Suprize

'Graces note

To mummy and daddy and Ruby Nina and Lily to see. Love from Grace

Ps I did this puzzle when you all were asleep 

Suprize.'

Count Down

Two weeks we have of our extended holiday. Though that's longer than many holidays we take to the beach or wherever, after the luxury of a seemingly never ending stretch of time, two weeks feels like it is hurtling toward closure way too soon. It has been such a beautifully paced time, alternating between very active and very relaxing, and so easy and enjoyable, that I have no sense as I sometimes do after even short holidays that it will be a relief to get home. I think having a home base here from which to explore has made all the difference. Somewhere we can get everything washed and dried and cook favourite foods and sleep in. It's helped that our house here is so beautiful and warm.

With two weeks to go, all those things it seemed we had ages to do suddenly press upon us. We've spent the last few days trying to cram a few in. The big girls and I went to Boston (TD) Gardens to watch the US Figure Skating Championships. We had a lovely time watching the pairs short program, even though we know nothing about ice skating. We cheered as hard as anyone when the local favourites came through with the highest score at the end of the session. The next day was snowing but, in our spirit of not wasting any time, we went skating at Boston's famous frog pond. It must be the prettiest rink, set in the common with the golden dome of the State House as the back drop. Our skating prowess seems to have plateaued. We can all get around okay (Lil needs help) but can't seem to take it any further.  There were two little girls in the centre of the rink with their parents, their mother obviously a highly skilled figure skater. They were learning jumps and twists and what I think are axles and must have fallen over thirty times each while we were there, but each time picked themselves up and tried again and again and again. They were having so much fun, it was quite inspiring to watch. I couldn't see my kids having that degree of determination to master a difficult task, or such good humour in the face of repeated failure.

After the skating we walked through the common and stumbled upon a Winter Olympics promotional event where lots of 'stuff' was being given away. You know the kind of thing - trading cards and samples of sponsor power drinks. Normally I can't bear the accumulation of crap that inevitably results, but the kids were so enthralled by the prospect of free stuff that I let them get sticky notes and peanut butter samples and a soft toy strawberry with 'smuckers' embroidered on it. We discovered that Jif is a brand of peanut butter here, a rather off putting name , especially in association with figure skating for anyone who, like me, remembers those ads where the skate would go round and round, gouging out the ice, and the ad promised that Jif would clean 'without harsh scratching'.

A dinner in Chinatown rounded off a pretty perfect day.

Today we did a bit more of the famous Freedom Trail. Doing the whole thing in one fell swoop is a bit much for little legs, so we went to the North End, traditionally the Italian part of town, visited Paul Revere's house, the oldest house in Boston, walked up to the Old North Church (how I do love those old New England churches, their tall spores and simple, elegant lines) and onto Copp Hill Burying Ground, where the grave stones are higgledy piggledy, chipped and broken like a storybook graveyard. The most surprising place for me was the Holocaust Memorial at Haymarkrt, which I hadn't even realised was there until we were upon it and I found myself fighting sudden tears to the incomprehension of the kids.

We finished our day with a visit to Modern Pastry on Hanover St. I gather who does the best pastries in the North End is an issue of hot dispute, with 'Mikes' bring considered 'for tourists'. We sampled cannoli, cream puffs, mousse cake and muffins. Good, but not, to my mind, worth crossing town for. The North End itself was absolutely charming, even on a charmless wet Boston day. Ruby and Nina in particular loved it. For Lily it wasn't charming enough to avert a loud carry on at the Old North Church, prompting a gentle reminder from the docent that we were in a church and a very quick exit by Lily (orchestrated by me). 

I feel that we have packed a fair bit in, and I've made peace with the fact that we won't do everything. I thought I be at the Gardner Museum multiple times, but it looks like that one quick visit will be it. Still, as lovely as it is to see lots of things, it's also important to make time to lie on your Daddy while he watches the New England Patriots in the playoffs, don't you think? (Pats ran away from the Colts 43 - 22.)

