New pictures and Boston

I added 25 new pictures to the online album, including shots from our trip to Massachusetts back in early October.

Here, for instance, is Isaac on the shore of Walden Pond.

We had a wonderful time in Boston, although it would have been better if we hadn't had to stay an extra four days because of my appendectomy!

On the first day we walked through Harvard, went to their Museum of Natural History, and then got spectacularly lost looking for the Institute of Contemporary Art. When we did eventually find our way there, we met my brother Joel, whose wedding we were in Boston to attend. We ate dinner together at the museum cafe and stayed until the museum closed at 9:00 p.m.; my excuse is that the kids were still on California time, so it was only 6:00 p.m. to them.

At home we always stick to our schedule; I don't even linger too long at the park for fear of missing Laurel's optimal naptime window. Plus at home I would never dream of taking the kids out to a challenging destination at night! But it turned out that they really enjoyed the museum; there was a photo montage by Nan Goldin featuring babies and nursing mothers, and Laurel stared at it for many minutes. Maybe I should challenge my devotion to the schedule.

Speaking of getting lost, there was a lot of it in Boston. It happened so frequently and with such intensity that it colored the entire trip. We probably got lost four or five times a day, to the extent that Isaac still worries about it whenever I make a wrong turn. Recently we were driving someplace new and he repeatedly asked me if I knew where I was going. He even asked if we had enough gas to get there!

Anyway, back to Boston. On another day we took a tour of Boston in an amphibious vehicle, rode the T, went to the Public Garden to visit the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues, and had dinner in a restaurant with my brother. Another day we drove out to Concord, where we visited Walden Pond, Concord Museum (well, I stayed in the car with a sleeping Laurel), and then Authors' Ridge at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. To make up for all this literary stuff, we also took the kids to the Boston Children's Museum, and then Craig took Isaac to the Museum of Science while I hung around our rental house recuperating from my surgery.

Oh, and we went to a beautiful outdoor wedding on the bandstand overlooking Jamaica Pond! And then had a delicious dinner in a restaurant afterward! Plus a lovely brunch at the newlyweds' place the next morning! And then a super-fun karaoke reception that night!

Actually, the kids stayed up late those two nights, too. It did help that we were in a different time zone, but really they were just accommodating travelers. I did feel a little bad keeping my obviously sleepy baby daughter up late listening to happy drunk people sing karaoke in a loud bar -- but not so bad that we rushed home immediately after we heard the newlyweds' charming duet of "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"!

Congratulations again, Joel and Ashley!