Boston

In an earlier post I talked about a friend of mine from high school who I visited up in Boston during my freshman year of college. This friend of mine never moved back from Boston. Throughout the years whenever I’d be up in Boston I would get together with him. Whether I was in town for a marketing job, an acting gig, or it was flying out of Logan Airport we would always make time to see each other if he was in town.

I haven’t been to Boston since December of 2015. I haven’t seen him since December of 2015. And so finally in August of 2022 the little and I made a trip up to Boston. Now I’m sure if it wasn’t for the pandemic it wouldn’t have taken until after his 5th birthday to get up there but such was the way of the world.

We live close enough that we can do Boston as a-day trip and so we got up, we had breakfast, and we hit the road. We talked some, we jammed some, music, and we discussed the things that we would do. We walked over to Martin’s Park where B said he’d meet us and L enjoyed himself by playing in a new location.

What was great was that in the park (and I noticed as our day went on throughout multiple locations in Boston) there were what looked like hand sanitizer stations however they were filled with sunscreen. They were free to use for whoever wanted to use them. And as much as I like a nice tan melanoma is no joke. So use the sun screen folks!

B soon met up with us at the park and the kiddo immediately took to him. At park there were 2 separate fenced in play areas however there is a bridge that took you from one to the other that the child had discovered moments before B had arrived and once B had arrived L immediately wanted to show up how to get from one to the other and called him over and said follow me and took him over to the bridge.

Once B was back he and I continued to catch up on what’s been going on with our families, with work, and through the pandemic as the kiddo continued to play. Pretty soon it was lunch time and the kiddo had wanted mac and cheese. Before we left the park we filled L’s water bottle at the water bottle fill station. We went to a barbecue joint Called Smoke Shop BBQ that was about a block away. The kid said he had to sit with B (it is a pattern that he has, he meets my friends, and my friends are now his friends, and they are no longer my friends).

After lunch B asked where we were going and I mentioned the Swan boats and the carousel –the usual family Boston tourist spots. B took part of the walk with us as his metro was in that direction. On the walk there my friend was so good with him and I realized all his years as an elementary school music teacher has taught him very well on how to handle small children. I felt blessed to have his help that day. I discovered having help from a caring responsible attentive adult makes traveling with a tiny human so much easier.

As we walked we found fountains that other kids were jumping in. The kiddo wanted to as well. The kiddo did not have a bath suit. He didn’t care. I didn’t care so off he went. B stayed and chatted for a while longer before we all said our good-byes. I miss him. He’s a great person. These fountains were more like a splash pad than a traditional fountain. That didn’t stop him from dipping into a traditional fountain later that day in Boston Commons however. I know some things are genetic, but I didn’t think that would be one of them. He didn’t get far with that so there’s no pic of that. Instead here’s a pic of me from my college days (We Are!) in a fountain.

The kiddo stayed in the fountain for probably close to an hour before we walked the last block to the carousel. During the walk over he was barefoot walking down the streets of Boston barefoot — another thing I didn’t think was genetic. But such is life. I hate how my feet look, so no pictures of that.

The carousel ride was a decently long one and there were some great tunes on while in line and while on the ride itself. Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do had me feeling fine as I waited in the sun. Sometimes I need to remember to sunscreen myself up to. Maybe they should have had Soak Up The Sun on instead. Queen’s We Will Rock You came on as our Carousel ride began.

From there we walked over to Boston Common. I had forgotten how long of a walk it was. It was fine for me. I used to live in NYC and a walk from Harlem to midtown would be nothing, but 5 year olds with 5 year old legs is a different story.

We stopped at Newbury Comics where he wanted to buy all of the small items he saw (some of the big ones too) and I explained to him that he didn’t have any money left because every time he goes somewhere he keeps buying all this small stuff so he doesn’t have any money saved up. So no, he could get nothing. I’ll buy him stuff once in awhile, but I am really working hard on making sure he understands that stuff costs money and you can’t spend it frivolously and you really need to think about what you’re buying and if you really want it or not. So I definitely do not buy him something every time we go somewhere and he can use his own money certainly but when he’s out he’s out.

We stopped at King’s Chapel Burying Ground. L seems fascinated by cemeteries and he asked if we could go. I said yes, but you must be respectful. So we went in. For his 1st cemetery to be the one with the first woman to step foot off the Mayflower that’s quite something. But then he and I had to talk about colonialism. We also discussed how we were walking on part of The Freedom Trail but just because it’s called The Freedom Trail is does not mean everyone gained Freedom and that by some of these people “gaining” their freedom it actually led to others losing theirs.

We finally made it to Boston Common. We filled up his water bottle at the fill station and got a lemonade. He of course wanted to drink the whole thing, but I said we needed to share… that didn’t go well.

We got to the Swan Boats and took a ride. The weather was beautiful and all the people that were in the same boat as us were nice and respectful, and it was an enjoyable 15 minutes around the lake.

After the boat ride he ran around the park as we made our way to the metro so we could head to the North End. The North End is a more historic section of Boston and is the Italian neighborhood. The kiddo likes cannoli so I figured a stop at Mike’s Pastry would be needed while we were in town.

The subway was packed and due to track work we had to get off earlier than expected. We huffed it the rest of the way and then started to make our way through the bustling North End. It was dinnertime and families were out having dinners of pasta and pizza and parmagina (chicken, veal, eggplant, what’s yours?). We got to Mike’s and of course there was a line. I asked him if he wanted to wait and he did. And he got a little antsy but not as bad as I had expected. Either he’s starting to learn patience or he really wanted that cannolo.

As we got closer and could see the menu I read out the flavors to him so he’s be ready to go once we were inside. You need to be ready, you have to move fast, or you will be looked over and they’ll move onto the next. Mike’s is still cash only so make sure you’re ready for that. Each cannolo is I believe 5 bucks and they fill them to order. Once again my mind tricked my taste buds into getting a flavored one rather than a classic. Once again, it was good, but I was still craving a classic cannolo. Hopefully I’ll get one soon!

We were about a 20 minute walk to the car and the subway that we would need wasn’t anywhere near us so we walked back to the car. It had been a long day. But the kiddo did quite well. I was proud of him and his dirty barefoot walking feet. He did eventually put shoes back on. When we got to the car we devoured our cannoli before he hit the road!