Caleb Nadine and I took a trip to Great Brook Farm State Park yesterday morning for some hiking and to see if the animals were out. It was an awesome day — crisp, beautiful, and not too cold — and Caleb and Nadine were excited for the trip. (Click on the photo to the right to see more pictures.)

We didn’t hike for as long as I had hoped — Caleb’s energy waned pretty quickly and it became obvious that he would benefit from a solid nap at home — but it was still a lot of fun. Nadine found a goat friend and Caleb had a great time watching the animals and hiking.

Today was Daddy Day and with Megan out of town for the weekend at an AMC (her job) event, I wanted to do something unique and fun with Caleb. A few days ago I started tossing around ideas and settled on taking him to a farm to go apple picking and check out the equipment and whatever else we could find.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned as we woke up to a fairly even downpour. Picking apples in the rain, I guessed, would not be nearly as much fun as in the sunshine. For better or worse, however, Caleb and I decided to go through with it anyway. What’s a little rain and wet clothes — certainly not enough to stop us from having a good time?

I didn’t take very many pictures (juggling a camera, bag of apples, three year old, and an umbrella is not as easy as it looks), but those that I did take are below.

Just starting out. This is just after we crossed the bridge from Boston to Charlestown.

Heading out of Boston on Hwy. 1

Still on Hwy. 1. Still raining.

Still raining, but now the road is beautiful. We are very close to the farm now.

Boots! Our bag of apples is almost full!

Heading home over the Tobin. Still raining, but we have a bag full of awesome apples to eat!

Yesterday was a pseudo Daddy Day, and a full one at that. Megan has been in New Hampshire for work since Friday evening and Caleb and I have been doing our best to maximize the father/son time as well as the great weather. (Click on the photo to the right to see all of the images from our adventure.)

I’ve been considering a stint in graduate school sometime in the next few years and have been itching to check out the UMass Boston campus. Always ready for a new adventure venue, Caleb eagerly agreed to check out the campus. A short Red Line ride and shuttle bus transfer and we found ourselves on the campus…all alone (well, almost). I had hoped to find at least one random straggler wandering around the campus just itching to answer my questions, but alas, we had the grounds all to ourselves.

…Until we discovered the Mini Cooper concert/ race/ carnival/ extravaganza in the back of the campus. Sheesh. If only they had car seats installed in the test cars. There was a very cool looking course that you could race a Mini around, and at least 5 or so cars were screeching around caution cone corners. Maybe next time.

Leaving the UMass campus we found ourselves wandering around Copley Square, the Hynes Convention area, the Prudential, and eventually, the Symphony area. In case you are wondering, the Borders Books in Copley is very sweet, and the two guys standing at the front to answer book questions can indeed direct you to the nearest music store (not for CDs, but for guitar strings).

(If you clicked on the photo above and looked through all of the images and want to check out some of Stoller’s work, look no further.)

Here’s a map of the walking route we took this past Friday. We started at Boston University (the red marker) after exiting the Green Line. Click on the map for a larger view.

Yesterday was one of the more physically intensive Daddy Days we have had for some time. When asked, Caleb said that we should go to Central Square. Not content with our normal route of a walk to Park Street to catch the Red Line over the river, I decided that we would take the Green Line to BU and walk to Central Square instead. The weather was perfect and I figured it would be a good way to see a part of Boston neither of us had explored much before (Cambridgeport). Click on the photo to the right to see all of the images from our adventure!

The weather was indeed beautiful — sunny and not too hot — and perfect for a long afternoon walk outside. The walking portion of the trip, essentially BU to the North End, via Central Square and the Mass Ave bridge on the way back (instead of the more direct Longfellow Bridge) was just under 6 miles long. Roughly 5 of those miles Caleb trudged from the comfort of my arms or shoulders. (What’s a stroller?)

We learned a few things along the way, namely that Boston is beautiful in the summer, and the park along the Charles River (adjacent to Storrow Drive) is simply made for running/ strolling/ taking everything in.

Yay! Another Daddy Day post! (I think I am almost caught up now.) The photos to the right (click on the image to see them all) are from the end of May. Caleb took a late and rather long afternoon nap, so we ended up heading out on our Friday adventure pretty near to the end of the day (we left the North End around 4pm I think).

In talking through our options with Caleb, he picked Harvard Square as our destination. We made a pit stop at Megan’s office, which is on the way to the Park Street Red Line station, because I forgot to ask Caleb to use the restroom before we left our house. A short ride across the river and we romped around Harvard Square for a bit, taking in some dinner, and checking out Eastern Mountain Sports for skateboards (they had none).

