The Boston Invasion: Day 6

Concord

On Monday morning Kaci and I took a train to Concord. It was so pretty. When we got to the station I was so excited! The main street-ish street right there was so cute. And that was when we got the phone call from Mom that reaffirmed my intution that Andra's baby is a girl. And I was really looking forward to meeting Sheryle, so I was pumped. It was love at first sight for me and Concord. It's fun just to walk around, and the weather was beautiful. We went to the Colonial Inn (LOVE that place) and had lunch on the porch with Sheryle. She is so fun! She told us about her artwork, her Sunbeams, her years in seminary and Scouts, her sons Forrest and Nate, and she expressed approval for my upcoming marriage to Forrest. Then we took a nice long walk to Orchard House, where the Alcotts lived, and took a tour. It was so cool! The house is actually two houses dating back to the early 1700s that Mr. Alcott stuck together, and they moved in in 1858. I saw the desk he built for his daughter Louisa on which she wrote Little Women, a bunch of May's artwork, and Anna's wedding dress. We were there the day before the 146th anniversary of her wedding. I thought that was sweet. She was married right there in the house by her uncle, the Reverend Samuel May. I could go on, but I won't. We took pictures outside the house but they're on Sheryle's camera. Yes, I know you're very disappointed.
Then we walked to The Old Manse, the Hawthornes' house. The tours were over, so we just looked at the house from the outside and walked around the grounds. It was way cool. Behind the house is the Old North Bridge and the Minuteman statue.
Kinda dark, I, know, but here we are with Mr. Minuteman.
We drove to Walden Pond and walked the trail all the way around it. It took a while. The pond is bigger than I thought it would be. And there were actually people swimming in it--can you believe it? The first person we saw was wearing a wetsuit, but there were a couple more that weren't. Brrrrr!!



By the foundation of Henry David Thoreau's cabin. It wasn't found until the 1940s. There's a replica of the cabin at the entrance to the pond. It's way tiny! I said, "Kaci, it's even smaller than your apartment!" And she said, "Yeah, it's just about the only thing that is."

This picture turned out weird (it was pretty dark) but isn't the Entering Concord sign cool?
We drove back to Concord to see one more thing-- the old Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Authors Ridge where the Alcotts, Thoreaus, Hawthornes, and Emersons are buried.
Here's Louisa's grave...
...and the Alcott family marker. Those were my only pictures that weren't blurry. The cemetery was very neat. When we got back to Boston we told Tom about our adventures over a steak dinner. Yum! The restaurant was in the old city hall, which was also a plus, because it was the only closeup look I got of it. It's a really cool building. Too bad it's not still used as city hall, because the new one's nothing special.

The Boston Invasion: Day 5

Nursery
Church was in Roslindale, which Kaci and Tom said was technically part of Boston, but I find that hard to believe because it's 45 minutes south of their place. And we drove--that was another new experience for me. (That sounds weird, but you know what I mean--driving in the city, not driving.) I went to nursery with Kaci and Tom and it was interesting. We only had five kids: Hadley, McKay, Ashton, Jocelyn, and Emma. Emma is Tom's favorite and Kaci accused him of avoiding/not liking/neglecting the others. :) She's really funny though, and she has red hair. Ashton has red hair too but I guess he didn't like Tom as much. He couldn't handle it and we had to get his dad. His dad is their second counselor and he was hanging around in the nursery room after sacrament meeting. He started telling us about this English class he's teaching at BYU this summer, so I told him I would be there and I was looking for another class and he laughed and said something like, "I don't know if you want to take mine." Anyway, Jocelyn was my special friend from nursery. She was very reserved, and younger than all the others I think, and Kaci said she didn't like to play by herself. Well I held her for a while and read to her and then she played by herself just fine! I don't know if it was me, but I was proud of myself anyway. Of course, when the Primary song leader came in to lead singing time, the other kids were really excited and they brought out their colored mats to stand on and Jocelyn just clung to me. At least she wasn't crying. The other kids had a great time singing, though. We sang "Here We Are Together," "Popcorn Popping," "Book of Mormon Stories," "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," and "Once There Was A Snowman." We also got special requests for "Frosty the Snowman" and "Jingle Bells." Hadley was really cute. She had a great time singing, dancing, and twirling, especially to the songs with motions. She just generally waved her arms around because she couldn't do the motions. Anyway, enough about that.

