Field Trip!

This weekend E and I were in Boston for his sister's senior recital. She did a fabulous job, and I am pleased to have come away from the concert with a favorite bassoon piece. (Who knew?) We also spent some time with E's family and did a suitable amount of napping, brunching and sightseeing.

View of the Boston waterfront from the ICA

At the Institute for Contemporary Art we saw the original artwork, conceived by David Byrne and executed by Jimmy DeSana, that became the cover for the Talking Heads "More Songs About Buildings and Food."  It's seven feet tall and pretty creepy in person, actually.

Boston was very pretty, but too chilly in April for my taste. But, by traveling north we did get to go back in time to see spring blossom all over again. I must have stopped to smell lilacs a dozen times.

I know these aren't lilacs.  But they are pretty. So there.

After a pleasant lunch on Saturday, we saw a couple taking wedding photos in Boston Common.  They looked lovely and were, presumably, perfectly nice people, but I was kind of horrified by the FIVE-PERSON cadre they had following them around with fancy cameras and tripods.  Including a videographer with a SteadyCam.  Random tourists were taking their picture, assuming they were famous - I wanted to explain that they were just rich and maybe a little touched in the head, but I kept my mouth shut and looked at the ducks.

I am a grown up.  Really.

Boston also seems to cultivate an unusually dysfunctional relationship between drivers and pedestrians . . . and, as a DC resident, I think I know my way around dysfunctional transportation relations. At many intersections, a "Walk" sign will never appear, regardless of the light cycle, unless a button is pushed - and oftentimes not even then. Another set of intersections have the same setup, except without a button. The result of this is that Boston pedestrians are inveterate jaywalkers, while Boston drivers are lulled into an inflated sense of self-importance. Add into the mix a tendency among drivers to clip curbs and you have the makings of a lot of transportation drama. Maybe the weather sufficiently deters pedestrians from braving the streets much of the year, so drivers don't have to worry too much, but E and I were not thrilled about the situation.  Still, we survived to fight another day!