Suggestions

We were in NYC this weekend and I have a few new suggestions for you if you go:

1.  Go see Come From Away:  The musical about the "plane people" grounded in Gander, Newfoundland when the US closed its airspace on September 11 is AMAZING!  Touching, tender yet powerful, funny, energetic.  We loved it.  It plays without intermission so the emotion of the show is not interrupted.  And there are a lot of those!  Grief, frustration, sadness, confusion, love, peace, hope.   (I left with the belief that we should just let Canada be the leaders of the world.)  The show follows about a dozen different characters, with more making cameos, all played by the core cast.  And they do a remarkable job at distinguishing the different personas through accent, gestures, and costume changes.  We had been enjoying the soundtrack, but the show was just so much better.  We laughed, we cried.  It was better than Cats.  And afterwards, we stage-doored.  The kids got autographs from every main member and at least one musician.  Sis told the actress who played the animal-lover that she was her favorite.  Mama told the actress playing the firefighter's mom that she brought her for tears.  And we all gushed about Jenn Colella, who played one of the pilots, Capt Beverly Bass, actually the first female captain of a major airline.  Colella was wearing a love trumps hate shirt and was really engaging.  And after signing everyone's program, she just rode off into traffic on her push scooter!  If you get a chance to see the show, definitely go.

2.  Eat at BXL:  Mama found this Belgian restaurant on 43rd and the menu sounded great.  It was even better than that!  First, it doesn't look like a touristy Time Square trap; it felt like a small English pub, with distressed wood and lots of soccer.  But despite having a prominent bar, it is family-friendly (the owner and friends spoke French the whole time, so if they were cursing the game, we didn't know.) And the food was extraordinary:  truffle croquettes, goat cheese with honey on toast, delicious dressing on fresh insalata, steak frites with this amazing pepper dressing, croque madame, all kinds of mussels, a really good spaghetti bolognese, and delicious tarte tatin and pot du chocolat.  Oh, so good.  And there were so many things we didn't get to try.  Definitely a do-again.

3.  Explore Gulliver's Gate:  On Saturday morning, we were some of the first at Gulliver's Gate, an astonishing miniature exhibition near the Mariott Marquis in what was the Discovery Museum.  I'd been hearing good things for awhile and would second all those and more.  What a wonderful place!  It's to scale but not exactly geographically correct, but the models and figures and all the details evoke places all over the world, with the first whole room dedicated to NYC.  There are also big displays of England, Russia, and Israel.  There's even a working Panama Canal with locks and REAL water!  There are also lots of famous figures and icons hidden--Yoda, the Obamas, the new 13th Doctor, Wonder Woman, Spider Man, Batman, and so many we didn't see, like the Fiddler on the Roof (there's not exactly a list; ask the staff.)  There are also spaces dedicated to the art of model making, and on our day it was staffed.  The artist talked about making grass with a hair dryer/flashlight-like aparatus which ionized this green material and made it stand on end before it hardened in the glue.  He also showed us a bamboo forest complete with pandas that will be added to China--it even has two figures in the treetops, straight out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (and he was very impressed we knew that.)  AND we had our photos taken in a special pod with 200+cameras that will then digitally convert us into teensy 3D models with a digital printer.  Mama and I stood together and elected to be placed in Grand Central.  Sis wants to be in Stonehenge.  And Bud opted for the Brooklyn Bridge.  Can't wait to see the photo of us in situ.  You should go look for us.  I know we'll be going again.

Lastly, I should add that we stayed at a hotel which used to be my old dorm building when I was in graduate school!  I knew it had been converted into a hotel--Gommie has even stayed there--and I'd been in the lobby, but this was our first night to sleep there.  No, not in my old room--804, which just has one double bed apparently--but in the penthouse with views north and south! (We got an upgrade for some reason--and it was bigger than our own first floor, with two full bathrooms!)   The southern view was just like my old one albeit a few stories up.  You can see the Woodstock (where the crane from the Conde Nast tower fell and killed a woman in her apartment on the top floor during construction), but many of the buildings out the window were new.  It really was rather surreal.  I could also see the air shaft which was the view of a few of my friends.  The elevators are exactly the same--very slow and small.  It was quite a treat.  And I was just thrilled to be back "home."  Mercy, I loved living in NYC, right there in Times Square.  A lot of my old neighborhood has changed, but I always love going back.

Block Island 2015

We had a glorious 3-day weekend on Block Island, taking the kiddos back to where Mama and I vacationed a year ago.  And it was fantastic!