Thing

I love Washington. The last time I was here was a summer more than 2 decades ago. We stayed with the wealthy mother of a colleague of my father in a quiet mansion with a live in maid, gracious gardens, art on the walls. She took us to dinner at her friend's, a sprightly old woman who liked young company and paid for a student at Georgetown University to  be her live in companion. What an excellent gig for a student, especially if the person you were keeping company was lively and interesting. I remember, fresh from months of touring European museums, being astounded to recognise paintings by painters I knew on her walls. Here a Paul Klee, there a Joan Miro. She served us strawberry soup, salmon and baby potatoes. I thought she was the height of sophistication. 

Washington in winter is a different beast, especially a winter such as this (which I just saw on the TV news is being proclaimed by 3 senators as proof that climate change is a 'hoax'). Today was bitter.  We went to see the money being printed and I decided that my lost career was to be an engraver at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Only a ten year apprenticeship, is there still time?  We walked up the frosty mall to the Lincoln Memorial. It is, to my mind, the very best memorial. It brings a lump to my throat and I'm not even American. Lincoln's famous speeches, etched on the walls, demonstrate perfect legal writing. Each word parsed, nothing extraneous. Accurate, explicit, without flourish.  Of course they exceed legal writing and become art but at their core they are laying out a case.

We trudged past the State Department and onto the White House. I can't help but think of 'The West Wing' and the years I spent with Donna and Josh and CJ. Foreign Nationals can't go inside and even Americans have to write to their member of congress to arrange a tour, so the closest we got was a recreation of the Oval Office in a nearby gift shop where you can take classy photos of yourself and your family as POTUS.  We did, of course.

Yesterday we went to the National Air and Space Museum. The whole Smithsonian complex is extravagantly wonderful and filled with so many things to awe and delight that one can become blasé. So - there is the Spirit and St Louis and SkyLab and the Apollo Lunar Module, what's next? We weren't quite like that but I did feel that much of what we saw was lost on the girls. Their highlight was probably the paper airplane flying competition in the 'principles of flight' interactive section, which Nina won. I'm working on the theory that exposure to amazing things - art, buildings, objects of wonder - somehow is good for the soul, even if your primary recollection is that you had sore legs and were uncomfortably warm inside in your thermal underwear. 

It's hard not to 'out museum' the kids when there are are so many museums within walking distance and all free. Surely we can fit in another? The Hirshhorn had an exhibition entitled Art and Destructon since 1950.  The opening piece was a grand piano that had been attacked with an axe, the axe still in it.  That's the sort of thing kids love. The second photo down is of Nina and Lily watching a video installation called 'Guitar Drag'. An electric guitar was dragged behind a pick up truck and the footage and accompanying audio were on a repetitive loop. The sound was as you would imagine but the installation had the kids transfixed. Perhaps it was just a chance to rest in a cosy carpeted space but we had to drag them away.  Things deteriorated rapidly after that:  'can you not look at me like that?' 'Im not looking at you' 'yes you are', shove, 'Mama X just pushed me for no reason' 'I did not' ' yes you did' etc. We left before something else got destroyed unintentionally.

D.C.

 

 

Every time we drive home from the beach, we take it in turns to choose the song we want to listen to. By the time we cross the Bolte Bridge it's late and all the kids except Ruby are usually asleep. Without fail, by the time we get to College Crescent and drive past the cemetery, certainly by the time we're in Alexandra Parade, we turn on 'D.C.' by Died Pretty. One of my favourite songs ever and something that so completely captures a time and a place and a feeling. Joy, love, a little melancholy - usually how I feel after a weekend at the beach. 

Of course that song has nothing at all to do with Wahongton D.C. which is where we are now. I had to capture some snippets of our day which was mostly spent on the train, because it felt kind of historic. Leaving home was 20 below zero (minus 4 F). Even in our good gear it was seriously cold. Cold enough that New Englanders who take a certain pride in their cold winters were all commenting at the station. 'I don't remember it ever being 4 below, do you?' Asked one man. Well no, no I don't. It was a bit exciting, as extreme conditions anywhere are, bonding communities together as they face a common hurdle. The news was full of dire warnings about frostbite ( takes as little as 3 minutes) which set Ruby off into a minor spiral of anxiety. There were instructions about how to layer effectively for the cold and what to do with your pets ( unsurprisingly leaving them outside is not recommended. No! Really?).

