Dominica May

Sunday 18th November

This morning I was able to examine Doyle’s mouth a little better myself, and discovered he’s actually cutting his two bottom front teeth, not just one. No wonder he’s been a little fussy!

We headed out pretty soon after breakfast and began the Freedom Trail. We first went to the Old State House Museum where we found out about some local history, and Jeremy picked up a pocket watch. We followed the trail south to Boston Common, then intended to head back to our hotel for lunch. On our way back, however, we ended up stopping in at the Beantown Pub where we ate Pigs in a Bucket (hot dogs in batter in a bucket with fries), Boston Baked Beans, and Clam Chowder. Despite the fact I thought I’d hate the seafoodiness of it, the Clam Chowder was the best dish we had.

Unfortunately while we were at the pub, Doyle’s coughing caused him to spew up his entire lunch. I know we were asked at the hospital yesterday if this had occurred, and we said no. However, they didn’t tell us that if it did happen, it was anything to concern ourselves with. He seemed fine otherwise, but as his clothes were now mostly brown instead of blue, we headed back to our hotel to get him changed. I did have some of his clothes with us, but not enough for the cold that it is in Boston (I think it’s probably around 5°C during the day). He was asleep by the time we got back, so we just stayed at our hotel again until he woke up, and decided we should probably do the washing here sooner rather than later. Luckily there are free washing machines and dryers for us to use on the 24th floor.

Just after 2:30pm we headed back out to Quincy Market, Fanuil Hall, and the north end of the Freedom Trail. When we got to the North End, we took a detour up Salem St to go to a shop called Trani where they sell ice-cream injected cup cakes. Yummy!

By the time we got to the third graveyard on the Freedom Trail, we began wondering if there was some sort of a theme. A lot of the gravestones from those days are really creepy because they have pictures representing death by a skull with wings or crossbones.

We got to Bunker Hill ten minutes after the monument closed for climbing, but given we had Doyle in his stroller and there were more than 200 steps, that was probably a good thing. Maybe if we have time before Thanksgiving we can go back, as it’s closed on Thursday itself. The view of the city from the top would be spectacular.

After finishing the Freedom Trail at the USS Constitution, it was already quite dark (and only just after 5pm!) so we took the ferry back to Long Wharf and decided to come back on Thanksgiving, as the USS Constitution is one of the only things open then.

Doyle was quite an active little sprite when we got home, and was moving about quite a bit, almost, and sort of crawling but mostly bumping his head into the coffee table when he tried, because the things he wanted to get were underneath. I watched most of “Stuck on You” on Comedy Central, but missed the start.

The big day meant we went to bed early; around 9:30pm. But then we’ve been going to bed around that time since we’ve been here. I think the fact the sun sets so early makes us feel it’s later than it actually is.

I’d like to say now that I absolutely love Boston. I’ve loved it the minute I stepped foot in the airport, but the love is growing day by day. I’m not sure what it is, and there aren’t too many places in America I’ll say this about, but I reckon I could actually live here. It’s a beautiful, nice, friendly city with so much history. I’m going to say now that I recommend anyone come here.

Monday 19th November

After Doyle got up for a second time at around 3am, I decided I should put a pillow under his head for him to sleep on. This worked wonders, as after that, he slept through until 7am!

We didn’t head out too early today, maybe around 9:30am. We caught the subway from just outside our hotel to Cambridge (no, not the one in England we already visited!) in order to first visit the MIT Museum. My favourite sections were the holograms (some even included motion; one had a woman who blew a kiss and then winked at you) and the automated machines that did cool things. The AI/robot section was also pretty interesting. We spent probably nearly two hours here before heading off to MIT itself. Jeremy wanted to see the Frank Gehry building.

After visiting MIT, we headed to Harvard. Are you sensing a theme? Yes, we are only taking Doyle to the best universities in the world so he can achieve great things. Ahem. Anyway, on the way, I picked up a free property paper to have a look at prices of the properties in Boston. It’s a fair bit cheaper than Perth, and it had me figuring we could certainly sell up our places in Perth and move here mortgage free real easy. We’d just have to find work here. Which brings us back to Harvard. Jeremy thinks he could try getting work there when he finishes his PhD. Well, we’ll see. Harvard itself was beautiful. We tried to go into one of the libraries, but unfortunately it required a Harvard ID, so we just scanned the grounds instead.

After visiting the universities, we headed back to Boston and wandered through Chinatown and the Theatre District, before having a look at a couple shops. Jeremy had his pocket watch engraved and, although they did it upside down, he didn’t complain – he bargained the man down to half the price he started at.

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped back in at Quincy Market for a Boston Cream Pie. Perhaps not as good as if we’d bought it from the place that invented it, but they were unfortunately sold out when we stopped in there.

When we got back to our hotel, we had a little bit of time to ourselves before heading downstairs to the Counting Room where an actor performed a story for us as a pilgrim doctor who travelled on the Mayflower to America and we learned a little more about the history of the area.

Upon the ending of that performance, I got around to doing some washing. I know, boring, but I figure I may as well mention it. It was nice to get rid of the poo that had leaked onto Doyle’s clothes a couple times in the last few days.

During dinner, Doyle officially did some proper crawling. He was sad, and he wanted a hug from his Mummy, so he got on his hands and knees and crawled over to me. Needless to say, he got what he wanted.