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Old 10 Jul 16, 12:26 PM  
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Boston and Washington Spring 2016 - Boys, Blades and Balls! - Day 4 (Skating, Aquarium, Common)

This is my first trippie (please be gentle)...

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Day 3 Here



What:


Boston, Washington D.C. and Baltimore


When:

Spring 2016


Who:


Me (April) Worrying about Wagner

DH (R.C.) On a Strict Budget

DM (Judybat) Going with Gold

DS (Pooter) Aged 9, Stroking some Fish


Day 4 - World Figure Skating Championships, New England Aquarium and Boston Common



O-Dark-Thirty, must be time to get up. Today it’s 4:05, though...so progress, I suppose.

I did another couple hours paperwork on my bathmat work station, then got ready and walked down to the Loews.


I grabbed R.C. a tea from the lobby machine and headed upstairs. The men were up and ready to eat; but Poot was even readier to rat out his poor father…


“Dad spent TOO MUCH MONEY yesterday!”


Because I lived for so many years in America, R.C. and I usually have an understanding that I will determine daily budgets for our time in the U.S. He does France.


I *thought* that Boston might be more expensive than say, Orlando...but R.C. disagreed.


Now I’m certainly not the sort of wife who points out her husband’s errors…so when R.C. told me he’d already spent HALF of their food budget for Boston , I promised to (quickly) hunt up some cheaper places near their hotel where the boys could eat dinners until the budget balanced.


For breakfast, we returned to Au Bon Pain on Boylston, but I vowed to find somewhere else for us to go tomorrow. I am the planner, and I clearly fell down on the job...



Pooter asked if we could stop at Dunkin’ Donuts on the way to ABP - he chose a donut with sprinkles (breakfast of champions, that).



I had another ham and cheese croissant. R.C. had a cherry danish AND a ham and cheese croissant.



The danish:



Pooter had some of my croissant and his donut. We all shared what had to be a pint of orange juice.




A big group of Canadian skating fans was enjoying breakfast at an adjacent table. They were COMPLETELY Canadianised - hats, badges, shoes...they looked something like this.



It was great to see.


After brekkie, DS and I walked over to the CVS in Copley Square.



As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, Poot had to have some pretty serious surgery earlier in the month - and somehow yesterday his incision had opened.


It didn’t look TOO bad, but I wanted to get some steri-strips from the pharmacy and try to seal the incision back up. It would be a shame if Poot couldn’t swim in the hotel pool when we got to Washington…not to mention if he was going to need health care in America (we have travel insurance, but...).


We found the strips and then picked up some snacks for the men to have in their room. There was also a 75% off sale on all the remaining Easter candy, so I picked up a bag of my favourites - Robin’s Eggs...these are little malted milk balls, but with a hard shell, yum!





I also got a box of granola bars to hand out to homeless guys.


There were a lot of men sleeping rough and begging in Boston the week we were there. When we were leaving CVS, I asked the guy begging outside if he was hungry and when he said yes, I asked him if he’d like a granola bar. He said he’d rather have money but would settle for the granola bar. So I gave him one, and an unopened bottle of water that I had in my bag.

--------------


DS and I then walked a bit around the square and spotted a few cheaper restaurants for the boys' upcoming budget dinners. I try not to pile adult worries on DS, but I was distracted, thinking about how we were "budgeting" for cheaper food, but just back up the street a man - with no less intrinsic human dignity than me, or any of us - was sitting on the ground, begging for scraps.


---------------

I took DS “home” and then went back to the Westin to collect DM. She had been to Starbucks and fetched herself some coffee and a pastry.

We were straight away off to the ladies’ short program. I think there were 30+ skaters to see.

We took DM's picture with the "Boston Bruin", but I only seem to have this one of the Bruin on his own. Sadly, he is roped off. No Bruin cuddles...




English Interest:


None


The Russians:


It seems like the Russians have an assembly line back in Moscow that spits out young figure skaters! Just one after the other after the other...it is truly remarkable.


I like Evgenia Medvedeva, she has a very genuine and appealing way about her.



I do prefer an “older” style, but this is the great debate in ladies’ skating, isn’t it? Can a woman of say - twenty-four - put her body through the same regime that a sixteen year old can manage with ease? And can a sixteen year old demonstrate the artistry that someone who’s lived a bit of life can show? Ah, well...good thing these are questions for smarter folks than me..

Medvedeva skated to something like “White Nights”...? She was impressive.




Anna Pogorilaya isn’t my favourite. She always looks so miserable, bless her. She skated to a bolero. Again, very technically impressive, but not the one for me.




The Americans:

Gracie Gold certainly looked the package. She skated a tango, and looked pretty close to perfect. I really felt for Gold, you could practically SEE the pressure piled on her shoulders.



In fourth after the Short was Ashley Wagner.



