Boston and Snow and Back

We just returned from a weekend trip to visit our friends Heather and Josh in Norwood, near Boston. It had been about 3 years or more since we've seen each other, we realized, as they'd never met A! Both kids enjoyed aunt Heather and uncle Josh's company a lot; as they're good sports about playing chess with C (though Josh was able to beat C; a good thing for the happiness of the entire household this weekend according to Heather, as he doesn't take losing well :), reading and playing games with A, etc. Their new, energetic puppy Indy (short for Indiana--she has a shared stray/rescued Hoosier background with Paco; though Sarah and I are tempted to call her "Docta Jones!") and cat Dakota provided additional entertainment.

We spent part of the visit outside at a park and playground, took a hike around a large pond on Saturday morning, then spent the afternoon at the Boston Children's Museum which has been expanded and improved upon since we last visited, when C was A's age. Both kids found plenty to do despite the busy crowds...their favorites were probably "raceways" (a variety of tracks, ramps, rollercoasters, etc. designed for golf bolls to roll down), the "boats afloat" waterplay area, and the various things to climb on and through. The most intriguing engineering feat in my opinion, and C's supreme favorite, was the 3+ story "new balance climb" new climbable sculpture in the large atrium that was recently added to the museum's entrance area. There were no signs prohibiting adults, so I played on it as well. Like the inflatable maze/slide combinations as fairs and festivals, the only problem here was too many kids trying to go up (or back down) at once... Check it out here.

Our friends treated us to dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants that night, a Lebanese place with excellent falafel (even C liked it). Too bad we had to get the kids home before 8, the time on Sat. nights when the restuarant's weekly belly dancing show begins (seriously).

Josh has been homebrewing and winemaking in earnest the last couple years, and his "prohibition brewery" and "pleasant rock winery" have me impressed and inspired to do more homebrewing, and try my hand at real winemaking as well. I guess he originally got the idea that one could make good tasting, inexpensive beer on your own by sampling (along with Sarah's uncle Gene) a good portion of my homebrew at our housewarming party in 2001, so it's nice to see how far he's now come in this area...and he quite generously sent us home with wine and a good amount of homebrew to "get over the hump" until my next batches are ready to consume.

Now our school and work vacation week is officially over, and it's back to Monday again. It would help if the forces of Spring finally won out those of Winter...

happy Sprinter...or is it Wing at this point?
Dan