The downside of the weather was that our progress was delayed an hour and a half and we regretted paying the extra to take the express (6.5 hours) when it turned out to be the same 8 hours as the standard train. We shouldn't complain though. There were people getting on at New York going to Washington to catch flights that had been cancelled out of JFK, and others who had been diverted from international flights to Toronto.

 

After 8 hours we has further kerfuffle getting on the metro. We've barely caught a taxi in the US as the public transport is so good and taxis usually can't manage all 6 of us. Finally, ten hours after we left home, we arrived at our hotel. We had the usual joyous reaction from the girls to hotel rooms everywhere (I'm not being sarcastic either). However modest they are, the kids just adore those folded towels, hotel notelets, pens et al. It's kind of lovely the way they are so delighted and so completely not jaded by their hotel exposure. Their very favourites are hotels with breakfast included so all is good. 

Tomorrow we have 'freezing rain' to look forward to. The nightly news explained that this is when rain freezes as it hits the ground. Joy! But with nineteen museums (19!) just in the Smithsonian to explore, we've plenty of indoor options. 

Snow Days

Yesterday was the start of a snow storm. They call them storms so I was expecting wildness and noise but what we had instead was the silent beauty of continuous snow falling, all day. It was very cold, -11  yesterday and -16 today, but it wasn't windy or miserable. Yesterday started with Lil making the morning porridge in my jumper/sweater (can't quite get used to calling it a sweater but a jumper here is like a pinafore). For reasons unknown the three younger girls decided to get into their Thanksgiving dresses and then played with their felt mice in a tray of real snow. Fun times. Ruby and I went to the post office. It was hard going as most of the footpaths hadn't been cleared yet and those that had were rapidly restocked with snow.  You can see the front steps of our house and the view down our street. By late afternoon the girls were all a bit stir crazy and so we went outside to roll around in the snow, make snow angels and throw snow balls. It was too fluffy and powdery for a snow man, it wouldn't hold together at all. We made our own version of shave ice/ snow cones with fresh snow and fizzy drink. I think this was probably the girls favourite part about the snowy day.  After a day (mostly indoors) the girl's tolerance of each other was beginning to wear thin, as you can see from their drawings of each other's brains.  

Today, after snowing all night, it was calm and sunny. A gorgeous, if freezing, day. Nina and I went into town and were surprised to find most shops closed, the streets pretty much deserted save for snow ploughs, and very few people about.  The photo showing the Park Street church above is normally a very busy street! The famous historical sights, like the Old South Meeting House were closed due to 'inclement weather'. It felt kind of special to be there, almost post apocalyptic, if the apocalypse makes everything look really lovely.  I thought this was pretty much par for the New England winter course, but I guess not as the papers are talking about 'record lows'. Tomorrow we are off to Washington by train. It means another trek through deep snow to the station. I am feeling very glad that we invested in good jackets and snow boots.

First Night

We caught the preparations for and the ticker tape aftermath of the New Years Eve parade, but we missed the parade itself. We were too busy watching the magic shows, the puppetry, the BMX spectacular and (best of all) Dan Zanes that were all part of the First Night celebrations that Boston puts on for New Years Eve. I caught the last light of 2013 over the Back Bay rooftops and then we headed up to the Common for the family fireworks. The girls were still hungry when we got home so we had a  late pasta supper and then Craig and I quietly saw in the New Year whilst booking our travel to and accommodation in Washington for later this week.  It was very cold, minus 8 C, a far cry from the BBQ at the beach with friends and their kids, drinking red wine and toasting marshmallows on a campfire (when it's not a day of total fire ban) which is how we've rung in most new years over the past decade. 

Apart from our visit to Washington, we are planning a road trip in New England. It's an exciting time, the beginning of a new year, don't you think?  I think 2014 will be interesting and challenging and not entirely an easy year. But easy is overrated. For those of you who visit here regularly, or occasionally, I hope 2014 is everything that you want and, if not, that it's everything that you need.