Aquarium
On Saturday Teri's father took us to the New England Aquarium. Here are some photos - ten of them.
We took the commuter rail into South Station that morning. These are the buffers at the end of the tracks.
The Acela train, a high-speed rail that is supposed to go over 100 miles per hour and reach New York in three hours, or something like that. As I understand it, in the real world it usually takes almost as long as a normal train; there are too many areas where the track is too curved to permit it to reach full speed. It's pretty, though, isn't it?
A neat-looking building and an old-fashioned trolley. This was taken from near the Aquarium, on the docks; that area of Boston is a little empty, compared to the heart of the city.
A seal (or a sea lion, maybe?) in a tank outside the Aquarium. The tops of the tanks were open to the cold air, but they didn't seem to mind. But then, how would we be able to tell?
A close-up of the seal/sea lion.
There was a large display of jellyfish. These are upside-down jellyfish; they all pulsed rhythmically. Cool-looking, but it would creep me out to step on one. I think these are native to Florida, but don't quote me.
This is the only photo I left full size (the rest were resampled to 75%), because it's one of those all-too-rare photos of mine that I'm really pleased with.
A shark.
The Aquarium has a huge central multi-story tank with a spiraling ramp that goes up. Here's a scuba-diving girl feeding a large turtle.
The Yellow Submarine. This was on ground level when I was a kid, and you could walk in. Now it hangs from the ceiling. But at least it's still there. Sebastian hasn't seen the movie yet, so it didn't mean anything to him.
Sebastian and the giant fish. Each one of them was larger and no doubt heavier than he is.
After the Aquarium we walked to Quincy Market, passing a seemingly psychotic guy in a wheelchair who had been dogging us all day (and brightening the trip by screaming curses at the top of his lungs). We had lunch in the basement of the Salty Dog, where Sebastian and his cousin Margo were pretty naughty. Then we walked to the State Street station, and headed to South Station to wait for the train home.
My timing was off, so we had to wait a little more than an hour. The train display was still up, so Sebastian and Margo killed time by screaming with delight and running around and around it. Finally the train came, and we went home.
The funny thing is that when we asked Sebastian what his favorite part of the day was, he said "South Station".
The next day Teri's mother took Sebastian in the morning, and for the first time in years I was able to persuade Teri to join me in sleeping late. We woke up at 11am, feeling great. Teri's not good at relaxing, but we were both suffering from a huge sleep deficit exacerbated by the strenuous Saturday expedition. I told her I want to sleep in like that every Sunday...well, I can dream, can't I?
Last night it snowed; only a couple of inches, but under that the car was sheathed in ice. As we waited for the car to warm up, Sebastian and I looked at pictures on the computer. The one that really grabbed him was one of the last ones I ever took of our old cat, Sam. Sebastian stared and stared. He reached out and tried to pat the screen. Then he turned to me, pointed to the screen and said:
"Daddy, wait here a minute. I'm going to go in there and get Sammy back."
We took the commuter rail into South Station that morning. These are the buffers at the end of the tracks.
The Acela train, a high-speed rail that is supposed to go over 100 miles per hour and reach New York in three hours, or something like that. As I understand it, in the real world it usually takes almost as long as a normal train; there are too many areas where the track is too curved to permit it to reach full speed. It's pretty, though, isn't it?
A neat-looking building and an old-fashioned trolley. This was taken from near the Aquarium, on the docks; that area of Boston is a little empty, compared to the heart of the city.
A seal (or a sea lion, maybe?) in a tank outside the Aquarium. The tops of the tanks were open to the cold air, but they didn't seem to mind. But then, how would we be able to tell?
A close-up of the seal/sea lion.
There was a large display of jellyfish. These are upside-down jellyfish; they all pulsed rhythmically. Cool-looking, but it would creep me out to step on one. I think these are native to Florida, but don't quote me.
This is the only photo I left full size (the rest were resampled to 75%), because it's one of those all-too-rare photos of mine that I'm really pleased with.
A shark.
The Aquarium has a huge central multi-story tank with a spiraling ramp that goes up. Here's a scuba-diving girl feeding a large turtle.
The Yellow Submarine. This was on ground level when I was a kid, and you could walk in. Now it hangs from the ceiling. But at least it's still there. Sebastian hasn't seen the movie yet, so it didn't mean anything to him.
Sebastian and the giant fish. Each one of them was larger and no doubt heavier than he is.
After the Aquarium we walked to Quincy Market, passing a seemingly psychotic guy in a wheelchair who had been dogging us all day (and brightening the trip by screaming curses at the top of his lungs). We had lunch in the basement of the Salty Dog, where Sebastian and his cousin Margo were pretty naughty. Then we walked to the State Street station, and headed to South Station to wait for the train home.
My timing was off, so we had to wait a little more than an hour. The train display was still up, so Sebastian and Margo killed time by screaming with delight and running around and around it. Finally the train came, and we went home.
The funny thing is that when we asked Sebastian what his favorite part of the day was, he said "South Station".
The next day Teri's mother took Sebastian in the morning, and for the first time in years I was able to persuade Teri to join me in sleeping late. We woke up at 11am, feeling great. Teri's not good at relaxing, but we were both suffering from a huge sleep deficit exacerbated by the strenuous Saturday expedition. I told her I want to sleep in like that every Sunday...well, I can dream, can't I?
Last night it snowed; only a couple of inches, but under that the car was sheathed in ice. As we waited for the car to warm up, Sebastian and I looked at pictures on the computer. The one that really grabbed him was one of the last ones I ever took of our old cat, Sam. Sebastian stared and stared. He reached out and tried to pat the screen. Then he turned to me, pointed to the screen and said:
"Daddy, wait here a minute. I'm going to go in there and get Sammy back."