I really like Wagner. She has a touching sort of vulnerability; you just can’t help but root for her. She skated to “Hip Hip, Chin Chin”. Do you know this song? If you don’t, believe me when I tell you that ANYONE who can make a coherent program out of this song is an artist.

Wagner was SO HAPPY with her performance that she celebrated a little too hard, and fell on her backside.



The Japanese:

It was good to see a bigger crowd this morning. The Japanese fans were out to cheer on (National Heroine) Mao Asada. Her skate didn't go as well as it could have, sadly. She finished ninth in the Short.



Satoko Miyahara and Rika Hongo (also for Japan) skated very well, and ended the day in sixth and seventh.


After the ladies finished, we had to exit the arena. There wasn’t time today to go back to the hotel for a nap (this will trouble me tomorrow…), so we wandered down along Causeway Street looking for a bite to eat. Of course, everywhere was HEAVING. It was pretty funny, seeing all these hockey bars stuffed full of middle-aged women.


It was absolutely GORGEOUS this day - at least seventy-some degrees when we came out of the rink. We tried to find somewhere to eat outside, but no joy.

We ended up at a Qdoba. I had never heard of Qdoba before. It was a bit like Chipotle - they do made-in-front-of-you “fresh Mexican”.



We had “Drunken Yardbird” (chicken) tacos, they were really good. Everything looked tasty, but DM fancied tacos, so tacos it was.


I can't find a Qdoba taco snap - but the burritos looked like this:




By the time we waited in the rather large queue and ate our tacos, it was time to head back to the rink for the Free Dance!

Edited at 10:43 PM.
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Old 10 Jul 16, 03:08 PM  
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continued from previous post


The Free Dance:



I’m a great believer in picking someone to cheer for, I think it makes one feel much more “part of” an event. So I had decided to pull hard for the Shibutanis tonight.




Even for the Free Dance, the Garden was nowhere near full. BUT…


...remember the “empty” seat next to me…?


This afternoon, I had gotten talking (a little) to a man sitting in the row behind us. It was odd, but he seemed to be with a lady sitting in front of him, and a lady sitting behind him. So they were in Rows 2, 3, and 4 - but all in seat 5 - if you know what I mean. It seemed strange…


When we got to our seats tonight, all three of the “Seat 5 crew” were in in our row…


And now it all made sense. For the Seat 5 Crew were all really, really big. And the seats behind us belonged to other people tonight, but they had been empty so far...


---------


Awkward Moments Follow


--------


This has happened to me once on an airplane, but never anywhere else.


I couldn’t get into my seat. The lady in the seat next to me was so big that she took up more than half my seat, too. I didn’t know what to do...I didn’t want to embarrass her, but I wanted to sit down…


My mother sensed my unease, and she tried to get into the seat (she is only five feet tall, whereas I am 5’7”). Nope. Even she - at 100 pounds (and that’s soaking wet) - couldn’t fit.


I had no choice but to say that neither of us could fit, and I asked the group (nicely, I promise) if they had booked those seats, since they hadn’t been sitting there until now. They replied that they had been trying to be thoughtful, but they now had to sit in the seats they had paid for…


...what could I say?

What do you say, fellow Dibbers? Help me out here...


I went to get the usher and tried to (tactfully) explain the problem. The usher checked all the seats around us and determined that one seat near the OTHER END of the row was empty (we later found out that a boy had become bored earlier in the day and refused to come this night!).


She then asked everyone to move over one seat. God bless them, everyone did. Crisis averted (for now...)...


On to the skating...(please!)...

Edited at 10:02 PM.
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Old 10 Jul 16, 03:55 PM  
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The Free Dance:


The Free Dance was great to watch. It is such a treat to see all the different “visions” of ice dance. LOVE IT!


English Interest:


Coomes and Buckland skated beautifully (to Muse). I like their style more and more every time I see them. They ended up seventh.




Yesterday’s Favourites:


The couple whose routine I liked best yesterday (Gilles & Poirier of Canada) struggled a bit. They skated to “Neverland”, and the dance was meant to be...tribal? It seemed to fall a little flat with the crowd.




The Americans:



Both Chock and Bates and the Shibutanis skated well, and took the bronze and silver medals, respectively. The Shibutanis skated to “Fix You” by Coldplay (I do not care for this song, so found the routine hard to get behind, despite my vow).



Chock and Bates skated to Rachmaninoff.




Les Champions:


I don’t remember what the French team skated to...it was lovely skating, though. Ice Dance is such a subjective sport, I don’t envy the judges…




And to be filed under Whisky Tango Foxtrot…


An Italian team skated to Schindler’s List. And their costumes were made to look like...death camp uniforms. I’ve seen routines skated to this music before, but the “costumes” were...





There was a large contingent of Israeli fans in the audience. One can’t help but wonder their thoughts on seeing the above. For my part, I found it...unsavoury.