On our way back, we decided to take the scenic route along the waterfront and took our time moseying home.

Wow! I am really quite behind on posting!

Check out some of our photos from a Daddy Day adventure we took back in April (click on the photo to the right to see them all). Sheesh! Where does the time go?

We walked to the Seaport District from our house on this trip and Caleb started asking me to take his photograph in various spots. I think the red Ferrari kicked off the trend (I asked him if he wanted a shot of it with him in front and he said yes, of course) but it was fun taking photos of him. He asked if I wanted a photograph of myself a few times, so some of the shots in there are his. Good times.

Boy am I glad we left yesterday evening instead of trying to stick it out last night. It is sunny and beautiful in Boston (and our tent is finally dry — it’s been hanging in the shower since last night) but not so much in Bear Brook State Park. Here’s the hour-by-hour weather forecast:

If you like falafal, and even if you do not, I highly recommend that you stop by the Falafal Palace in Central Square. I had my first experience a few weeks ago with some friends and had been itching to take Megan and Caleb for a tasting ever since. I remembered the place being called the “Falafal King” — hence the title — and had been rambling about it for days to Megan and Caleb. (As an aside, when we popped out of the subway station and made our way to the street, the first thing Caleb said was, “Where is the Falafal King?” Click here, or on the photo, to see more of our trip!)

I guess I couldn’t wait until all three of us could make the trip as I decided Daddy Day was as long as I could wait. So sans Megan, Caleb and I ventured over on the Red Line to see if the sandwich was as good the second time around. He liked it a lot, though it was a bit messy to share. …I definitely think we’ll need to bring Megan next time and see if the third visit is just as good as the first or second.

After our fantastic lunch, Caleb and I roamed around Central Square for a bit. Probably my favorite part of the trip is when we took a detour through a book store. Caleb plopped down at a table to read a book but then decided that he should help me find a gift for Megan (her birthday is coming up!). We wandered through the shelves and he would point out books that he wanted to get for her. We settled on having him pick out a card and he nabbed one of the coolest birthday cards I have seen in a while (let’s just say it is a postcard and a rather random one at that).

All in all, full on fantastic falafal, we had a great Daddy Day.

If you know me well enough or have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I am not too fond of strollers. …so if you catch me using one, something is up. (I broke down and agreed to bring one on our recent trip to Mexico and am more or less glad that we did. Rolling Caleb around the airport was pretty much the only way to get him to fall asleep!)

I am pretty sure these photos are from last weekend, or perhaps the weekend before (click on the photo, or here, to see more!). I wasn’t feeling great and Caleb was sick as well — he had a runny nose, a cough, and just wasn’t acting like his normal chipper self. We wanted to head outside for an adventure and my biggest priority was making sure he was as warm as possible. So, without much hesitation, I opted to strap him in the stroller and zip him into his mobile sleeping bag (I’m sure it’s called something else).

My constant prodding of, “Are you warm or cold?” seemed to annoy him — he more or less said he was warm every time, no matter how few blocks passed between my interrogations. He also seemed quite content getting the front seat for once, rather than riding on my shoulders or up front, cradled like a sack of potatoes (that weigh as much as an almost 3-year old, I guess). Even so, and despite the nipping wind, he would ask to get out every time I stopped the stroller. So I kept walking.

I must say, covering 2-3 miles pushing a stroller is easier on the back and shoulders than covering the same with your son bopping up and down in the thinner altitude just above your head. That said, I noticed that it was much harder to talk to him when he was below and in front of me, and certainly over the constant grinding of the stroller wheels on concrete, asphalt, dirt and ice.

While our adventures are a reason to be out and about having fun, I think I enjoy most simply walking around with Caleb, having him point things out (his arm jutting over my head, finger stiffly marking something with its posture), and talking endlessly. When my back and shoulders start to hurt too much to keep him up top, I shift him down to my front, almost like a backwards piggy-back ride where he faces in. In this position, I tend to sing to him when we aren’t chatting. In fact, I guess I sing to him a lot when he is like that, and probably enjoy those moments the most.

So it doesn’t surprise me at all that even though I felt as if I only walked a few miles (rather than hiking several times more with a full pack on my back), I enjoyed our stroller ride far less than most of our more “huddled” adventures.

…seems logical to me. At least until he’s bigger than me, I suppose…