Friday
The weekend celebrations actually started Thursday evening, with our attending the Indigo Girls concert at the Beacon in NYC.  But that is a whole separate post.

Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep Thursday night and had intended to sleep in and skip school, but the kids had class pictures at school and wanted to go.  So we were up as usual and the kids had their group photo first thing.  We picked them up at 10 a.m. and raced to the ferry, knowing it was going to be tight timing.  Full of adrenaline, we played license plate games ("Noshing Jackal Hordes" anyone?) and find the ABCs for two hours, working the alphabet backwards and forwards.

But we made it, even with the dense fog that was rolling into the southern New England shore.  By the time we boarded the ferry from Port Judith to Block Island, we couldn't see a hundred yards in any direction, if that.  And yet we still rode up top, in the blowing, wet fog; we were all wet-haired almost immediately.  It wasn't super cold, though, and we laughed the whole way (luckily, we'd eaten our lunches waiting in the ferry line instead of saving them for the ride as we had planned.)  Bud jumped every time the fog horn blew, approximately every two minutes.

We stayed at the 1661 Inn, where we stayed last time, in a gorgeous big room, in its own separate house on the property.  It had an airy, bright sea-colored room with a gas fireplace (and an Anton Otto Fischers maritime painting c 1919  over the mantel) and a huge porch, plus a giant bathroom with a jacuzzi bath and two "rainforest" showers.  Luxurious.  We voted it second-best hotel room ever, after the Lainston in Winchester.   The whole inn is lovely--and the hydrangeas were even still in bloom!

We didn't stay long but headed out to see what we could see, with our first visit to the nearby Southeast Light.  The kids ran around the yard, marveling at the fog while Mama and I took photos.  Perfect weather for a supposedly haunted light.  The fog horn was blaring the whole time.

We then headed to the other end of the island, to see the labyrinth and other lighthouse.  Well, we saw the beach where the light was but couldn't see as far as the light.  We could, however, enjoy the labyrinth and walked the whole path.  I wasn't quite as philosophical as last time, though I did notice that walking it as a family, however separated, gave the experience new meaning--we high-fived as we passed one another and occasionally waited along the way for a hug.  At the end, Bud lead me on to the end.  You could run with the symbolism of all of that.  Still, they took the whole path more joyfully that the grown ups, reveling in the full physical experience of a maze on a hill in the fog.

We made a stop at the local grocery store for snacks and then went back to the room.  Bud wanted to have a tub in the jacuzzi and we all enjoyed relaxing in the room, even with no view.  The fog really was a singular experience and lent wonderful atmosphere to our first day; I'm just glad it cleared overnight.

We had an amazing early dinner at Eli's:  artichoke veloute with a crabcake, warm goat cheese and arugula salad, breads with olive oil, tuna nachos, a short rib burger, a roasted chicken breast, filet mignon with roasted vegetables and gnocchi, chocolate bread pudding, lemon mousse cake, and an incredible butterscotch pudding.

And it was still early, so we enjoyed the fireplace and sat doing some of the activities we brought along--coloring books, crochet, yo-yo.  Eventually, we went to bed, with the increasing winds rattling the whole little building in which we slept.

Saturday

The wind died down by dawn, having cleared away all the fog.  Sis was up first and out on the porch to watch the sunrise.  She's been waking early since the time change made 7 am into 6 am.  We all joined her.  At any given point in the trip, I was taking photos with my cellphone while Mama and Sis took photos on two of the cameras she brought.  Sis is just like Mama and they take many of the same views.  It was a beautiful sunrise and then we all sat on the porch, drinking tea and hot chocolate, coloring and doodling in the morning light, waiting for breakfast.

Mmmm, breakfast!  Omelets to order, tasty morning glory and lemon poppyseed and pistachio muffins, pancakes (French toast the next day), potatoes, ham, bagels, toast, juices, coffee, tea--what a way to start the day!!

Right after breakfast, one of the owners of the Inn took us on a tour of their farm, complete with exotic animals.  The kids enjoyed feeding, petting, interacting with, and even just seeing the two Bactrian camels, lemurs, kangaroo, Flemish Giant bunny, a giant tortoise, an African crane that danced for Sis, llamas, yak, and other creatures.

