Archive for June, 2008

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Walking Boston

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Not wanting to drive in Boston, we chose to walk.

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Our Boston walking tour began on the historic Freedom Trail, an introduction to revolutionary Boston. A brick or red line marks the trail.

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Photo by Kathy Gormish

Our subway stop began partially along the trail so we began near the North Station on the orange line. The sites we saw included:

Old State House. Here the Declaration of Independence was ready in Boston for the first time from the balcony. It was also in front of this building that the riot began that led to the Boston Massacre in 1770.

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Faneuil Hall. This building has been a meeting hall and/or marketplace since 1742.

We continued our walk going through an Italian section of town and stopped at the

Paul Revere House. Built around 1680, this house is the oldest building in downtown Boston, and was the home of Paul Revere and his family.

Old North Church. From here Robert Newman signaled from the church’s steeple with lanterns the approach of the British soldiers. He used the following signal: “One if by land, and two if by sea.” We visited the church interior, noting its high box pews.

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Interior photo by Elizabeth Gormish

We enjoyed the fact that the pews had the names of people on them.

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We walked all the way across the Charlestown bridge to the

USS Constitution. Several of us toured this ship, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. It was first launched in 1797. The USS Constitution earned the nickname “Old Ironsides,” because cannon balls glanced off its thick hull. Not any sleeping quarters I would enjoy – hotel beds are bad enough!

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After our Duck Tour of Boston several people went back to the hotel. Some of us stayed and walked a little bit more of Boston, walking past Massachusetts General Hospital, through a section of Beacon Hill and through the Boston Common to the starting point of the Freedom Trail. I especially enjoyed walking through Beacon Hill and viewing the architecture of the building in that area.

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Destination: Boston

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Destination: Boston
Starting Point: Woburn, MA

For four nights we stayed in Woburn, MA. Two days we visited Boston by taking the subway into town. We boarded the subway in Wellington, MA then got off in the heart of the city. We learned to navigate the subway system. On one trip, we let Jackie lead the way, reading the maps and even navigating a transfer from the orange line to the blue line at State. Excellent job, Jackie!

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http://www.carliner-remes.com/jacob/math/project/images/boston-subway.gif

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June 16

Monday, June 16th, 2008

It’s my birthday! Mike is gone but the girls are here to celebrate with me.

I opened presents in the morning. My main presents were cookie sheets and a cookie press from Mike’s mom. I’ll be baking cookies this week!

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The girls also gave me some great handmade cards with wonderful sentiments on them.

The three of us went to the Redwood City downtown movie theater to see Prince Caspian. In the evening we went to dinner at the remodeled Mongolian BBQ restaurant in Mountain View. It’s the same food – a stir fry you put together yourself, then is cooked on top of this giant flat grill by the restaurant’s griller – but the decor is definitely ungraded and feels much more upscale than the plain restaurant we used to frequent.

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Last Day

Friday, June 13th, 2008

The girls had been counting down to the last day of school. They had been anxious, ready for summer. Ready to relax at home and travel for fun. But when the last day of school arrived, Jennifer was not so ready.

No, Jennifer wasn’t going to miss the “mean” teacher, the homework or the students she didn’t like so much. But she was going to miss her favorite teacher and her friends.

When I picked her up from school, she was crying. She said, “I’ve hugged Mrs. Wallace 5 times and every time I hug her I start crying.” Mrs. Wallace has been a blessing for Jennifer and we have been so grateful to have this calm, patient and understanding teacher for Jennifer while she transitioned to her new school.

She also cried about not seeing her friends over the summer. I told her we would have time for play dates but she wasn’t immediately assured. Although I hated to see her crying I was glad she had made some positive friends at her new school. I had hoped and prayed for that and now I could see through the tears that our prayers had been answered.

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Chinatown

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Jennifer’s class took their final field trip of the year to Chinatown. We had a tour guide from the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco. She took us walking through the streets and visiting a temple, Chinese cookie factory, herbal medicine store, and the market. We ate lunch in Chinatown as well.

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Merlin

Monday, June 9th, 2008

Today I did some layouts to celebrate my older English Cocker Spaniel, Merlin.

Merlin is showing a few signs of slowing down – sleeping more and not hearing as well. He had high kidney values at his last exam. We think a change of diet and a dental cleaning may help with that. Otherwise, for 14 1/2 he looks great. He still enjoys many things, especially meal times.

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Katie Pertiet: The New Black paper; Pattie Knox: Hearts from SpeedByte No.95; Jesse Edwards Wildflowers Alphabet – all DesignerDigitals; Font: CK Cosmopolitan

This layout is from an older picture but it is so typical of Merlin until he started slowing down a few years ago.

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Rhonna Farrer, 2 peas, Free New Year paper 2; Jesse Edwards, DesignerDigitals, Wildflowers Alphabet and CK Cosmopolitan font