I suppose there is an entire generation of adults now living who have no immediate family connection to the Second World War…?...


Medals:


The flags were skated out onto the ice by beautiful young ladies in evening gowns. What a nice touch!




The teams then came out to receive their medals, and we all stood for “La Marseillaise”. I don’t care where you are from, La Marseillaise is the BEST national anthem in the world.








Marchons, Marchons!



Edited at 10:03 PM.
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Old 10 Jul 16, 04:38 PM  
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Meanwhile...

While we watched skating, R.C. and Pooter went to the New England Aquarium and had a ramble around Boston Common. Here is THEIR day, in Poot’s own words and pictures (remember he’s 9, folks). I have inserted some stock photos, but the large photos are courtesy of Pooter.


Yawn! We got up at 5:30 in the morning.

We had breakfast at Au Bon Pain again

Dad had a croissant and a tart. I had a doughnut. Mother had a croissant, too.

After we got snacks at CVS, Dad and I looked for a good ten minutes at the train map.

We rode all the way to Aquarium Station (about half an hour).



When we got there, we were given misleading instructions by a vendor .

Then, we had to wait in a long line to get our very expensive ticket (ticket, you may be wondering is not a typo, it is true. One only gets one ticket per family at the NE Aquarium.).



Once inside, we headed straight for the basement because that is where they keep the jellyfish.



After that, we went to the ray and non-dangerous shark touch tank. I touched many rays but could only reach one shark.



Then, we toured four whole floors until we found the river section where they kept the poison dart frogs. My favorite was the blue one.




Then, we found the electric eel (bzzzzzap!) and the live bird section.



They had an avocet! (type of wader)



For lunch we decided just to eat in the Aquarium Café. It is called Harbor View Café. I had a hummus wrap with too little hummus and Dad had a piece of pizza.






After that, we saw the top of the giant ocean tank and the seahorses.




Then, I bought a postcard which I lost and we got on the train to Boston Common.



At Boston Common, the first thing we saw was a bench with a wallet on it.

I quickly gave the wallet to the lady who was walking away from the bench (because I saw her leave it), but she could not help us find the statue of the ducklings!

April interrupting here. If any of you are going to visit Boston with young children, make sure you order a copy of the wonderful book "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey (which is set in Boston). You can then visit the charming statue in the Public Garden.

Poot is too old for Make Way for Ducklings now, but remembers it from when he was small.




We then asked someone else, and he told us that we could find the statue of the ducklings 400 feet away in Boston Public Garden! When we found it, it was covered in toddlers!





I finally got a good picture, though about ten minutes later. I'm not sure why there were flowers on the ducks, maybe it was for Easter (like Easter bonnets for girls)?

Then we went back to our hotel.

That night, we ate at a Mexican restaurant in Copley Square called Chipotle. We had barbacoa (like Mexican barbeque) burritos. They were delicious!



Dad smeared his burrito all over his face! He isn't used to eating food with his hands. At home he even eats CHIPS with a fork!

Then we went to sleep.

End (of Pooter's report)


Thanks for reading, everyone - let us know if we can answer any questions about Boston, Baltimore or Washington with kids (or on a forced budget ).


Day 5 Here

Edited at 10:03 PM.
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Old 14 Aug 16, 07:18 PM  
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Love your report pooter , that jelly fish looked AWSOME definitely my favourite ! Pity about your hummus wrap , I love hummus !
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Old 16 Aug 16, 01:03 PM  
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How awkward with the whole seat thing, eek!

Another good day by both parties by the sounds of it
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Old 17 Aug 16, 05:40 PM  
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Originally Posted by Jesslydevie1 View Post
Love your report pooter , that jelly fish looked AWSOME definitely my favourite ! Pity about your hummus wrap , I love hummus !
I have called Poot in to read him your comment. He replies:

The jellyfish at that aquarium were the best we've ever seen. There was a WHOLE ROOM full of jellyfish. There was also a fake sea turtle rescue centre where you could perform rescue operations on sea turtles. You could take their pulse and everything! I think that the sea turtles were there because jellyfish are sea turtles' favourite food.

I love hummus, too. I don't like it when restaurants skimp on hummus or cheese. It's like when you get a sandwich in France and it's a whole loaf of bread and then one TINY sliver of cheese. Bad!
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Old 17 Aug 16, 05:42 PM  
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Originally Posted by Glee Fan View Post
How awkward with the whole seat thing, eek!

Another good day by both parties by the sounds of it
It got worse......and I really hate confrontation...

Thanks for reading!
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Old 9 Apr 17, 10:12 PM  
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Shame about the seat confrontation but good on the usher for finding a solution.

I remember reading about the Schindler's List controversy; I think it was meant to be a tribute but it seems really badly thought out.

The aquarium looks great, sounds a really interesting day.
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Old 9 Apr 17, 10:50 PM  
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What a terrible seat "problem"
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