4th of July, on the 17th of July

I regret not doing this earlier, but it's been a busy two weeks for me. Apologies, etc.

My parents flew out from California to spend the 4th of July week with Anthony and me. We started in Boston, spent five days, then left Anthony and Jane to come to New York until Sunday when Mom and Dad flew back to California. I did not take many (any) New York pictures worthy of posting; I took a lot in Boston but somehow it didn't occur to me to do it in my own city. So I'll have to resort to thousands of words to describe each picture I would have posted. Hope your chair is comfortable.

Highlights:

-Dewey and LeBoeuf - Jane took us to the building where she works, where we got to admire sweeping views of Boston from the 20-somethingth floor.

-Georges Island - Mom and Jane braved their seasickness to join us for a ferry ride to, and hike around, Georges Island. There is an old Civil War fort on it, and we enjoyed exploring it, as well as the chance to ride through Boston harbor and look at the city skyline from afar.

-Food - I think my system has finally settled down again after being bombarded by fantastic, enormous meals three times a day. I, who believe that cereal is more than just a breakfast food, got to eat, drink, and be very merry at wonderful restaurants all over both cities thanks to my parents' generosity. In addition, Anthony whipped up fantastic fare at his apartment. Here are the Oysters Rockafeller he served us (really!) before the salmon course:

Mom liked the oysters.

-Fireworks and the Pops - There is, we learned, a reason that most Bostonians head for the hills on the 4th. Jane begged out of the fireworks show on the Charles, but the intrepid Guad Squad headed into the crush where, after nearly getting separated approximately 7,192 times and hopping several fences (Mom has the scars to prove it), we managed to squeeze into a pretty good viewing area between some trees. The crowd was unbelievable. We watched an attempted purse-snatching, thwarted because the thief, having carried out the snatching part of the crime, realized quickly that movement in any direction was next to impossible. The purse was returned to the girl by onlookers within moments. We stood for half an hour or so before the fireworks began, listening to the Pops and sweating. It was quite a show.

Mom and me and 500,000 Bostonians watching fireworks

We celebrated Anthony's birthday, since my parents won't be on the east coast for the big day. This candle began with an alarming eruption of flame, then slowly rotated while playing a piercing rendition of "Happy Birthday." It's the only candle I've ever encountered that came with directions.

-Literacy in the Content Areas Conference at Teachers College - I had committed, a few months ago, to work at the conference, and my parents decided they were both interested enough to attend. I thought it was fascinating, and I think they enjoyed hearing the different speakers and meeting some of the TC professors. We walked out with tons of leftover bagels, too, which further sweetened the deal.

-Billy Elliot - I'd always loved this movie, and when my dad said he wanted to see a Broadway show, this is the one we ended up picking. The events took place during the time that my parents were in England (I suppose I was too, but I'll admit my memories of the coal strike are fuzzy at best), which was interesting. The show was great, with the choreography standing out in my mind as by far the best part. The three of us loved it.

-Chinatown and Little Italy - We saw red, white and green fire hydrants and buckets of huge, live frogs for sale. I can't read Chinese and the signs on the buckets were a mystery to me, so I'm going to choose to believe that they were being sold for pets.

-Brooklyn Bridge - Dad had the idea to walk across it, something neither of my parents had ever done, and it turned out that we chose a perfect day. We got great views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty. I discovered that it is a bad idea to drink a glass of water, a Diet Coke, and an iced coffee in rapid succession immediately before crossing a bridge with no restroom facilities.

-Tenement Museum - When Anthony came for part of the weekend, we spend part of a day at the Tenement Museum downtown. It's an apartment that's been restored to look like it would have when immigrants were still pouring into the city. The restorations have been made according to the stories of the actual families that lived in the units, so it was a pretty fascinating tour. And I could have easily spent another hour in the gift shop, which is, of course, the mark of any fine museum.