Boston...

Well...as I write this Charlie, Chase and Tiffany are sleeping deep after another day of hoofing it all over Boston.  First, we woke up early enough to go to Boston's Chinatown - which is funny because it practically is a single street.  But we Dim Sum'd at Empire Pavilion and it was good.  The place itself looked like it must have been an old theater, because it had massively high ceilings and all sorts of ornate decorations everywhere.  Let me tell you, the food was fresh and scrumptagious.  You may not have guessed it, but Boston Dim Sum is indeed as good as Dim Sum back home.  But it just hit me, they didn't offer chicken's feet.  Chicken's feet are my favorite Dim Sum dish!

We had drummed up a massive morning appetite because yesterday we went out to Cambridge and took a stroll through Harvard.  I have to confess it didn't really mean much to me as we were walking through.  The Harvard Natural History museum was impressive in its collection of taxidermy.  We saw a lion hanging out in the same glass case as a bear and a monkey.  You don't really see that in a museum nowadays.  

Here are the girls with the timeless Harvard Water Pump.

Later we met our old high school debate pal Jong and his lovely wife and two boys for dinner.  After dinner Jong took us back over to campus and gave us some Harvard history and filled us with factoids that brought the campus alive.  He pointed out where Kennedy dormed- which is also where he himself dormed.  He told us about some of the architecture of the school.  He took us to various corners of the campus and really made it all mean something.  Harvard is very old and is very aware of its age.  I can just picture a youthful Jong now, trudging through the frosty morning to one of his classes...the world his Boston Harbor Oyster, rubbing Mr. Harvard's shoe (a statue that is widely known to not actually be of Mr. Harvard at all) for good luck for a test coming up that afternoon- a custom students allegedly do on a regular basis.  I myself would be on my knees in front of the statue crying in disbelief that I got into Harvard to begin with.  I would be wailing and my nose would be runny and frozen on my quivering lip and I'd be pleading with the statue to please oh please come to life and take the test for me, because there is no possible way that I could pass ANY test offered at Harvard.  I guess it's a good thing, then, that I decided to never even apply...

I must add here a special "thank you" to Jong and his family for taking the time to visit with us - especially on a weeknight - and on top of that Jong drove us back to our hotel...and gave us a bonus tour along the way.  (He drove us by John Kerry's house.)  Thanks guys.  I really really wanted to post a picture of everyone right here but we took it on Charlie's camera and Charlie's camera has decided it isn't going to talk to my computer on this trip.  I'm sorry I can't share that photo, but just imagine my family with four of the coolest people in the world, and that will do the trick.

So this morning after Dim Sum the family tackled the the New England Aquarium.  You will see much of what we saw on the little video offered below.  It was a beautiful aquarium but quite busy and crowded.  My guess is that since it is Good Friday many people, knowing that fish was for dinner, really wanted to work up an appetite by coming to the aquarium.  I myself had prime rib for dinner.  

After the aquarium we hit the children's museum.  The girls jumped and climbed and crawled and pumped and smacked and bubbled and washed and floated and looked and did many other verbs that kids love to do there.  But this is the moment I will treasure always- and it took place right outside of the children's museum.

This photo was taken in front of the spot where the Boston Tea Party Happened!  Right there.  Behind us!  I can't tell you how stoked I was at this, because I think the Boston Tea Party was one of the greatest packages of rebellion and humor ever delivered by mankind - and to me it was the first truly "American" act the colonists conducted. 

All of this made us very hungry for lunch so we ate at a place called The Barking Crab.  I realize that the restaurant's name sounds like the last thing you'd ever want a doctor to tell you you've contracted, but The Barking Crab had tons of fresh seafood of every variety.  It was rustic and salty in atmosphere and only the women's restroom was working, and the door didn't lock.  So I'd like to apologize now to the woman I "interrupted."  It wasn't personal, I promise.  But your panicked eyes peering over the stall door will haunt me for days.

I myself ordered a total of two pounds of every kind of crab that is currently in season.  Tiffany ordered a lobster roll. This is what a lobster roll looks like.  Take that, fast food!

Tiffany put it in her tummy and was happy.  All four of us consumed the crab and laughed at how full we were.

After we came back to the hotel for a quick rest, we went back to Faneuil Hall for one last time, and supped some Yankee Food at Durgen Park.  Then, after buying some tasty dessert treats, we said our goodbyes to one hell of a great town.  Great men and moments seem to be drawn to Boston.  From the witch trials to the Revolutionary War to Abolition to Colonel Robert Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry to John Kennedy to almost NASA and John Kerry.  Very few cities in this country, even in the world, can boast so many layers of history.

Tomorrow.  To NYC.