Our dear friend Britt from Seattle was in Boston this week for a travel medicine conference. She finished at noon on Thursday and spent the next two days with us. We gave her the tour of our favorite places.
First she came with us to an open house at Charlotte's preschool. We saw all of the projects the kids have done and read Charlotte's school journal. Then it was off to dinner at Melrose's favorite restaurant: Turner's.
I'd had a stressful week at work so I decided to take Friday off and be a tourist with the family. Audrey played hooky, too.
We first went to the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary, or, as our family refers to it, "The Rockery". We did our usual trek to the Rockery itself and then along the paths through the marsh and forest. The place was magical, as usual. There were so many songbirds. Plus we got to see red wing blackbirds flashing their colors and a pair of geese with a half dozen or so goslings. We also fed chickadees from our hands, although they aren't as hungry for human-donated food now that the world has come back to life.
After that we headed to the Crane Estate and the Castle Hill mansion. We had such a wonderful picnic there on May Day we decided to do it again. This time we were virtually the only people there other than caterers getting ready for a wedding. We explored the old rose garden structures and the "ancient ruins". Then it was a short hop to Crane Beach where we broke out the kites and enjoyed the sunshine. We had originally planned to end the trip in Rockport with some taffy, but it was getting late and we decided to head home to our summery dinner of grilled marinated steak tips, potato salad and corn on the cob. Mmm.
On Saturday Britt helped Carol shuttle the girls to ballet classes. Their end of the year demonstration is next weekend, so this weekend Carol practiced getting the girls' hair into buns. They looked beautiful. I'l post photos of the ballerinas next week after the performance.
Audrey had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon so Britt and I headed into Boston to walk the Freedom Trail by ourselves. I had never done it. We were able to walk all but the Charlestown portion of it. I enjoyed it because it allowed me to glue a bunch of pieces of my mental Boston map together in more organized way. Of course it was also great to hang out with my old buddy: back in 1998/99 when we were both single Britt and I used to hang out together a lot (before I met Carol and then Carol and I fixed Britt up with her husband Ken).
It was wonderful to have a visit from Britt and show her our favorite parts of our new home. Hopefully she can come back with her family sometime. And we'll see them again in a month and half when we are in Seattle.
First she came with us to an open house at Charlotte's preschool. We saw all of the projects the kids have done and read Charlotte's school journal. Then it was off to dinner at Melrose's favorite restaurant: Turner's.
I'd had a stressful week at work so I decided to take Friday off and be a tourist with the family. Audrey played hooky, too.
We first went to the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary, or, as our family refers to it, "The Rockery". We did our usual trek to the Rockery itself and then along the paths through the marsh and forest. The place was magical, as usual. There were so many songbirds. Plus we got to see red wing blackbirds flashing their colors and a pair of geese with a half dozen or so goslings. We also fed chickadees from our hands, although they aren't as hungry for human-donated food now that the world has come back to life.
After that we headed to the Crane Estate and the Castle Hill mansion. We had such a wonderful picnic there on May Day we decided to do it again. This time we were virtually the only people there other than caterers getting ready for a wedding. We explored the old rose garden structures and the "ancient ruins". Then it was a short hop to Crane Beach where we broke out the kites and enjoyed the sunshine. We had originally planned to end the trip in Rockport with some taffy, but it was getting late and we decided to head home to our summery dinner of grilled marinated steak tips, potato salad and corn on the cob. Mmm.
On Saturday Britt helped Carol shuttle the girls to ballet classes. Their end of the year demonstration is next weekend, so this weekend Carol practiced getting the girls' hair into buns. They looked beautiful. I'l post photos of the ballerinas next week after the performance.
Audrey had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon so Britt and I headed into Boston to walk the Freedom Trail by ourselves. I had never done it. We were able to walk all but the Charlestown portion of it. I enjoyed it because it allowed me to glue a bunch of pieces of my mental Boston map together in more organized way. Of course it was also great to hang out with my old buddy: back in 1998/99 when we were both single Britt and I used to hang out together a lot (before I met Carol and then Carol and I fixed Britt up with her husband Ken).
It was wonderful to have a visit from Britt and show her our favorite parts of our new home. Hopefully she can come back with her family sometime. And we'll see them again in a month and half when we are in Seattle.
No comments:
Post a Comment