Glamour Shots
Tom thought Kaci looked especially pretty (her dress was way cute), so he took these pictures. Very goofy. I don't know what we're supposed to think of the pose with the bike lock, but you can see Tom's artwork on the wall behind her--T + K in pencils.

The Boston Invasion: Day 4

H&M
We got a very late start on Saturday because Kaci and I wanted to get pretty. We were going to meet Julia at H&M, but she wanted to go to the new one on Newport St, and we wanted to go to the old one on Washington St because it's closer and more familiar. So we headed to Downtown Crossing. I had already seen some of it on the way to Chinatown the day before. We were there for a while and we both got some way cute stuff! My favorite thing that Kaci got was a tannish wrap sweater. I got a creamish polka-dotted half-top sweater thingy (so did Kaci) and a long-sleeve green shirt with pleats across the top. I guess you would call them pleats, anyway...very cute.
Later we all went to the store and Kaci was so happy that Tom was with us. It was cute. He said he was glad I was there because we could carry more groceries home. :)That night we made seven-layer bars. So good. Here we are posing with our creation! Kinda dark, I know.

The Boston Invasion: Day 3

Whale Watch

Tom suggested we go on our whale watch the next morning (Friday), so if Kaci was still biffed/tired, we wouldn't be exerting ourselves much. So we did and we were very excited! It was something Kaci had been wanting to do, and I thought it would be really cool. So we walked to the waterfront (specifically Long Wharf, in case you wanted to know), took some pictures while we waited to leave, and admired the harbor and cute boats, even though the weather wasn't great. As you can see, it was a gray, foggy morning, and kinda chilly.

These first pictures are pretty self-explanatory...





Our boat was a catamaran with 3 decks and 2 indoor cabins. The top deck was open. I went to the Boston Harbor Cruises website just now and it said she's 110 feet long and holds 400 people. Named the Nora Vittoria. Nice, huh? Well, the voyage didn't turn out to be so nice...


Shots of the skyline as we went out to sea:



When it had been 15 or 20 minutes and we'd gotten out of the harbor the boat sped up big time and the sea got choppier. With the extra wind it was uncomfortable to be outside. I was already kinda cold and wishing I had brought a sweatshirt. It ended up not mattering, though, because both of us spent most of the time in the cabin. We stuck it out for a few minutes, then gave up and went inside. I remember telling Kaci I felt kinda weird and I hoped I wasn't getting seasick. Someone handed out barf bags and I was a little surprised, thinking, "Are we really going to need these?" The further we went, the more pitching and rolling we did and Kaci and I both felt awful. The naturalist lady got on the mike and started talking about the kinds of whales we might see. It was kind of interesting and I tried to listen but Kaci and I had to keep our heads down to make it bearable. When we reached our whale watching spot she kept talking from time to time and then a few whales were spotted, but they were too far in front of the boat for me to see, but I could only keep my head up for about three seconds anyway. Then there was another one off the side we were sitting on (I think--I was a little delirious) but I couldn't lift my head and by that point I didn't even care. Finally Kaci felt better and went outside. Somehow I managed to rouse myself, thinking maybe some fresh air would help. Well, I swaggered across the room and only made it to the door, and I was glad I had that barf bag because I lost it right there. Then I felt sooo much better. It was great! Everyone was watching Salt and Cap, mommy and baby humpback whales, so I grabbed my camera and ran outside. I got two pretty good looks at them but no good pictures. After a couple minutes they disappeared and it was still very windy so I went inside, and then a couple minutes later we headed back. I slept most of the way--I guess being sick had really taken it out of me. Kaci didn't sleep but she kept her head down. Some others were sleeping too, and earlier we heard some kid say people were throwing up downstairs, so maybe they were in the same boat as we were. (No pun intended, Tommy, honest! That was funny.) We were awake when we passed the cute little islands we recognized from the trip out, so we knew we were getting close to the harbor and went outside and...


