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.

Caleb reading patiently on our couch while I finished getting ready.

Alewife.

Alewife again.

…and again.

…sigh, yes, this is still Alewife. What can I say, I thought the light looked awesome this morning.

Caleb walking up a hill in Beacon Hill on our way to Megan’s office.

After visiting Megan we stopped by the State House for a quick tour inside. Caleb wanted his photo in front before we made our way in.

Hmmmm. I think we are in the correct place…

Caleb thought this guy looked cool.

In the Great Hall of Flags. This guy had the room to himself, and despite the numerous flags to contemplate, he seemed to be trying to stare down the trash can.

Looking up in the Great Hall of Flags.

Caleb wanted a photo of himself with General Hooker.

And then he kept standing there staring off into the distance. Nap time? No — he claimed he just wanted a moment to think about things.

Caleb at the Park Street Station heading down the stairs on our way to Harvard Square.

Waiting for the train to arrive.

United we stand. Except in that car.

Caleb checking out some cars in his favorite toy store in Harvard Square.

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:

A few photos from this past weekend. Despite the fact that we were in Arlington, MA, Caleb looks like he is back in California.

Dave (a friend of mine from work) generously offered three tickets to us for last night’s Red Sox game. We had a blast, despite the rain, as the Sox routed the Indians 13 to 3. Thank you Dave! We had a great time watching the game with you and meeting your family!

Caleb checking out the game during one of the earlier innings. It started raining in the first or second inning, I think, and Caleb wore his rain jacket and pants for the rest of the game!

Caleb’s view of the game, before I propped him up on my backpack…

The view was amazing, especially as the sun started to set.

Caleb and Megan having a great time.

Dave’s brother, Dave, his sister-in-law, Megan, and Caleb.

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 had a great Daddy Day yesterday. The weather was beautiful (sunny, pretty clouds, and in the mid 60’s) so we decided to go for a hike. We packed up a nice hiking lunch, filled our water bottles, and drove to Great Brook Farm State Park. Caleb nabbed his own trail map when we arrived, and chose a wonderful loop hike that meandered through the woods and also by several ponds and meadows. We had a nice lunch (snacks along the trail, and then a sit-down lunch by the big pond) and said hello to the farm animals. Unfortunately we could not find Nadine’s goat friend, but she didn’t seem to mind too much. Unfortunately, though we packed a great lunch, I forgot to bring a camera. So…

Instead of hiking photos, I offer this photo of “Dash” (from the Incredibles). Caleb was looking forward to Megan’s train arriving in West Medford and rather than giving him a much-needed trim, we decided to spike his hair. He insisted on being called Dash thereafter (yes, all night — he pretty much would not answer to “Caleb”) and could (almost, if you looked really quickly and have very sharp vision) be seen sprinting around the house for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

After dinner we decided to walk to Arlington since the weather was so nice and a bit of walking would be fun. By that point Caleb’s hair dried in a big spikey puff. It was fantastic.

Sometime during the past few weeks I made up my mind to get Caleb some proper outdoor gear. He’s made it through two winters now in his bulky Columbia snow jacket, which served its purpose very well, but is too puffy for some applications. The jacket is waterproof and warm, which is great when playing/hiking outdoors in the snow, but overkill for any semi-warm to warm wet weather during the other three seasons. He had a rain jacket at some point but grew out of it. And about a year ago, when we were exploring New York City, we ducked into a store to buy him the only rain jacket available — an oversized pullover anorak.

I like being outdoors quite a bit (a lot, actually), but Caleb may actually like being outside more than I do. So, rather than force him to wear his winter jacket in wet spring weather, or his bulky (width-wise) anorak (I suppose he could also wear it over his backpack like a poncho…), I figured it was time to get him a proper shell for his torso, and perhaps a pair of rain pants as well.

I did a bit of research online as well and decided that the jacket should be more of a performance item (waterproof with as much breathability as possible) and figured he could live with semi-breathable rain pants to save a few bucks. Now comes the hard part… In looking at the various jacket options in-person, I found that as the sizes increased from the toddler range to the “boys” range, the girth noticeably expanded as well. This was a consistent feature in many of the jacket brands I checked out. (I’ll save my comments about childhood obesity, diabetes, exercise, quality of diet, television, parental responsibility, etc. for some other time…)

I managed to find two jacket brands that stayed slim as the size increased: The North Face, and Marmot. Since Caleb seems to grow a few inches in height every time I blink, I eyeballed the jackets for a size that I figured would carry him through two seasons (we did the same with his Columbia jacket, which was also on the trim side). Both jackets were quite nice but I settled on the Marmot for a few outdoorsy-geeky reasons (front pockets above the hip belt, double storm flap, lightweight and more flexible fabric) and because Marmot is an awesome company.

For pants I chose REI’s Cascade Pants, which have a waterproof, windproof, breathable material. They are also nice and trim and the pair I bought him may actually last him three seasons (the first two will require some cuffing, of course!).

So, head to toe, save gloves, Caleb is now water and wind-proof. For winter outings we’ll layer him up (just like we do) rather than encase him in a single puffy layer, and for the other three seasons we’ll do the same, with fewer layers, of course. I’m eager to get him out for longer hikes and have a few camping/hiking trips for he and I (+ Megan and Nadine for a few) planned between now and next winter.

Here’s a photo of Caleb in his new high-tec shells:

And what does any responsible outdoor-type person do as soon as they bring new gear home? They test it out of course! (Yes, I know I’m a dork but I’d rather find out something is not waterproof in my shower than 5 miles down a trail in pouring rain…)

These are from just after Christmas, on a day when the temperatures soared to the sweltering high 40’s and low 50’s… (Click on the photo to the right to see more.)

While we had quite a fun time in the snow a week earlier, it was nice to see it melt down into the ground and drains along with the colder temperatures. For a moment, we thought that we might be back in sunny California, until we went to the park and encountered the mud fields (which, a day before, were vast snow/ice/slush fields). Ahhh, there is nothing like a beautiful white snow scape turning into a sticky, messy, mud dump.