Tina found out about a fun Patriot's Day festival in Somerville, so we went there in the morning.
Not surprising to those of you familiar with our crew, the high school band was a big draw for the younger members of our party. I was surprised at how long Will was interesting in watching them play. Tina, Meredith and I walked around with Weston and Lauren and sampled the "colonial treats" while Doug and Anthony watched the band the with Will. The samples were pretty good. They had corn bread, anadama bread, apple butter, apple juice, and cookies. It doesn't say this on wikipedia, but according to the ladies handing out the samples, anadama bread gets its name because a woman named Anna was experimenting with her breadmaking and, in the words of her husband "put every damn thing in the kitchen in the bread." Excuse me, I believe that is the first and probably last time our blog has featured a swear word.
Nana helped Will try out the colonial games. Some of them were surprisingly hard! None of us did very well at the ring toss. After completing the games Will "won" a wooden top. I couldn't resist, and bought him a colonial tricorne hat. The spirit of Patriot's Day was getting to me.
Lauren rocked the hat for a few minutes while we were waiting for.............
Paul Revere!
After the festival we ate a quick lunch at one of the sketchiest McDonald's I've been to, then headed to the JFK Presidential Library. I find the Kennedy family very interesting and have been reading and watching a fair amount of Kennedy related media lately. When we were brainstorming things we'd like to do while in Boston, naturally this was on my list.
The only photo I took at the library, before an employee pointed to the "no photograpahy" sign.
The library wasn't very crowded, most people were downtown watching the marathon or outside enjoying the gorgeous afternoon. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. My favorite part of the exhibit was the special presentation they have right now focusing on the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK recorded his meetings with his national security team and advisors during those stressful thirteen days and we were able to listen to portions of the tapes.
We headed home, put the kids to sleep and turned on the TV only to find out that there had been explosions at the marathon! Then the news reported there was a fire at the JFK Library. We all felt overwhelmed and grateful to be safe. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the TV, desperate for any information about who did it and what would posses someone to do something so awful.
This was the closest I have ever been to a terrorist act, and it hit close to home. Boston isn't my home, but it is starting to feel like a "home away from home" for me. Many people I love and care about live here or call it home. We have a lot of fun family memories in Boston. I don't like knowing that something like this could happen anywhere. It was nice to be with family on this scary day. I was touched by the number of friends and family that texted or emailed me to make sure we were safe. It's weird, but even in the midst of these terribly unsettling events, I felt secure and loved.
We decided to save these so we could remember where we were on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.
2 comments:
Such a fun day! It was great to be together. Too bad it was marred by such a horrendous act. I feel so fortunate that no one I know was harmed, but so sad to know that so many people WERE in fact harmed.
I am so glad you guys were safe. What a hard thing to have to face.
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