BOSTON STRONG

Wednesday was a day of touring in Boston.  We caught some rest after a wonderful night of baseball at Fenway where the Sox defeated the Twins.  We ate breakfast in the hotel and had a Duck Tour down at the Prudential Center that began at 9:30.  The Wesberry family is getting better at the T schedule, and we made it for the tour with a little time to spare.  Walking was much easier with fresh feet and a belly full of oatmeal, great coffee, and for the kids pancakes!  Yum.  Wonderful service and friendly people.  In fact everyone person has been so wonderful, warm, and welcoming.  It's like we're in the south, but we're not.  It's a huge and historic old city, and we learned today of the people's pride for their beloved Boston, and I have to say we are catching on.  I am really not a big city guy, but if I had to be one I'd choose Boston in a skinny minute.  

The duck tour is very touristy, but it was well worth every penny.  We got the pink boat/bus, and our guide was a local named "Fluffy Ruffles," a dark haired guy wearing a black Elvis like wig, some Vegas cheap shades, and a ruffly pink tux shirt with a black tie untied.  He was a character, cracking lame jokes all the way, but telling us all about the historic sites of Boston.  We learned a lot in 90 minutes, and the key feature of the tour is getting to go on the water, and Will got to drive the boat for quite a bit.  I was so proud.  Aubs got a little sleepy, but it was so warm and comfy--why not doze a little.  We saw the sky line, many sites on the freedom trail, many churches and sky scrapers, and lots of busy strees.  We saw the capital and the graves of Sam Adams and Paul Revere--big tourist spots.  We also saw sites from the movie Good Will Hunting.

After the tour, we did a little grocery shopping right by the tour stop.  There aren't many grocery stores like down south with big parking lots and people coming and going in cars.  Not in the city.  People typically pop into a small place, grab food, and carry it on food using small bags.  We did that and basically got snacks and water, headed to the Prudential center for a food court style lunch at a wonderful little Japanese place where there was teriaki chicken and rice for the kids and fresh sushi for the adults.  It was great, and we got to people watch.  So many people here are from multi-ethnic backgrounds.  So very cool to see and hear.

After lunch we went back to the hotel for a little rest period, then we headed to the North End to the musuem of science (had some duck tour coupons which made Sarah very happy).  By the way, we have spend some money here--my goodness--worth every penny, but my how one can burn through some cash being a tourist--ooooweee!  We took a number of trains to get to the science center--only took about 25 minutes--and had an amazing 2 hours that included a magic/science show, many fabulous exhibits (one that had an old dinosaur skeleton named "Cliff," which Will and I had fun goofing around with and another cool exhibit on space travel.  There were replica capsules for various moon landings that were fun to see and a lot of incredible pictures and astronaut memorabilia.  Way fun.  

The kids even found an exhibit about how our bodies work and gross realities that was very interactive.  We played a huge life-size version of the game Operation, and we learned about farts, snot, bugars, and what not.  It was a middle schoolers dream.  

We then made our way to little Italy at the recommendation of our friend Kristen Beagini who used to live in Boston.  We ate an early supper after some walking to La Summa, and oh my God, it was outstanding, a small boutique of an Italian place, run by a family, and the food was like Italy--no lie.   Will tried lobster chowder, AJ got a Caesar salad, and Sarah and I shared a caprese.  Outstanding!  She got large rice balls for her entree, AJ got pasta with chicken and brocolli, Will got chicken parmesean that was so crispy and tender, and I got meat balls.  Yum!  We shared a special appetizer: procutto wrapped figs.  Amazing--all of it.  We left with full bellies and headed out to find Paul Revere's house and in so doing caught a few great sites on the freedom trail (marked with red bricks), then we got gelato and took a rest in a park where kids were playing.

We then headed back to the Fanuiel Hall area so Aubs could get her purple sweatshirt--don't know why purple, but that's AJ.  She was so happy and walked the fastest of the trip in pursuit of this garmet of clothing.  Go figure.  She is soon to be 11!  We planned to head back home at an early hour, but that plan got foiled by an emergency on another train. So we were delayed and had to scramble a bit to get the right combo of trains to make it back to the Buckminster.  We got in by 10 and all took showers and we crashed hard.  Sarah and I had laundry to do ($2.00 to wash and $2.00 to dry)--wow!  I slept fine and woke up early to write and enjoy a little down time this morning.  How I love the mornings.

I am learning so much about our nation's history in Boston, and that is really the root of a lot of Boston pride as I see it.  As we traveled the north end last night, we got a sense of the significant immigrant influence, the pride of the people, their hard work, their many small contributions to communities who over time made huge differences in the neighborhoods and in the city (and thus in our nation).  You could smell the aroma of sacrifice and you got a general sense of love--neighbor for neighbor, friend for friend, and with all the large pictures of families in the restaurant hallway near the bathroom, you got a sense of family connection.  It was all very moving.  A highlight of the day came in watching how much Will and Aubrey are soaking up all the history and fun.  They really got into the tourist experience, and many times we found them exploring something on their own, taking pictures, asking questions, and doodling in their journals.  

Today is a day of transition as we prepare to make the trek across the big sea to Iceland.  Bless, O Lord, the events of the day!