Momma Simpson meets Boston, at last!

Finally, after months of anticipation, my mom arrived in Boston, late this past Friday evening. So many weeks of planning and excitement, it was wonderful to get to see her after being away from Texas for almost four months. Because her birthday was just a week or so prior to her trip, we took the opportunity to celebrate her birthday on her first evening in Boston, with an appetizing meal of Coast Cafe soul food and a flower cupcake.

My roommate, Catie, also celebrated with us and helped to make Happy Birthday a bit louder, as well as make the cupcake disappear more quickly. My mom was extremely happy to finally meet her, too. The birthday celebration was complete!



The next day we took off to Provincetown (see following post), and then spent the next two days seeing Boston. We walked the Freedom Trail, explored Boston, both south and downtown, as well as the Cambridge area. It was wonderful having my mom so close, which made it all the more difficult to say goodbye...A weekend I will never forget, thank you momma for an amazing visit!

A Circle in a Square

Thanks to my handy, dandy Boston Metro which I read every morning on the way to work, I found out that the Boston Aquarium was hosting a free student night this past Tuesday. Because admission to this famed institution is normally a whopping $20 smackaroos, I hopped at the opportunity. The nighttime setting was wonderful for the building, and the light really emphasized the angularity of the building. This is a shot from the outside, near the Boston Harbor.

Once inside the aquarium, I wondered around, trying to figure out the basic plan design. And I was delighted at what I found. The building parti is essentially a circle inscribed in the center of a square. The circle, extruded, is a massive four story cylindrical aquarium, stocked full of fish and sea animals. Hugging the cylinder is a spiraling concrete ramp, which allows up-close views of the creatures. Then, wrapping about that and hugging the exterior walls of the square floor plan is a rectangular ramp. I had a lot of fun just walking up and down, up and down. Unfortunately, there were far too many students there, most probably from Harvard or MIT and were quite obnoxious--so I got my fill of the building and left the rest for the kiddos...But seeing the building was well worth it.

Boston Harbor Islands

This past Sunday, Michael and I decided that it was high time to take the ferry over to the Boston Harbor Islands--a clustering of islands about 30 minutes from the Boston Bay. We hopped on a cruiser around 2 in the afternoon and sped across the water to Georges Island, which was once a site for a fort. The abandoned barracks still remain and are open for people to explore, crawl, and meander through them.




Photos: One of many open barracks; spider web!






A special exhibit created by Office Da, another architecture firm in Boston that also has a Rice Intern, was up and installed in one of the barracks, as well. We both wandered around the island searching for the exhibit, and when we finally found it we were greeted by a long, sinuous form made of translucent plastic modules, all held together by nuts and bolts. We crawled through and around it, sang a couple christmas songs, and bounced on our merry way.




There seemed to be many more islands worth exploring, however, we had to return to the mainlands before we had the chance to do so. Next time, a grand picnic and a kite would make the trip to the Harbor Islands well worth a second visit.