Yay! The fog lifted! The sun came out, it was warmer, and we were going slower so it was less windy and we could actually walk around on deck. Boy, were we feeling better.

Another part of the shore.


We were so happy to get off that boat! And hungry! It was 2:00. We thought it would be 3 hours, but it was 4. There's a Legal Sea Foods right there on the waterfront where we came off the wharf, but I didn't really want to. Kace began rattling off their clam chowder's wonderful attributes and I finally gave in (kind of). I told her later we could come by and I'd get a small cup of it so there wouldn't be much risk. So we walked around trying to decide what we wanted to eat. We passed a Turkish restaurant called Sultan's Kitchen. Kaci was intrigued, but I said no. I wasn't ready to take that step when I hadn't even tried Indian food. Kaci suggested we go to Quincy Market, and we did. There's a North Market and a South Market on either side of Faneuil Hall. So we walked down this really long food court and then decided on Indian food, because I'd never had it. It was good. Then we took the T across the river to Cambridge for my Harvard tour! (We hadn't planned on this but Tom called earlier and said why not now because he had some free time.)
This is the Flour and Grain Exchange, a cool building we passed on the way to the marketplace. Kaci didn't know much about it so I googled it just now. It was built 1890-92 and designed by the Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge architecture firm, now known as Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott.

Harvard

Here we are at the entrace to Harvard Yard! And no, I don't have a Harvard boyfriend. The flowers are Kaci's. This is funny, though--we were waiting for Tom, wondering where he was, and Kaci said, "I bet he's getting flowers." And I said, "Yeah, right." Well, sure enough, he showed up with flowers! That was weird.
Rubbing John Harvard's foot for good luck. Tom said he donated a ton of money to build the university but that's all.
In the yard.
Adams House. Cool dorms, huh? (This isn't Harvard Yard anymore.)
Memorial Hall. This is my favorite building at Harvard (besides the way cool library, but we didn't go inside that). It's a big gothicy churchy building with stained-glass windows dedicated to the sons of Harvard who died in the Civil War. It has their names on the inside. No, I didn't take this picture--it's from the internet.
Then Kaci and I went hunting for tamarind juice, an ingredient for our pad thai. Kaci had read on the website that's it's available in many Indian and Chinese markets, so we thought we could find it in Chinatown. Well, to make a long story short, we didn't. And we were pretty biffed until Kaci changed her attitude. She said we should just feel empowered and when we got home I found some websites you can order it from while Kaci started cooking, and that made her happy. :) Julia came over while we were cooking and brought our cilantro and limes. Thank goodness the cilantro was cilantro, because when Kace asked her to get it she didn't know what it was. Heehee. :) So we had fun talking and eating (it was very good, although later we realized we'd forgotten the beansprouts). Then we ran downstairs and around the corner to the Beacon Hill Market, picked up some Chunky Monkey ice cream, and ate it while we watched Gilmore Girls on my bed. I chose the episode where the girls visit Harvard, in honor of my recent visit. It was great fun and Kaci said, "Tom! Tom! Take a picture," hence the picture. After the whale watch, it was a great day!

The Boston Invasion: Day 2

BU--Boston University, not Baylor :)

Comm Ave


We took the T to the west end of BU on Thursday morning. It was fun because it was aboveground! Here I am on Comm Ave, the main street of BU that runs east-west.
































Marsh Chapel, one of my favorite buildings at BU! Cool, huh? The buildings on either side--the school of theology or something--are cool too. They almost look like one big church. Behind the Marsh Chapel is the BU Beach. Not a real beach, obviously, just a cute little park by the river (not right on the river--there's a road in between). We didn't take any pictures of the beach but there's this fun modern statue of a whale that doesn't look exactly like a whale (it is modern) but Kaci likes it and I kind of like it. Although Kaci said people make fun of it and I can see why.















