Old friends and good times

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I used to live in Connecticut. My very good friend Marion lived there too and we worked together. We last saw each other about 13 years ago. She was fairly newly married; Ben and I were engaged.

Life changed. She had a son, Mitch, and moved to Ohio. I changed jobs in Vermont, got married, and had Sam. We kept in touch sporadically and through and email exchanged, I learned she would be in Boston for vacation. I made reservations at the same hotel so we could catch up.

And Marion? She's just the same. We picked up right where we left off, a very nice surprise.

Here she is with her husband John and her son Mitch.


We met, after a comedy of errors on the T (going the wrong direction, hopping off and reversing directions, having the train stop and go out of service, missing our meeting time by at least 10 minutes) for a Duck Boat tour. A big old truck/boat of tourists!


That we caught in front of the Museum of Science right next to Mr. T-Rex.


Marion and I sat right behind the driver and caught up a little while our tour guide instructed us in the fine art of quacking and practiced his barking skills to terrorize dogs along the tour. He was surprisingly effective. John mention after the tour was over that he could hear our conversation through the driver's headset. Ben disagreed. We don't know if Ben is deaf or if John was lying.

We quacked and gawked. Saw the sights. Reflections.


Disintegrating infrastructure.


Oh wait! Did you want to see our driver?


All the kids were invited to steer the boat when it was in the water. I wonder why he didn't have them drive through the crazy Boston traffic?


Maybe it had something to do with the complexity of driving something that requires attention to three-part side mirrors while talking.


After that we ate. We did a lot of that in Boston. The next day we took a ferry to Georges Island to see Fort Warren. One thing that surprised me were these. The digesters. Apparently they're the reason Boston Harbor is now relatively clean. Thank you humongous eggs!


Wow, it's cold when the ferries are moving. Who knew?


Marion and John didn't care.


Sam warmed up his usual way. Snuggling and goofing.


The fort was interesting but of course Sam and Mitch were much more interested in collecting shells and climbing around on the rocks. Sam lost a fight with some barnacles.


I hated to say goodbye. We've got to make sure it's not another 13 years until we see each other again.

When we got home I felt as though we'd gotten back relatively unscathed...until the middle of the night when Ben woke up feeling the effects of eating raw shellfish.

My food science degree and I will NOT be saying what we really want to say about that but you know I'm thinking it!