Back to Boston

We took our baby home! (Ask her where she was born, and she will tell you "da Massaoosetts Genenal Hospal.") We hit the friendly skies Wednesday morning to fly to Boston. I dreaded the flight, and it could have been worse, but in the words of Megan regarding their last long flight, "I won't lie, it was our worst flight yet." Adding angst to anxiety, I knew someone on the flight, someone rather influential and impressive whose children probably never misbehaved when they were 2. But anyway, we made it and it would probably have been quite smooth if we could convince Grace to use the headphones with her DVD player, rather than just watch through the previews and then request Thomas choo choo, then Nemo, then Elmo, back to Nemo, back to Thomas. But I digress.

We took the T to our old 'hood, arriving around 9:o0, and it was still gloriously hot and humid and kind of stinky in that hot city kind of way. We walked to get pizza at one of our favorite spots, naturally running into one of Steve's former colleagues on the way. We were surprised to see a whole block of shops had closed (Lisa, the white hen pantry is closed!), but otherwise, it felt very good to be back and jaywalking with wild abandon.

Thursday we picked up some Dunkin' coffee and took a quick walk by the river and over to the Public Garden.

Grace was soooo happy to be able to run. It was fun to see her climbing on the duckling statues like all the big kids.

Then, we headed over to the Myrtle Street playground on Beacon Hill for a reunion - we saw a gang of old friends and their kiddos. So much fun! And so bittersweet, too, because they have all grown and changed so much and gone through so many phases. I spent so much time with these awesome women and their sweet kids and I wish Grace would grow up knowing them (we recently went to a birthday party and two of the kids had met in the hospital, and part of me was wistful that we won't have that - i guess it's just a hazard of the vagabond life we're forcing upon Grace).

I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture with Karen and baby Drew!

Next, we headed to South Station to catch the bus to Woods Hole. Grace did pretty well on the bus, including some high brow reading.

When we arrived at the ferry terminal, Grace basically got off the bus kicking her legs and yelling "fewwy boat! fewwy boat!" and giggling hysterically.The bus was late so we had to wait a while in Woods Hole, and fortunately, Jess had recommended Pie in the Sky - yummy popovers. Hopped on the ferry and Grace ran around the deck giggling as if she had just spent two days traveling in confined spaces. Oh, wait...

GoGo met us in Oak Bluffs, and we caught our final bus over to Edgartown. It was so pretty and calming to see the ocean and ponds and trees and fading evening light. We had a quiet dinner at the house then headed back out for ice cream (Dear SF: it's summer every where else. Could you throw us a bone and at least hit 60 degrees?). It is not easy to get to Martha's Vineyard, but once you're there and can take a deep breath and enjoy the vacation vibe, it is lovely. Can you think of anything better than taking a walk for ice cream on a warm evening?