Last Day in Boston

We found out Sharon was in town with her family to visit her mother-in-law.  Bea lives in a lovely home with a small indoor lap pool, so D bundled up the kids with their swimming gear and we went to see EYPS and Teo.  The pool is nicely heated and the kids had a blast in the pool.  I haven't seen Sharon in years, so it was great to catch up with her and GP.  Bea had just got a new black lab puppy who is adorable.  

While we were visiting, we got a call from Stephen about the slightly early arrival of Mason O'Sullivan, healthy baby boy!   All in all, a wonderful way to wrap up a great week's visit. 

Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving turned out to be a balmy day, high 50s, low 60s.  Amy, who is Julie's sister, came by with her husband John and daughter Lucia to play with Mari and Austin.  The kids love hanging out together, especially the two girls (as you can see from the photo of them jumping on the bed).  It was so warm out, D and John took the kids to the park, no coats!  

Dinner was at the home of Julie's and Amy's stepsister Catherine Rocchio.  The home was filled with young children.  Dinner was turkey, mashed potatoes (traditional recipe from Julie's maternal grandmother), D's famous brussels sprouts, and roasted sweet potatoes.  Dessert consisted of 5 different pies: chocolate with gingerbread crust, apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, blueberry.

Exploring Boston

Yesterday D and I went to the new ICA on the waterfront.  The building is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.  There are beautiful views of the water from a glass wall at the gallery level as well as from the theatre, and from a viewing window in the 'mediatheque' which hangs under the main cantilevered gallery space.  They were showing a really interesting design exhibit which had examples of book covers, fashion, industrial design, architecture, etc.  I particularly liked the projects from 'DIY' magazine Make and Readymade.  The ICA is starting to build a permanent collection and among the artists they acquired is Tara Donovan.  One of her pieces is a cube made of straight pins, loosely held together.  According to one of the volunteers, the pins fall off easily and the whole thing needs to be remade regularly.  There is a sense of obsessiveness about her work which I love.  They will have a whole show of her pieces late next year, should be a good one!  

The ICA is right next door to Anthony's Pier 4, which apparently is an old Boston institution.  We had delicious clam chowder and shrimp scampi for lunch.

After lunch, I explored the Boston Public Library and Trinity Church in Copley Square.  Both buildings are filled with beautiful art.  The library has many wonderful murals including a series on the Holy Grail and another by John Singer Sargent.  The church is filled with stained glass, including some beautiful examples by Edward Burne Jones.

Harvard/MIT

I had lunch with Elaine and Alex today. They are Radcliffe fellows this year so I joined them at the Fellows lunch. We chatted with a couple of interesting people, including an artist from LA! The Fellows are from various academic areas and all have their own projects they are working on. After lunch, we took a bus to MIT and walked through the main building (and the infinite corridor) and then to see the new Stata Center. (That's us reflected in part of the building.) This facility was designed by Frank Gehry. It is a typical Gehry building. Before I headed back to D's, I stopped at the MIT Museum. Among the exhibits was a series of kinetic sculptures by Stewart Ganson, basically little sculptures that are driven by a motor and have moving parts. Many of them are quite beautiful and a little odd.

The First Thanksgiving

We went to visit Plimouth Plantation today. Seemed appropriate considering the time of year. It's divided into a Wampanoag (the original inhabitants of southern Massachusets) and English colonist village. In the Wampanoag village, they are dressed in traditional clothing, however they are not 'playing' people from 1600's so that visitors can ask about modern life as well as what it was like 'back in the day'. The colonists are playing parts, and you could ask them questions about their daily lives and they will answer as people from 1627 Plimouth. The little village had several houses, each with a vegetable garden, a big main building that looked like a meeting house, and a beautiful view of the bay. Austin and I are at what appears to be a bread baking oven. The exhibits in the museum are geared towards teaching visitors that the myths that we learned in school about the first Thanksgiving are not completely accurate. Both the English and the native people were cautious around each other.

Ice skating at the Frog Pond

We drove to Needham to get a set of bunk beds for the kids in the morning. The drive was beautiful as the leaves were still on the trees, so lots of yellows, reds. In the afternoon, we went for a walk through the Public Garden and Boston Common to the Frog Pond for ice skating. It was the first time for the kids and the adults were pretty darn rusty as well. The kids did great! Mari has a really good sense of balance. Austin got to be pretty fast with 2 people holding him and was completely into 'falling' which is good for learning to skate. We refueled with hot chocolate before heading home for a nap.

Boston, Sel de la Terre restaurant

D's birthday

So you'll have to turn your head, I have no idea how to rotate the picture. We had a great birthday dinner at this restaurant my first night in Boston. I had scallops for the 1st course, duck for main course, and a yummy rioja to go with. We shared a chocolate dessert and a maple cheesecake (which was excellent).

Need a publicist?

My friend Amy is a publicist and she has a new website, which I've linked to, it's Tower PR. She's also got an RSS feed of PR tips, in case you need to get your event, info, whatever out to the media. Amy is in my knitting group and my book group. I met her through Gigi, who I've also linked to, that's VitaminGigi. I have a lot of entrepreneurial friends!

So, need a publicist? A cool recycled scarf? I know people!