Category Archives: family

July 14, 2008 · 11:59 pm

Boston. Finally.

Okay, let’s see what I can remember a week after the fact!

Friday, the 4th: As instructed, I called KT when I was on my way to Baggage Claim at Logan. It turned out that Teddy was already at the airport, so she told me to look for a silver car. I already knew what the personalized tags would say, so I saw Teddy before he saw me… which meant that he didn’t get a chance to wave the Colorado state flag that he’d purchased in anticipation of my arrival. He was able to work through his disappointment, and still had a chance to wave a set of New Mexico flags when picking up the THREE carloads of people who were to arrive a couple of hours later. We all spent the afternoon gabbing and drinking fancy Belgian beers and slurping spiked slushies in the backyard, and then it was time for a gluttonous FEAST of steamed lobster and grilled steak. (Yeah, I had neglected to mention my vegetarian tendencies. I knew that it would be rough on this crowd of foodies who were being so gracious as to house and feed me, so I reverted to omnivory.) Then Ted and KT brought out an American flag cake, AND a cheesecake, and we all found room in our bellies for just a little more. Feeling stuffed, we worked it off by walking the few blocks down to the local yacht club for a good view of the fireworks.

Saturday: We started the day with a walk around the perimeter of Deer Island. We saw lots of boats, and met lots of dogs. This was followed by more schmoozing around the backyard, and then we all walked back to the yacht club to await our golden chariot: a cruise around the harbor with Ted’s friend Larry on Larry’s boat. Larry traps lobster for a living, and his boat was large enough to haul 18 of us around in spacious comfort. We spent a few hours on the water and were getting ready to wind things up when Larry decided that he may as well pull a string of his traps out of the water and show us city folk how things are done. It was great to see Larry and his wife, Sandy, at work. There’s a poetry to the efficiency of movement that he’s developed over the years, and his passion for his work was evident. In fact, as we were later finishhing up a dinner where we celebrated Ted’s birthday with an intimate gathering of 34 people (complete with magic show performed by our Ordinary, Everyday, Magical guest of honor), Larry mentioned that even after 30 years, he was looking forward to getting up at 4am and getting back to the boat. That is, he was looking forward to it until we exited the restaurant into a blanket of fog. Everyone stumbled back to the Tiger Mews for dessert (of course!) of not one, not two, not three, but FOUR homemade pies, and leftover flag cake and cheesecake.

Sunday: We made it into Boston proper for a walk through town. By which I mean we took the T into town, walked about three blocks, and stopped at the Union Oyster House (oldest restaurant in the U.S.) for drinks. Feeling refreshed, we walked a few more blocks into Chinatown, and enjoyed steaming baskets of dim sum for lunch. We then headed back downtown and a few of us were lucky enough to get tickets for a Duck Tour! The “conDUCKtor” of our DUKW amphibious vehicle, South End Sara, was Jailbird George, and he did a terrific job. After a day in the sun, we headed back to the Mews for a delicious paella, and fresh coconut cake. And pie. And flag cake. And cheesecake!

Monday: We splintered into smaller groups of Shopping and Sightseeing, and while I know what you’re expecting, I actually joined the folks heading to the aquarium. And what an aquarium! Definitely a sight to see, with hauntingly beautiful jellyfish and electric eels and “shaaaahks” and rays and and and! We had just enough time to work our way up and down through the throngs of kids before we had to find our way over to Boston Beer Works, where we were regrouping for an early dinner before the game at FENWAY PARK. Yeah baby, first row in the grandstand, right behind home plate. Just a little bit of heaven. Of course, after last year’s trouncing of my Rockies by the Sox in the World Series, I had a hard time getting behind the home team. That didn’t diminish my joy at being in one of the last truly historic ballparks in the country, though. The Citgo sign! The John Hancock neon! The Big Green Monster! Oh, yeah, and (sigh), the Sox.

It had been 14+ years since I’d been to Boston, but I’ll try to get back a little sooner next time.

Tons of photos if you click on the one below.

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July 7, 2008 · 9:38 pm

Bahstahn, part II

Fen. Way. PARK.

Yeah, that’s right, I have finally seen the Big Green Monster with my very own eyes. As we walked from the T station to the ballpark, the conversation with my dad went something like:

Ohmigod, it’s the Citgo sign! I need to get a photo.
Of what?
THE CITGO SIGN, Dad!
I don’t get it.

If you haven’t yet figured it out, I was not personally surrounded by baseball fans. I didn’t buy any memorabilia, because the “Big Green Monstah” T-shirt that I wanted didn’t come in a girlie cut. I took a bunch of photos, and I’ll keep the ticket stub. We left after the 4th inning (again, I was not with baseball fans) and piled 6 people into Laura’s car for the drive back to base camp.

Tomorrow, I return home to the land of Coors Field and the Rockies. Also, my hair should calm down to a point where it is no longer swelling into a sentient being and trying to kill me. This humidity is enough to make a gal want to shave her head entirely. Okay, that might be the humidity, combined with the sweltering heat. Every time someone asks me why I moved to Colorado when I neither ski nor snowboard, this very weather is the thought that runs through my head.

I would like to send a shout out, right here and now, to Dave & Jessi. My neighbors, who are also my friends, took it upon themselves to drive me to (and pick me up from!) the airport for this little trip. I know that their upcoming move to Chicago is the right thing for them to do, but I would like to publicly say: SUCKS FOR COLORADO. The whole gang here is very sad to see them go.

Okay, for tomorrow: photos, links, and more detail about food, some sightseeing, and whatever else I can remember. It’s been wicked cool, kids. Thanks fah havin’ me.