Then we went to the Northern Light fiber arts shop--yep, yarn!!!!  The kids enjoyed both the multi-colored yarn and the big yellow lab-mix dogs.  And I picked up some lovely yarn, for a hat, mittens, and a blanket.  Bud learned to weave on a lucet and got one to use at home.  Sis picked up a felting kit and worked on it over the weekend to create a picture of the Southeast Light.


Kite-flying was next.  The warmth of the weather was unbelievable.  We needed jackets but not much else.  And so we headed to the beach to fly two kites Mama had brought, a synapse self-inflating kite and a parafoil or something-or-other.  They had such a good time flying the kites in the not-too-strong breeze.  I searched the beach for seaglass, finding just a few pieces, but enjoying the search.



By then we had worked up an appetite and headed to Bethany's Airport Diner, where Mama and I had eaten on our last trip.  What a huge disappointment!  We waited by a dirty table and were roundly ignored for upwards of 10 minutes, when finally one server said to another, nodding at us, "Do you want to clean that table?"  "No," she replied.  And kept ignoring us.  We left, of course,  Were they rude because they're rude?  Tired?  Or because we're not locals? a lesbian family? bi-racial?  A painful experience but a good teachable moment for the kids.  Shame on them.  It was the only negative event in three days.  But we had a fabulous, friendly, tasty meal at Kimberly's.  Bud licked the bouillabaisse bowl clean, while Mama inhaled the fried oysters.  Sis and I enjoyed more usual fare, a burger and a meatball grinder.

We did a little shopping and, in chatting, learned from the store owner the best beach to find seaglass. I promised I wouldn't publicize it, though.  We made plans to go the next day, at low tide, as recommended.

We spent some quiet time waiting for sunset, enjoying the room and our activities--felting, reading, coloring, crocheting, jacuzzi, sitting on the porch.  We shared some nibbles with the other guests and then headed out to see sunset at the lighthouses.  There wasn't much color at the Southeast Light, so we headed to North, on the rocky beach, and stayed there until well after sundown, building rock cairns, rock mandalas, throwing stones, watching the waves, reflecting.  I bet we were out there an hour or more, a testament to the mild weather.  I even walked in the dark halfway down the rocky beach, though we didn't get as far as the light.

Dinner was takeout from the Old Island Pub, and more sitting around the room.

Sunday
Another pretty sunset, cooler temperatures and a perfectly clear and cloudless day, our first there.  We  watched from inside and did our thing, then ate another delicious breakfast before heading out for the day.  We were going to the seaglass beach, that is after taking a family photo at the North Light, hopefully for use as our Christmas picture.  We got the picture, perhaps, and drove to the other secluded beach.

It was rocky and immediately rewarded our search efforts with various pieces of glass.  We threw back all the glass that was still shiny, in hopes that it would one day become seaglass (though, it occurred to us later that maybe that wasn't the most green of choices; and we'd already discussed that the very existence of seaglass was a testament to the fouling of the environment.)  We found lots of green and brown and white, a few blue, a couple of yellow; some was more frosted or had more softened edges that others, we weren't super picky.  More than anything, it was a wonderful morning on the beach.  Walking, thinking, searching, throwing rocks into the waves.  We spent our whole morning here, returning to town with just enough time to check out, grab supplies for a ferry-ride lunch, and get in line at the dock.

The ride back across to the mainland was gorgeous; you could see clear across.  It was cold and bright, but we were some of the only people on the top deck.  We never like to ride downstairs.  Who knows what you might miss?  No seals this time, just a trawler with hundreds of birds and more flying to it.

We all loved the weekend and couldn't choose our favorite parts.  We all agreed that next year we should stay three nights so we could do some hiking and have extra down time.  And we all liked November--no other people around, "atmospheric" weather that encouraged hibernation, a nice break from school.  We'll definitely do it again.

Until then, I inadvertently collected a few pictures about Block Island itself, and finish with them here.  Together, they served as inspiration for my own doodles during our down time.  I'll post my doodle later, if I finish it.

From the window of a closed souvenir shop

From a tire cover on the truck in front of us on the ferry going over

An old map with notations about things not on newer maps, like the "third" lighthouse in the north

Summer Fun: Not So Much

We have bed bugs.

Or more specifically, by mid last week, I had 15 bites on my arms, many in a straight row.

That's the tell-tale sign of bed bugs, the so-called "breakfast, lunch, and dinner" bites.

I noticed them by Wednesday ish, but didn't think much of them, though I did think it was odd that there were so many, especially because I'm not really oudoorsy.

