![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A Lovely Day
On Saturday Sebastian and I took the commuter rail up to Boston to spend the day with my parents. Teri was volunteering at the animal shelter, and after that would be seeing a friend. She dropped us off at the 8:30am train.
My folks wanted to take us to Georges Island in the harbor of Boston. Sebastian has been on boats before - most recently a small inflated paddle-boat on the lake next to my parents' house in Maine - so I wasn't too worried about him having a problem. In fact, I was so confident that things would go smoothly that I brought up both the video camera and my digital camera.
I got some great shots.
The fort is huge. There were enormous dark underground places, mysterious holes descending straight down into the ground, cavernous rooms little changed from the way they were in the Civil War...it would be easy to spend days exploring the place. But it was hot, so after a while we went back to my parents' place for a while. We stopped for ice cream at J.P Licks on the way back to Ruggles; the bitterest soft-serve chocolate ice cream I've ever had, but also the most refreshing (I'll be going back). On the ride home Sebastian and I helped a blonde European girl find her way to Walpole, and Sebastian sang and danced for her (I think he had a bit of a crush, and he was feeling on top of the world). Teri was waiting for us at the station as the sun was setting, and Sebastian ran to her like a little leopard. Five minutes after we got in the car, he was asleep.
The next morning, by the way, he woke up at 7am (which is very late for him) with some urgency; his diaper had come off during the night. But it and his bed were totally clean and dry. My little boy is getting potty trained incredibly quickly!
All in all, a wonderful weekend!
My folks wanted to take us to Georges Island in the harbor of Boston. Sebastian has been on boats before - most recently a small inflated paddle-boat on the lake next to my parents' house in Maine - so I wasn't too worried about him having a problem. In fact, I was so confident that things would go smoothly that I brought up both the video camera and my digital camera.
I got some great shots.
The first was the morning sun shining through the glass blocks on the top of Ruggle station in Boston.
We took the Green line to Government Center, and switched to the Blue line. A couple of stops got us to the Aquarium stop. By the way, the Aquarium is definitely on our list of things to see before winter.
Aquarium is quite close to Logan airport. Planes came by frequently. Sometimes their proximity to the tall buildings nearby was a little jarring. I imagine it would be still more strange for someone who, unlike me, was conscious during 9/11. This was a very quickly snapped shot. If I'd had more time, I could have framed two flat-topped skyscrapers with a plane apparently going between them.
But we had to hurry, because the boat would be leaving soon. We rushed through the Marriot lobby and got to the boat just in time.
I think this shot came out rather nicely. I wonder who owns that boat?
Shots like this make me really wish I had optical zoom on my camera. That boat looked exactly like the Mayflower - it was actually almost shocking to see such an old-fashioned boat in the harbor. Particularly with Logan airport in the background.
We made it to Georges Island in only about 15 minutes. Just enough time to eat a picnic lunch on the boat.
Now this was a lovely shot, if I say so myself. Kite enthusiasts apparently have colonized Georges Island. No, not really; it doesn't have running water and as I know particularly well is not residential. But the sky, full of kites, was breathtaking.
A massive and surprisingly well-preserved old Civil War fort occupies much of the island. This is just an entry to it.
The whole fort is made up of massive stone blocks, presumably to withstand cannon fire. In some places narrow staircases wind upwards. Sebastian was a bit spooked by the laughter coming from this doorway, until a laughing teenaged couple came out. I went part-way up myself, and I have never seen such utter blackness. Sebastian got a bit scared, so I came back down. My father got curious, though, and went up. The stairs are completely blocked by a wall higher up. We later went up a similar stair and came out on the broad battlements, about 90 feet above the ground.
It was horribly hot and humid. We found some relief from the heat in a large area that had been a hospital. It was empty except for us, a bit dusty, and we finished our lunch (apples and cookies) on a picnic table. I took a look out the "front" windows, and was amazed at how thick the stones were. The outside of this window was probably close to a yard from the inner edge.
Later we sat in the shade outside the hospital for a while. I couldn't resist shooting this; it looked just like a beautiful tree with two trunks. Of course it was actually two trees.
The fort is huge. There were enormous dark underground places, mysterious holes descending straight down into the ground, cavernous rooms little changed from the way they were in the Civil War...it would be easy to spend days exploring the place. But it was hot, so after a while we went back to my parents' place for a while. We stopped for ice cream at J.P Licks on the way back to Ruggles; the bitterest soft-serve chocolate ice cream I've ever had, but also the most refreshing (I'll be going back). On the ride home Sebastian and I helped a blonde European girl find her way to Walpole, and Sebastian sang and danced for her (I think he had a bit of a crush, and he was feeling on top of the world). Teri was waiting for us at the station as the sun was setting, and Sebastian ran to her like a little leopard. Five minutes after we got in the car, he was asleep.
The next morning, by the way, he woke up at 7am (which is very late for him) with some urgency; his diaper had come off during the night. But it and his bed were totally clean and dry. My little boy is getting potty trained incredibly quickly!
All in all, a wonderful weekend!