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July 6, 2008 · 9:30 pm

Bahstahn, part I

I am unbelievably, and irrationally, tired. As I write this, it’s only 8:30 at “home” and a mere 10:30 here in my borrowed base camp. Under no circumstances should I be as wiped out as I currently feel.

(Excuse me. I was just interrupted by George, a cat who was last seen hissing at me in his best impression of a cobra. He is currently bonking me so hard that his paws are slipping on the hardwood floor. Fickle.)

Okay, so where was I? Ah, yes. Boston. It has been years since I’ve been in Boston, and never for a reasonable length of time. I have an uncle who lives in Boston, and he and his wife have extended an invitation to me numerous times. This time, however, the planets aligned just so, and a flock of friends descended upon them all at once for my uncle’s birthday celebration. Welcome to Tedstock: Three days of peace, music, and Ted. (Yes, my uncle was at Woodstock. 40 years later, a great story came out of it. You should ask him about it if you ever have the chance.)

I won’t download any pics until I get home to my card reader. A more detailed post (and links!) will accompany those. For now, you get:

  • Slushie drinks
  • Lobster and steak
  • Flag Cake and heavenly cheesecake
  • Fireworks
  • Walk around Deer Island
  • Harbor tour on a friend’s lobster boat
  • Slushie drinks
  • Dinner for 34 at La Siesta
  • FOUR pies (and flag cake and heavenly cheesecake)
  • Dim sum
  • Brief walking tour
  • Duck Tour
  • Slushie drinks
  • Big Ass Paella
  • Coconut cake (and four pies and flag cake and heavenly cheesecake)

Yeah, this weekend has been a lot about food. It hasn’t fit in very well with my vegetarian diet, although the lobsters most definitely met my personal requirement of having lived a lobstery life. I met the man who actually caught them, I was able to watch him at work, and while some passengers on his boat were a bit squeamish at the reality of the situation (including, I thought oddly, the two daughters of crabbers), I approve of the general decency and respect that this particular fisherman afforded the creatures involved. I actually felt better about eating lobster after seeing the process first hand. I did feel a little guilty about tossing the more-difficult-to-get-at parts into the trash, until the raccoons broke in overnight and made short work of the remains. I’m glad nothing was wasted.

In closing, I offer you a snippet of Jailbird George’s oral tour from the DUKW boat:

“The Bunker Hill Monument is an Egyptian obelisk in an Irish neighborhood commemorating a battle we lost, and erected on the wrong hill. Heh.”

Tomorrow: Fenway Park. FENWAY FEKKIN’ PARK. Oh yeah, baby.

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June 5, 2008 · 11:28 pm

The Family Truckster

In 1984, my father, his girlfriend and I took off on our own version of the nuclear family’s summer vacation. Dad strongly suggested that I keep a travel journal.

I didn’t. As a result, here’s what I remember:

We flew into Stapleton in Denver (this was 11 years before DIA opened). We rented a navy blue Chrysler K-car (with great disappointment all around) and spent the next two weeks driving to California along the route that AAA had planned for us in our road-bible, the TripTik. One night, we ate dinner at Fred & Sophie’s in Winter Park, Colorado (it isn’t there anymore). Named for the owners’ dogs, it may have been the first time I’d ever had tortilla chips that weren’t Doritos. We drove through Moab before it was mountain bike mecca, we drove through Winslow and sang “I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona; such a fine sight to see — it’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.” We were in Bluff, Utah on my birthday. We saw dinosaur tracks, petroglyphs, buffalo, Dead Horse Point, the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and Canyon de Chelly. We drove through Las Vegas at night, and I couldn’t believe the spectacle that was the Strip. I asked my dad to turn off the car lights, which he did, and it made no difference at all on the road. There was a torrential rainstorm when we drove through Death Valley. We ate dinner at Sonic one night, and I was ill all evening. Every day, we would stop at a supermarket for cheese and a box of crackers (I remember a lot of Triscuits, but we may have mixed it up a bit) and we’d eat a picnic lunch somewhere. Eventually, we reached Los Angeles, and spent a week at the house of a family friend who lived in Pasadena. Los Angeles was completely decorated for us, I mean the Olympics, in festive pastels à la the Memphis design group. We walked past Tower Records, ate dinner at Spago, and fit our hands and feet into the sidewalk impressions at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. We took a day trip down to the San Diego Zoo, and spent an afternoon on Venice Beach

I guess I didn’t need that journal after all.

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June 4, 2008 · 11:39 pm

Summertime Beckons

West Side Sinners, a local RAB emporium, has recently started carrying a line of enameled outdoor chairs. They are lovely.

My family didn’t have anything of the sort when I was growing up, but we did have a front porch, and a bench swing.

Seeing those chairs brings me back to a time of lazy evenings spent on the front porch, watching cars drive by, and quizzing my dad about each one… “What’s that one, Dad? And that? What about that?” He knew ’em all, year make and model. Every once in a while, he’d be stumped. Usually by something unremarkable and American.

My dad had a two-hour commute home from work each day, so if it was light enough outside for us to watch the cars, it had to be summertime.

Also summerrific, I had my first hunk of watermelon of the season the other night. It was sweet and juicy and delicious. I think I may purée the rest of the giant chunk, and make watermelon-swirl ice cream. Or, at least try.

Note: You can find the Bellaire chair/glider style at Improvements and Walter Drake if you don’t live in the Denver area. Stacks and Stacks seems to have the largest (online) color selection.

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