By the weekend, the bites were a plague I had itched raw.  I even dreamt of being itchy and woke in the night scratching.  I've never been so itchy.  It's worse that chicken pox, poison ivy, and PUPS, the itchiness I had at the end of my pregnancy.  And it wasn't getting better.

So this morning I went to the doctor and sure enough, as we had begun to suspect:  bed bugs.  The doctor suspects they're from our hotel from last weekend, in NYC, since I haven't gotten any new ones.  And NYC is a known epidemic hot spot.

For me, that means steroid cream and constant Benadryl but no danger of any illnesses, like with ticks or mosquitoes.

For the whole house, it means a lot of laundry (I'm following these directions)--30 minutes in the dryer on high heat for anything fabric we've touched since last week--and exterminators coming to look for the bugs with a dog this afternoon.

And I called the hotel.  Of course, they don't really believe me, since I wasn't itchy the night I was there.  But the CDC says it can take 14 days for the bites to show up.  And this hotel was the only one I'd been in before the bites showed up.

Luckily, I'm the only one with bites, so far.  Well, everyone has one or two but we think those are unrelated mosquito bites.  For now.

So, we're home, surrounded by huge black garbage bags of laundry.  I figure there are 20 obvious loads . . . and then we have to discuss steam-cleaning the carpet, doing something to the couches, and what to do with the mattresses.  UGH.

My skin crawls just thinking about it.

A New Meatloaf

The week we were staying at the hotel the kids enjoyed eating the nightly buffet.  Sure, it was all bulk pre-made food from a warehouse store, just the kind of food we don't usually eat at home, but they enjoyed it, especially Sis.  There were stroganoff with meatballs and noodles, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and hamburgers and barbecue chicken.  There was also a salad bar--olives, celery, tomatoes, chickpeas, bacon--and Ranch dressing!  Bud had a salad every night.

Recently they haven't liked my, or really Gommie's meatloaf, with the chicken and rice soup.  So, last night I made one more like the hotel's, with beef gravy instead of ketchup topping.  And I used real beef.  I've been impressed with the organic/local food at Stop and Shop recently--grass-fed/antibiotic-free beef, Applegate nitrite-free (or at least not added) cold cuts, organic chicken.  And so I made a beef meatloaf instead of ground turkey.

With mashed potatoes and local corn.

Almost as good as the hotel's!

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mommy Hungry's New Meatloaf and Gravy
1 lb ground beef
1/3 cup bread crumbs (I had Pepperidge Farm stuffing)
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste

Preheat oven to 350.  Soak the bread crumbs in the milk while prepping the other ingredients.  Beat the egg in a large bowl and add the beef.  Add milk-bread mixture.  Season.  Place in meatloaf pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

Gravy
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup flour
4 cups beef stock
drippings from bottom of meatloaf pan

Brown flour in oil until the color of peanut butter (a roux.)  Add stock and drippings.  Cook until thickened.
Served with meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Mommy Hungry

A Weekend in Beantown

We just got back from a three-day weekend in Boston, a wonderful getaway for the whole family.  We're trying to take regular little family trips--the overnight in Times Square, the overnight in Hartford, and now two nights in Boston--to test my my abilities and, more importantly, to engage in new, fun, memorable family activities.  Beyond colonial history, marine biology, and Yankee cooking, we discovered a few things on this trip:

