences involved school trips and chaperoning other peoples' kids. I won't go into detail, but it sure was a lot more fun with just family.

A nasty accident on the way in yesterday reminded me of something I had long forgotten. A couple of miles ahead of us, twenty-odd miles or so before we got to Boston, someone had a bad crash. We sat for half an hour in gridlocked traffic....which triggered a memory of that very long ago Gloucester trip. We sat in traffic even longer then....waited and waited and waited ....only to find that the reason for the prolonged delay was a man.....running around in the stalled traffic....with an ax. You cannot make that stuff up.

In both Gloucester well over thirty years ago, and Boston less than twenty-four hours ago, I enjoyed clam chowder. Boy, I love that stuff.....

Anyhow, a good time was had by all; memories were made and photos taken. Thanks Liz for loaning me camera batteries. Mine were charged but died suddenly and my spares were in the car....in the parking garage....several blocks away. 

And thanks Al. I have done more good stuff in the past three years than in the past forty....and here I thought I was over the hill and looking at the long decline.