We returned yesterday evening from a whirlwind trip to Boston, where Jeremy presented his paper, entitled "The Nature of Gentrification: Environmental Ameneties and Neoliberal Urbanism," to much critical acclaim at the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers. Woosh. We enjoyed our trip, although being in a city with a toddler who has food allergies adds an additional level of complexity to life, but we all survived, and Clara was happy to drink lots more juice than she ever gets at home. She also had to drink a lot of powdered soy milk, so hopefully the juice made up for that.
We visited three states on our trip, which concluded with an extremely pleasant visit with my cousin Paul and his family. And since this is definitely a travelogue, I'm including more pictures than usual. Please feel free to take a break halfway through the post if you get tired.
Moments after our arrival in Boston, we set up Clara's new portable crib so she could get used to the idea of being in it. She thought it was great, and slept pretty well in it. Jeremy and I spent our evenings in the dark, waiting for her to fall asleep. Quite memorably, we ate an entire takeout salad together while sitting on our bed in the pitch dark while Clara squirmed around, trying to fall asleep. I actually think eating in the dark heightens one's sense of taste, since one never knows what exactly will be on one's fork. Very exhilirating.
Eating breakfast. This was before Clara fell backwards and head-first out of her high chair, much to the horror of her mother and other concerned onlookers. Fortunately, I was holding onto her waistband and managed to suspend her in the air just short of the tile floor, which must negate at least some of my momentarily haphazard mothering.
At the Boston Public Library we met up with Jeremy and visited their wonderful children's section, which had lots of toys and toddlers, all of which Clara loved. When we found this little statue from the classic
Make Way for Ducklings, we told Clara we could find lots of these little ducks if we walked to the park.
And we did! This is a wonderful statue in the Boston Public Garden. I have long heard of it and was happy to visit it myself.
We took advantage of some local knowledge procured at the Public Garden and headed to a neighborhood playground in the middle of some beautiful row houses (I have always wanted to live in a row house in Boston or New York...). The weather was beautiful, and we were certainly not the only ones enjoying the playground, but Clara didn't care. She got super dirty and loved playing in the sandbox.
One highlight of the trip was our relatively short visit to the Children's Museum. It was incredibly difficult to get to, I thought, but worth the effort (and the $11 parking and the $22 admission for the three of us!). Clara was on cloud nine in the special room for 0-3 year-olds, where she made stamp art...
...and played on a light table...and chewed on some plastic food (my mom is probably freaking out right now) and rode in a toy car and played on the jungle gym. This museum is truly fun--the best children's museum I've been to, in my admittedly limited experience.
After our two days in Boston, we headed up to visit my cousin and his family, and on Saturday they went to their soccer games while we headed to Maine for a fun day trip. We went to Portland, ate clam chowder, and took a ferry ride to Peaks Island. Clara was over the moon about the boat ride and walking on the pier, and almost certainly would've thrown herself headlong into the ocean if we'd let her.
We enjoyed going to church with my cousins before heading back to Syracuse, exhausted but happy at another classic adventure. And you will not be surprised to hear that we have another grand adventure around the corner. Check back for details!