• Two nights and three days is, for now, our family limit for vacations, both because of my endurance but also because of the kids', too.  We discovered that I got tired right before they did (generally, after about 3 hours of sightseeing.)
• We realized that, in future, we should do our biggest, most involved activities the first day, because, regardless, we'll all be more tired the second day.  The second day is really a half day--the kids collapsed Sunday afternoon, which we weren't quite prepared for.
• Centrally-located hotels in cities are the ideal vacation because lots of activities are in walking distance and I can come and go from the room to rest as needed.  It also gives me quite a sense of accomplishment--for the first time in a year, I could actually go get a coffee  at Starbuck's when I wanted one!  And for me now, that's freedom.  (So, Boston, NYC, Hartford, Providence--3 hours is about my limit in the car for now, so maybe Philly later)
• Snacks are key.  We get hungry on different schedules and hunger really effects mood and behavior.  Especially because Sis is a much more particular eater and didn't like what we got for meals sometimes.  We should have carried more snacks.
• Breakfast in the hotel is so much easier.  And, in fact, the buffet at our hotel was actually a real high-point for the kids.  They woke up Monday morning and immediately began planning their breakfast choices, even before they got out of bed!
• I can take cabs and subways for short distances with little problem (about 5-10 minute rides)!  But this did give me the ability to go further and get back quickly and easily.  
• We should seek out the UU congregation wherever we go.  I went to church on Sunday and it was an eye-opening experience to be with another congregation.  Especially because this one was Unitarian Christian, a rare bird (esp. for me) indeed.
• Mama and I enjoy used bookstores, like the Brattle Book Shop, more than the kids do, but we still go--and have heavy bags to carry home afterwards!  We all like gift shops and end up with postcards, magnets, pin, patches, books, and t-shirts.  We also like picking up pamphlets for our scrapbook.  We try not to spend more time in the shop than the attraction, sometimes easier said than done!  And our usual allotment of spending money based on ticket price goes out the window on vacation sometimes.  
• Wherever we go, we seem to attract mild attention.  Of course, Sis had on an adorable fuzzy panda hat.  And Bud had on a knit penguin hat.  So, they're awfully cute, if I do say so myself.  But, even in same-sex-marriage-approving Massachusetts people--particularly bored people in restaurants--look at us repeatedly and talk about us and sometimes even gesture and think we don't notice.  But I do.  I know.  I can hear.  I can see.  Sometimes, I can read lips.  I know they are trying to guess if Mama is a man or a woman, usually deciding that she's my son (it happened twice on this trip alone.  That I know about directly because I was asked).  I know they wonder if these are "my" children, whatever that means (and never "ours," because they never guess that Mama is a parent, sometimes even after I've explained it).  I know they talk about the race of our kids, wondering how they became biracial (really, people, this is a question in 2012?  The president is biracial, for heaven's sake!).   I know they rarely realize that we are two lesbians with children.  I know because they aren't as subtle as they think they are.  If they had a real question, I'd be glad to answer it direcly--I'm all for teachable moments and I'm good at lesbian/biracial outreach, but usually they're just gossipy and can't think of anything else to discuss (Really, people?  In this day and age?  Luckily, with the ubiquity of cellphones at meals, perhaps this will become a thing of the past.  If I had a dollar for every table where no one talked and everyone surfed, I could've paid for all those meals!)  And the waitresses usually ask, or apologize awkwardly after they get it wrong.  And so we teach our kids not to comment, hypothesize, discuss, stare, talk about, or point at people, especially when we're bored in restaurants, unless they have a genuine question (kids do, sometimes, about wheelchairs or yarmulkes and such). Everyone has inherent worth and dignity; we don't need to talk about them.  Because we don't like it when they talk about us.

We loved our trip and the kids are already asking to go back.  I must admit to some prior prejudice against Boston, being more NYC-oriented.  But who, besides my kids, wouldn't love a place called Beantown?  I'd been there three times before, but none of them counted:  an overnight on a trip to Canada with Gommie and Uncle T when I was in high school (we arrived around 9 p.m. and left before 8 a.m.  We took a late-night driving tour of some of the sights, in a rush to get to the outlet malls in Freeport, ME and onto the family reunion in Trois Pistoles on the St. Lawrence!); a college trip for a fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, conference, which included for me visits to the Boston MFA, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Fogg but nothing colonial; and finally, a trip to lead a panel at the annual art historians' conference when the kids were just 6-months old, when we did follow the red line for just a bit, taking some pictures, and eating at Durgin Park, the kids' first restaurant meal--of oyster crackers!

This time, we did so much more:

Paul Revere:  Bud was very intent on Paul Revere this trip and I was interested in seeing his 17th-century house myself.  So, the first day, we walked to the North End, which is Boston's Little Italy or Arthur Avenue.  I heard more Italian there than anywhere else outside of Italy.  And there, nestled amid the gelaterias, pizzerias, and salumerias, was this preserved example of English medieval urban architecture, complete with overhanging second floor, casement windows, and shingled exterior.  Of course, it's an imagined version of the house, having been incorrectly restored in the early 20th-century, but it was wonderful to wander the four remnant rooms where Revere and his large family lived.  It was packed with tourists and a couple of indifferent (read: awful) guides.  But we still enjoyed seeing the starting point of the midnight ride.

