Saturday, July 07, 2007

a day out

One more chapter in the saga of the long, slow goodbye to Boston.

Today, it was time to have another ride on the Swan Boats. These are such a Boston tradition (going back to 1877). Fifteen minutes of peace and quiet, of watching the ducks and the geese and the swans (still no cygnets), and imagining how different and how similar the view would have been back in 1877.


When I first moved here years ago, I really wanted to take a ride on them, but I felt a little sheepish going on my own without kids. Fast forward a few years, and I have kids who are more than happy to take their mom on a Swan Boat ride.



Some beautiful iron fencing around the Central Burying Ground on Boston Common. I'd never noticed this before. How simple, and yet how lovely.


A grim reminder about the price of "progress." When Boston began building its subway in the 1890s, they ended up moving some unidentified "persons" to a mass grave in the Central Burying Ground.


Hours and hours of walking, and "seeing what we can see," and talking and laughing and pointing and listening and questions questions always more questions. Finally, keep the kids quiet and cool with an ice cream in a special spot on Beacon Hill. A buck fifty for an ice cream and a view of life on Charles Street. Life is good.

1 comment:

Knitting Linguist said...

The swan boats look like such fun! I know my kids would love them -- they've read about them so many times in Make Way For Ducklings. I haven't read far enough back into your blog to know where or when you're moving, but it sounds like you're saying goodbye to Boston in the best possible way.

Thanks so much for your comments on my blog (I never know the protocol for this; do I respond to them in my blog, in my comments, or on someone else's blog -- so much netiquette still to figure out here). Things are getting into a routine, and knitting is definitely saving me from losing my cool :)