Quality Time in the US

Summer time in Boston. Is there a better place to be in summer, or a better season to be in Boston? Downtown, you can walk from the outdoor cafes of Newbury Street all the way to the waterfront grass in South Boston, and pass beautiful parks, historic plazas, and picturesque riverside views along the way. In Cambridge, the Red Line is better than any carnival ride, taking you from one fun, bustling square to the next. In the rural areas around my parents’ house there are enough rivers, forests, beaches and waterfront towns to keep you outside all 90 days of summer.

Since I went to Cape Town for Christmas, and visited home only briefly in the early fall, I was really looking forward to my summer visit this year. So different than my last trip, this one had the promise of little travel, and long, lazy weeks around Boston. The furthest I went was New York for a weekend, which was a great kickoff to the trip. I came down with my family (immediate and extended) for my cousin Katelin's wedding, the first of my cousins on that side to get married. To add to the excitement and to-do, Emily also came, the first opportunity for her to meet most of my wider family. The weekend was fantastic, the locations were beautiful, and it was great to spend so much time with my cousins. Katelin certainly set a high bar for the cousin brave enough to have the next wedding.

(Cousin time)

Rather than heading right back to Boston with my family, Emily and I spent an extra night in the city and managed to squeeze a lot into those 24 hours. We were able to spend some time with her friend Deanne, who happens to work in the Empire State Building and took us on a whirlwind tour. We also had an excellent Italian meal with Dylan, a friend from school, and his girlfriend. The next morning we caught the bus to Boston, which was a cheap and comfortable way to travel.

(Deanne and Emily and NYC)

Emily spent / survived the next jam-packed week with me, my family, and my friends. We spent plenty of time around the city, even finding some spots I’d never been to like the Mappariam. We went to a Red Sox game, a nice belated birthday gift, which was pleasantly surprising in both weather and team performance. We ate out in all the key areas (Chinatown, North End, Fort Point, Cambridge) and also had some nice dinners at home. Can you get more summery than clams and lobster (dunked in butter of course) out on the deck? We lucked out with timing and got to see my friend Sarah and her boyfriend in the midst of their bar exam studying. On one of Emily's final days there we gathered friends from all parts of our lives (from high school to Zambia) at Naco Taco, a great outdoor taco place in Central Square, and it couldn’t have been nicer.

(With Angus and Kira, friends from Zambia, at Naco Taco)

After Emily headed home to Seattle, I had a couple days to be lazy before getting back to work. Fortunately, I was able to spend about a week working remotely, which meant I still had evenings and weekends to spend quality time with friends and family. It was time well spent: another baseball game, my first cocktail party at a museum, making my own watch strap from scratch with my cousin, dinners with my sisters, and the list goes on. Much as it started, my trip ended in a flurry of activity, including seeing my friend Thom who was back in the US for our friend Hannah’s wedding after a year traveling South America, as well as seeing (a different) Hannah and HollyAnne, two friends from study abroad in Senegal who I hadn’t seen in years. As icing on the cake, that weekend was also July 4^th, which came together very nicely with old friends on the 3rd floor back porch of my friend’s place in Somerville, with a view of the (top half) of the fireworks and an amazing moonrise. Summer time in Boston…

(Watch strap making)

 (HollyAnne, Hannah and I)