Day 124, Year 9: Trip to Boston
Date: Friday, February 21, 2014
Weather: Rain Overnight; Overcast and Foggy Day; Rainstorm Late Evening
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
There was every indication this morning that today was going to be wet and miserable. Mark had to go to Boston for a trial run of his radiation treatments that begin on Monday, so I decided to go with Mark and to take Sam, Jonah, and Ollie along as well. I figured it was a perfect day to do to the New England Aquarium. With all of the snorkeling that we did in Culebra, this seemed like a most fitting follow-up and a good rainy day diversion. We had mentioned the idea to Sam and Jonah yesterday, and when we arrived this morning, they were both enthusiastic about going. So off we went. Mark dropped us off at the aquarium and the three boys and I headed inside. As we did so, I had a moment of hesitation about dealing with all three boys by myself, but I reminded myself that for years I handled 25 kindergarteners or first graders every day so surely I could handle three little boys for a couple of hours. Lucky for me, all three boys were unbelievably cooperative. After we got inside, I went over the ground rules and I never had to say another word to them. They stayed right with me all the time, and Sam and Jonah were so helpful with Ollie. He was in “big boy” mode and wanted to do everything just like his brothers, so I let him and he was perfectly behaved. I went over the aquarium schedule of activities with Sam and Jonah and let them choose what they wanted to do and off we went. We watched the penguins for a bit and then walked round and round the central fish tank to the top in time to see the divers do the 11:15 am feeding. We then walked round and round to get back down to the first floor, stopping to watch the divers swimming with the turtles and rays and fish along the way. Every time Ollie spotted a diver he would scream out, “Divees!” We then went to see the IMAX 3-D movie, Journey to the South Pacific. It was not the most exciting IMAX movie I have ever seen, but the boys loved it—especially the part where a thirteen year-old boy hand fed whale sharks. Mark met us after the movie and we went back to the aquarium to show Granddad some of our favorite things. But there were at least twice the number of people in the aquarium as there had been earlier in the morning. The line to get lunch looked like a line at Disney World during school vacation, so we agreed to visit the penguins (‘pengees’ in Olliese) one more time and head to Quincy Market for lunch. It was a short visit, but probably just the right amount of time for our crew. By the time we walked to Quincy Market and had lunch, Ollie was definitely ready for a nap, so he slept all the way home. Seeing all of the beautiful reef fish in the tank today gave me extra incentive to look through the underwater photos we took during the past week and put together a “Best of Underwater Culebra” collection. I have barely had a chance to see any of them, so that will be my goal for this weekend.
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| 140221 Day 124 Cape Cod, USA–New England Aquarium |
