Caleb and I decided to head out to Boston for a bit of an urban hike for our Daddy Day. It has been a while since we have wandered around the city (we used to almost every Friday when we lived in the North End and I could carry him on my shoulders for miles on end…he’s unfortunately too big for me to carry that far anymore). We took the red line to MGH and then walked to Megan’s office to surprise her. From there we checked out the State House and then decided to head over to Harvard Square (again on the red line). We checked out one of Caleb’s favorite toy/book stores, had a bite to eat, and then headed home.
Megan’s boss very generously gave us a few free passes to visit the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln. We picked a nice fall afternoon for our visit, and brought Miss Nadine along for the tour of the outdoor sculpture garden. Click on the photo below to see more images from our time at the museum.
The photos below are from a Daddy Day during the latter part of July. It was a drizzly afternoon but we still had a great time. We took the train to Boston, grabbed a snack at Whole Foods, walked to Megan’s office to surprise her, toured Boston Common, walked to Copley Square, explored the library, and walked back to North Station for the ride home. It was a great trip!
Click on the photo below to see all of the pictures from our afternoon:
We took a little family hike today (photos to come later) and I thought this clip of Caleb scrambling up the last bit of trail before the top of Ram’s Head Hill was pretty cute.
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.
