Wednesday July 19th
Topic: Vacation 2006


We had a couple of choices to make on taking a train to Boston, We could've gotten up fairly early & taken a train at 8:45 am. Or a train which left Haverhill at 10:23. We're not morning people as a general rule & while on vacation we've been getting very bad about staying up late & getting up even later. So the 10:23 was the obvious choice especialy since the earlier train is considered a commuter train & I try not to inflict The kids on comuters! J's apartment is close enough to the train station that we were able to walk over & the train had already arrived from Boston & was finishing up with the discharging of passengers when we got up to the platform. Much to Mr7's dismay the train was getting ready to pull out of the station- Not to leave but to turn around. He thought it was leaving without us & got very upset. I explained about the train needing to switch tracks & he was ok with that. We waited a few minutes & it came back we got on & rode to Boston. The ride in was ok-Not so much graffitti as when I was a teen & went back & forth north shore to south often- I used to entertain myself by reading graffiti back then.
I rode on the train with Mr 7 the Thomas fan, he looked at railroad tracks & ocasional other trains on the trip. I blogged via the phone to my semi private blog & tried to point out areas of interest but a lot of buildings have been taken down to make room for ne w ones. So many of my 'points of interest' {random to say the least} were not there. 7 still is young enough to get excited by things like large bodies of water though, so all was not lost! While thinking about this I remembered taking a trip to Maine with my Father & Brother when I was 16 & Ben was twelve & my Father verbally mourning our young childhoods- reminiscing about how when we were younger he'd point out cows, interesting signs etc. along the way. but that now {back in 1986} we were not impressed & often didn't even hear him due to our walkmans. As my kids age I'm begining to understand how he felt. I'm also struck by the differenc es & similarities in what we point out. Growing up in rural Virginia my kids would think I had lost it if I pointed out a cow to them! In the reverse aspect I do n't recall anyone ever pointing out the city of Boston to me as we drive through like I do to 10 & 7! & they're always impressed too! The other things which were or are pointed out are in Virginia stunning views, in Mass stunning houses- That was more my grandmother & uncle who pointed those out to me,
 Immediately after getting off the train I was informed of the need for a bathroom by everyone. After repeating Phils oft heard mantra 'there are no bathrooms in North Station' a few times I found no one was buying it so I asked & found there IS a bathroom there now {I knew there was one there during the renovations back in the 9 0's.- this one's not in the same place though} after waiting in lin e for an interminable amount of time & being line jumped by some grandmother from Wisconsin *ugh* we were releived & found ourselves at the sports shop. 16 & I got Bruins shirts which was part of the plan. 10 & 7 got pencils & a stuffed bear.Then we were off! Arguing about where to go first & if we were walking or taking a subway,

After everyone insisted they were starving to death we decided to walk over to Quincy Market first & have brunch- not a fair name since we had all had breakfast before we left on the train. But my kids didn't feel like they had had enough to eat at breakfast & so we walked over to get something to eat. 7 had the obligatory hot dog. 16 had 'chicken sinatra' 10 had a greek salad & I had a bowl of lobster bisque. 16 has a tradition of getting a strawberry shortcake concoction from Carol Ann Bakery. The little ones & I had chocolate chip cookies from The Boston Chipyard. Then we looked around at a bunch of stuff for a few hours. As usual, always entertaining, amusing & annoying because there's so many nice things & I never have enough to get everything I want.  I decided to go over to Harvard Square so we took the T over there & we checked out the Harvard Coop though my mother had said that it wasn't t he same since Barnes & Noble took it over! It wasn't bad but then it had to have been at least 14 years since I'd been there at all- & since the last time I was there was on a double date with my ex & friends I was a little distracted. Even 16 had never been there at all & had no point of reference & so we liked it fine. 16 is interested in Pshycology & on the way up to MA I was telling her about reading Sybil when I was 13 or 14 (I've said before I was precoious)& she was interested in reading it so was looking for it, we had to go up 3 flights to the Pshycology books department at the Coop but they did have it! After checking out books & getting a Harvard t-shirt so I don't look out of place on college sports day at work. (I used to go with my grandmother to Harvard football games from the age of 8 or 9 onward through my teenage years & that's the complete voluntary exposure to football I've ever had!) We went on the subway to Downtown Crossing & walked up to the Common - by mutual agreement we did not walk over to the Swan Boats {16 & I both read Steven K ing's Cell this year & the

begining is set near the Swan Boats so we're just a little shy of that area!} We sat on the grass & talked then we walked back to Quincy Mkt. & did more shopping & then went to dinner. The dinner was ok. Not as great as I would have hoped but perfectly acceptable in spite of it being served by an anorexic who looked visibly pained at serving food to us! We then hurried back to North Station to get the 6:55 train back to Haverhill. Once there we did laundry & got our stuff packed up to go & said our goodbyes to Cousin J.