From there we wandered to the Old North Church, where two lanterns hung signaling an approach by sea.  The lanterns are no longer there (supposedly one is in Concord).  It's a lovely Georgian church with enclosed pews, raised pulpit, and tower with bells that a modern bell guild was practicing on that day.  Bud enjoyed asking about the whereabouts of the lanterns and how exactly the signaler got inside the church at night (he was a verger, I believe) and how he got to the tower (through doors in the organ!).  And then we perused the book shop where th American Heritage chocolate people were given a demo and samples.  I like the historic chocolate blend even if my chocolate buddy Sis didn't.  

Bud finished his explorations of Revere by sitting in Revere's pew at King's Chapel and seeing where he was buried in the Granary Burying Ground.  Oh, and he posed for a picture near the iconic statue of the midnight ride.

Freedom Trail:  The red-brick line connecting historic sites has to be one of the best things any tourist district has ever done.  It makes navigating the narrow, winding streets of a confusing town so much easier.  And the kids took it quietly literally--Sis and Bud actually stuck to the red line as they led us around.  We saw most of the stops, if only for a bit, including

• Paul Revere's House
• Old North Church
• Fanueil Hall (closed for renovation--the NPS Visitor Center is moving; the NPS has a great shop and very knowledgeable Rangers) and Quincy Market (but really just to look at from the outside; we're not mall goers).
• King's Chapel and Burying Ground--now a Unitarian (Christian!) church, this chapel has a Revere bell and his pew, too.  Bud and Sis got to sit in it!  
• Granary Burying Ground--with Paul Revere's grave, as well as those of James Otis, the first woman off the Mayflower, and victims of the Massacre.
• Old South Meetinghouse
• Old State House--this was a delightful discovery, with numerous galleries geared to children's exploration of colonial history (a puzzle of the building, a timeline of history that you can mark with dates relevant to your own family, sniff bottles of the scents of Boston, a clock like the one in the tower that you can wind, life-size versions of the Unicorn and Lion on the exterior) and a special heraldry activity the day we visited.
• Sites of the Old Corner Bookstore and Boston Latin School

Omni Parker House:  The centrally-located home of Boston Cream Pie and Parker House rolls was our base for the trip.  I could get very used to staying in historic hotels!  I loved the grand lobby, all the history (Dickens stayed there often--the mirror he practiced his characters in for his dramatic readings was outside the restrooms!), and the attentive service.  The kids even got cookies and milk the first night!  The location was grand, too.  The kids liked our corner suite, named after Boston Massacre victim, Crispus Attucks.  And the breakfast buffet!  Sis got Parker House rolls both days and Bud had salmon.  Both wolfed down bacon and sausage.  On our last morning there, I spotted a couple of kids with hot chocolates in tall mugs with mountains of whipped cream, reminding me of a childhood trip to the Marriott in New Orleans when I was about their age--I got hot chocolate in a tall mug with a mountain of whipped cream several times on that trip. And it tasted just the same in Boston!  Sometimes you can go back. 

Eating Out:  Mercy, we love eating out.  And we did quite a bit of it this trip, including:

• Galeria Umberto--incredible Sicilian pizza in a nondescript building in the North End, where they serve big squares, plus arancini and a few other things, only until the dough runs out; we made it just in time!
• Mike's Pastry--another North End stop, this time for cannoli, biscotti, a little gelato, and oddly a huge pasty called a lobster, with a deep fried layered shell surrounding a mix of ricotta, yellow cream, and whipped cream.  We munched on these for a few days.
• Wagamama--Mama and I had eaten at a branch of this Japanese noodle shop in Covent Garden, London, of all places.  The kids loved it--ramen, soba, gyoza, rice--yum.  
• Durgin Park--"Yankee cooking" and incredibly indifferent service, but Bud helped Mama crack a lobster, shuck clams, and devour clam chowder, too.  We also had chicken pot pie, pot roast, fish and chips, baked beans, Indian  pudding, and apple pandowdy.  But, the food is traditional and now it's a family tradition, too--we looked at pictures of Sis and Bud's first trip to Boston here.  They were such chub-a-lubs.  
• Union Oyster House--more historic "Yankee cooking" in an even more historic building (a la Daniel Webster and later JFK).  We had pretty much the same foods--clam chowder, fish and chips, baked beans, Indian pudding, but also oyster stew, "lazy man's lobster," and chicken fingers.  Yep, poor girl had suffered through enough food she didn't like and devoured her usual favorites.  While we were there, the "Ancient and Honorables," America's oldest milita, were meeting in their full dress uniforms (I thought they might be the fire department brass!).  And the kids got to touch a lobster, too.

