My birthday was this week.
It was an especially happy one. Way better than last year, when I was in surgery for a biopsy on my birthday.
Whenever I don't ride my bike to work, I take the train and then walk a little more than a mile to the office. I often walk along the Greenway and pass the Custom House. A couple of months ago I stopped in and discovered that one could go up in the tower. At the time, Boston was still in the throws of a prolonged unusually cold winter. I wanted to wait until it was warmer and then have the family join me in town after work to visit the tower.
The stars happened to align for such a visit on my birthday!
The family met me at South Station. We made a brief visit to a Pop Art exhibit at the Intercontinental Hotel. Then we visited my office for a few minutes and Audrey and I played some foosball. After that we moseyed along the Greenway (the park on top of the Big Dig) to the Custom House.
While we were waiting for access to the tower we explored the lobby. The building is now a Marriott Vacation Club hotel. The round lobby is beautiful, with two balconies and a high domed ceiling. There's also a cool cutaway model of the building.
Then we were shown to the elevators and went to the observation deck. It was an excellent clear evening and we could see forever. The tower has a very cool view of Logan Airport just across the inner harbor. It also gives a great perspective on the North End.
The girls chased each other around the tower a few times.
On our way back down we stopped in the Game Room, which happens to be where the clock mechanism is. It's surprisingly small, and the single mechanism is linked by four arms to the clock faces on the four sides of the tower.
Apparently that linked mechanism was added later, in order to make room for elevator shafts. Before that, each face had its own mechanism and, since they never agreed, the tower clock was known as "The Four-faced Liar".
From the game room we could see through a window to the inside of one of the clock faces. We could see through the huge "6".
After the tower we went to nearby Quincy Market to have dinner at Wagamama. It's a new favorite of the girls'. They have yummy noodle and rice dishes. Audrey has been enjoying their teriyaki cod.
We would have also ridden the cool one-year-old custom carousel on the Greenway, but it was only open on weekends until Memorial Day - we were a few days too early. Next time.
After dinner we made our way to the T for a quick ride home.
This was the best birthday I've had in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed our family evening together.
And no surgery!
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