Beantown

Enough of this country stuff.  It's time for a big city.

We escaped Canada on the 30th of June, just before Canada Day (whew!).  We dilly dallied in Maine for a few days, and made it to Boston on the 3rd of July.  Too late to celebrate Independence day according to one founding father, but just in time to check out the Boston Pops 4th of July preview along the Charles river!

While it was delayed because of a thunderstorm warning and then had some starts and stops, the whole thing was quite amazing.  The Boston Pops and the Indigo Girls were great, and we were quite intrigued by ​Rhiannon  Giddens.  Overall a great way for Boston to welcome us.

On actual Independence Day we just lounged around our awesome home exchange place in Cambridge.  (Thanks Hilary and Dave!)  Sometimes a mellow day is just what the doctor ordered.  We needed all the rest we could get before tackling the Freedom Trail.

I chose to get the picture of a silhouetted Paul Revere framed by trees in front of the church.

While Sarah chose her own way to capture the time and place.

It was quite warm on this particular New England day and the offspring were happy to discover the fountains in the park that used to be the Interstate.

Pizza in the North End was crowded, loud, and delicious.

While Sarah went off to Princeton for a teacher conference, the rest of us stayed and played in Cambridge.  First, Harvard University's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments to see the first programmable computer in the US, amongst other things...  

Then the MIT museum!

The Arthur Ganson kinetic sculptures were pretty awesome.

Tetris on a model of a skyscraper was The Eldest's favorite bit.

MIT's collection of slide rules was especially exciting.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...syrup volume...

The day ended with pizza and candlepin bowling.

Public transportation is tasty!

On the next day-without-Sarah we headed across state lines to explore a bit of Providence, Rhode Island.  We took a quick peek at Brown U., then quenched our hunger for Uyghur cuisine at Jahunger, enjoyed a Pawtucket Red Sox game, and washed it all down with sweet crepes in a shmancy setting at a snuggery called the Duck and Bunny.

The Big O's lunch might actually have been one long noodle.

While the Schnacks were keeping it close to home and rooting for the blue eyeball, it was the green one that won the inter-inning race.

Sarah rejoined the family and we explored the Mapparium with my college friend Houdin who we hadn't seen in around 18 years!

And then, finally, the event we had been waiting for.  We walked (walked!) over to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game!

The Eldest was wearing his new Pawtucket Hot Weiners souvenir hat from the game the day before.

There were very few empty seats in the place.

We were in the cheap seats, but since Fenway is so small, they were still pretty darn good seats, right next to the Big Green Monster. 

We then wandered around a bit and an usher invited us to to sit in some fancier, newly  empty seats.  

I have to say that the vibe of the place was amazing, and even though I didn't grow up a Red Sox fan, I certainly was that night.  It was probably the most fun any of us have ever had at a baseball game.

We learned that they installed a farm on an unused roof in the back of the park.

And then...

After a great night's sleep we then headed north for the next leg of our adventure.  We followed just a wee bit of the New Hampshire Ice Cream Trail and stopped in Littleton, across from the:

to have a scoop or three and support the local maple syrup industry.

Yes, it ended up being just as messy as this image foreshadows.

Canada, round deux, here we come!