Bay State Road

After exploring Comm Ave, we saw Nickerson Field, Kaci's old dorm by Nickerson Field, the wall nearby where Kaci and her friends climbed and jumped off into the snow (if you remember those pictures), and yes, the spot nearby where a plaque says Babe Ruth played. Oh yeah, and on the back wall of Nickerson Field there are big red letters that spell out Boston University and there's ivy growing between them. That was pretty--nice background for graduation. Too bad we couldn't go onto the field. We decided to walk back on Bay State Road, which is north of and parallel to Comm Ave (closer to the river). I have to say it's one of my favorite streets in Boston! It's so cute! Much quieter then Comm Ave and it was a gorgeous day. Most of the street is "brownstones," old houses built for wealthy families in the early 1900s when that neighborhood, the Back Bay, was the fashionable place to live. Then BU bought them and now they're mostly dorms.

This is The Castle, which used to be the BU president's house. In the 60s when there started to be riots on campus, the pres decided he didn't want to be that close. Now The Castle is used for administration and houses the BU pub on the side. Kaci proudly told me she'd been there. Heehee, just kidding. But she really has been there.
































As proclaimed by a cup in Kaci's little kitchen, the best girls are BU girls!


























Fenway Park!!! We swung over to Fenway since we were in the neighborhood. I wanted to see the wonderful famous glorious amazing place where the Sox won the World Series! There was a Go Red Sox sign in practically every window. It was great.


There's the famous Citgo sign. It's huge!

















Back on Bay State. Cute buildings, huh? Very similar to Beacon Hill and the South End. Kaci taught me an architectural term: rustification. It's a technique used in this style that gives the appearance of getting lighter as the building goes up. They do this by using stone on the bottom and bricks or lighter materials, and smaller windows, as you go up. I feel smart. :)


Cool door.












BU do what you do!

















Charles River









We went to say hello to the river. This is the Harvard Bridge, so called because it goes north to Harvard, aka the Mass Ave Bridge, so called because...well, you guessed it--it's on Massachusetts Avenue! This is the east side.

Other side. You can see the Citgo sign!












The North End
Then we went home. Our dogs were tired, as the Kaci & Tom would say. And Kaci's eye had been bugging her all day, so we took a nap and then Tom came home. (Harvard wasn't through with him yet--he was working hard on his final papers.) Kaci and I were going to walk around the North End, but she was too tired so I went by myself. Of course, it would have been way better with her there, and I didn't have long to explore, but I was glad I went. I didn't have long to explore because--well, Kace & Tom wanted me home in an hour and it took me longer to get there then it should have. They told me Hanover St was like the main street of the neighborhood and when I got to it I turned the wrong way--south instead of north. Not because I didn't know where I was, I just got distracted and started thinking about something else. But luckily the street ends pretty soon in that direction, so when I realized it had ended and found myself in Government Center, I went the right way. The North End is an Italian neighborhood, and about half of Hanover is restaurants. They were packed, especially the ones serving outside, because it was a beautiful evening. There were also a lot of people just milling around and looking in the pastry shops like I was. I ended up deciding against the pastries and getting gelato. It was so good. So I had a few minutes to sit and people-watch and then I would have loved to keep going but I didn't have time. So I just admired the cute buildings a second time on the way back (same basic style as what I had seen before). And it was nice even when I got out of the North End and there was nothing much to look at because I was passing Government Center, which is, well, nothing much to look at. I just liked the big city feel. There were tons of people out and it was great walking weather and I almost felt like I belonged there. Anyway, Kaci called me and wanted to meet at Whole Foods, which was conveniently on my way home. She wanted to make pad thai the next day. After staring at our options for a while, we decided we'd rather do homemade. So Kaci called Wendy to see if she would get a recipe from the Thai Kitchen website (their brand of choice). Wendy didn't know what pad thai was, so we called Julia and she saved the day for us.