The Aquarium:  Penguins!  Rockhopper.  African.  Little Blue Fairy.  I'm not sure there's much else to say. Sis and Bud spent four hours exploring marine life with Mama (and me for the first two hours)--there were sea dragons (literally, they look like little dragons), fur seals, jelly fish, turtles, sharks, a sting-ray tank, touch-tanks with horseshoe crabs and hermits, a tidal pool with programmable crashing wave, a tank where you can change the current and watch the fish turn around.  And an IMAX (with "cuddle fish").  But really, the best part was the penguins.

King's Chapel:  Sunday morning found me, quite unexpectedly, arriving back from a few hours at the aquarium just as service started.  Who could resist the opportunity to worship at a 17th-century church that holds Unitarian services (because all the good Church of England parishioners died or left during the war!)?  It was like no service I've ever been to, even the mainline Protestant and also Catholic services of my childhood.  But it was grand!  The ushers were friendly when they learned I was a UU, too, finding a nice enclosed pew for me in back.  But I was like a fish out of water. Where was the Living Traditions hymnal?  What was with the Bible and Book of Common Prayer (specifically for King's Chapel) and a different hymnal?  And the service had more Latin in it than I heard at the Vatican!  Magnificat.  Jubilate Deo. Plus readings from the Old and New Testaments and prayers said while kneeling.  And  the reciting of the Our Father, which, believe it or not, I actually know from my days at the Southern Baptist church (though I never know if we're gonna have sins or   trespasses.)  The sermon--remarkably, the church is led by a woman--combined the readings, references to smartphones, a short story about her family's connection to the Underground Railway, and the quote about Naomi and Ruth "whither thou goest, I will go"--thoroughly enjoyable (though way too biblical for me--the connections to the readings were forced and not fleshed out).  The most marvelous part was the music--the organ and the angelic choir in the loft.  I could just imagine Paul Revere and his compatriots, Louisa May Alcott and hers, praying, listening, singing there.  And I didn't mind the formal prayers so much, enjoying the wordy structure, finding even one of them quite touching.  I'm not nearly a UU Christian, but I'd go to services there again.  Even if they teased me about being "mainstream UU."  Now, isn't that an oxymoron?

The Ducks:  I didn't make it on the journey through Boston Common, with stops at the Robert Gould Shaw memorial (the Unitarian who led the African American troops in the Civil War; you know, from Glory) and another Civil War memorial.  And of course, the Make Way for Ducklings statue of Mama duck and ducklings and the nearby island in the pond.  No water in the pond, no ducks, no floating swan boats, but the kids were thrilled anyway.  Someone had even dressed the ducks up, tying red ribbons on their necks!

Transportation:  Bud kept asking us if he could ride a city bus or the "T."  Such a suburban kid!  So we took the subway to the aquarium, though it was close enough to walk.  And then later we took a cab home from lunch.  The bonus?  I could get places without walking, thereby extending the circle of my explorations.  Yep, I SAT in a cab, on one side, for about five minutes.  

Isabella Stewart Gardner:  Our last Boston stop was at the art museum.  I chose the Gardner over the Boston MFA because the ornate palazzo chock-full of objets c'art is such a memorable place.  Especially with the empty frames indicating the Vermeer and Rembrandts and Degas and Manets stolen in 1990.  The kids got to do two art activities here--one crown- and shield-making craft while we waited a bit to get in (they recently reopened after a renovation and the place was packed!  They were also completely unprepared with only two ticket sellers.  And even with the timed tickets, which no one told you about until you reached the front, they were letting way too many people in for it to be entirely enjoyable.  Plus the bathroom arrangement is ridiculous--one stall on the main floor with no indication of the much larger bathrooms downstairs.  A silly oversight in a brand new building, which was all glass with pretty gardens outside but not enough space inside.) and then an engraved foil square that they made in the famed courtyard.  We walked through all the rooms, perfect examples of horror vacui, with Italian, Spanish, Chinese, French, and other paintings, sculpture, furniture, drawings, engravings, dec arts, architectural fragments, stained glass.  Plus a few paintings of Gardner herself.  We didn't bother with the new wing and the shop was an utter disappointment with extremely overpriced handmade knick knacks unrelated to the collection.  And only a few postcards.  Still, the kids won't soon forget it--the place has amazing art and ambiance.   

So now we have clothes to wash, postcards to write, souvenirs to put and give away.  And almost a whole week of winter break to rest, relax, and enjoy.