For now, I'll relate the activities from the gorgeous new england late summer day we had sunday. bright blue sky, temps in the 70's, no wind. My wife was on a trip with ehr G-friends to NYC, so I dragged my 14 year old daughter out of bed at the crack of noon and took her to boston for the day.
It started with a tour through the north end (the italian section of the city) to St. Anthony's Feast. What the hell is this?
Some sort of shrine with people pasting cash all over the inside. (no, I didn't take the pic because of the woman in the photo, there were a lot more much better looking specimens that I could have taken good pictures of, trust me.)
Anyways, two streets blocked off with food vendors, trinket vendors, and elbow-to-elbow crowds. Too much, and the food wasn't that good. We decided to hike over to Quincy Market.
We went through the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the park created when they tore down the old elevated expressway and replaced it with The Big Dig. Nice fountains, lots of people relaxing, kids playing.
We'll see how long before it turns into a crack park.
Once we got to Quincy Market (A HUGE tourist trap) we caught a couple of acrobats performing, a three piece group consisting of a mom and her two sons (both not quite teenagers) called 'The College Fund Band', then sat for a caricature. I don't get a lot of those 'bonding' moments with my teenage daughter, so I was quite surprised when she suggested we sit for a caricature..._together_.
No, it won't be posted, but I did get this this neat shot of the customs tower while we were sitting.
I have friend, Eamon Coyne, who is a professional irish session musician, and he plays a gig at Mr. Dooleys every sunday afternoon/evening (make sure your volume is down if you visit his link, unless you _really_ like reels). We stopped in and listened for a bit, I had a Guinness, she had a coke.
We chatted with Eamon for a bit during his break, then my daughter asked if we could check out the people and street performers in harvard square. So, it was off to the subway and The Peoples Republic of Cambridge.
The reputation of harvard square did not disappoint. From the artists, to the musicians, to the conservative Harvard types, to the hippies, to the punks, Harvard square is always sure to entertain, especially on days with such magnificent weather. The high point was Dagmar.
Yes, she's wearing dragonfly wings, a leather fliers cap, and goggles. Let me paint the picture with a bit more detail. She had bare feet, day-glo violet tights, light cotton dress, black and gold brassiere, a plum vest with green wings and a green/gold/purple tail attached, leather pilots cap and green goggles.The odd part was that she was _very_ pretty and had a great beautiful voice. If you visit their link (above) it starts streaming their music. We actually sat a listened for a while, as she had a set of choreographed moves that 'flowed' with their music. I bought the CD, I couldn't help it.
As it became dark, we headed towards central square to catch the T back home. We could have simply got on at harvard square, but it was such a nice night for a walk. I realize these 'bonding' moments with my teenaged-daughter are a rare and precious gift, and I wanted to make it last. She's starting school again this week, and I'm sure by friday I'll have done something to mortally embarrass her.
1 comment:
Not banal at all! More like nice. Or heart-warming, moving, paternal...
But it would've been more entertaining with a post of the caricature.
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