After listening to Augustana's "Boston" all summer, we decided to take Finn to our favorite city in America and show him what all the flowery pop magic was about... the song also briefly mentions Spain, but we couldn't financially swing that and Finn doesn't have a passport. We got to catch up with our good friends David and Sheherazade, who headed north after David got his PhD this last fall. Apparently, even PhD recipients still move themselves with milk crates full of dishes and such, and even illegally re-paint their apartments to salvage their security deposits. I guess old grad student habits die hard. Moving into their post-student lives, they now have a beautiful apartment in Cambridge and they were kind enough to invite us for a visit. We had a great time walking around Cambridge, and David gave Finn a lesson about roses and thorns (literally not figuratively). We had a fantastic dinner at the Helmand, an Afghan restaurant not far from their apartment. One side benefit was that none of the staff nor patrons batted an eye at us bringing a baby in for a 9:30 pm dinner... I guess that is how they roll in Afghanistan (or at least Afghan restaurants.)
We also went to the Science Center where the big attraction is a new butterfly habitat. Turns out that Finn really likes butterflies... he likes to crush them in his little fat baby hands. It's a tough blow to humanely capture a butterfly in a Peruvian rain forest, ship it all the way to Boston, await the detainment period in customs (yes, our government detains butterflies to ensure they are not part of a bio-terrorism plot) only to be crushed by a drooling, over zealous infant with a bewilderingly large head. We got Baby Dahmer out of there and checked out the other parts of the center, and Finn loved the exhibits. He equally loved the elevator in the parking garage so I am not sure we should put too much into these early signs of a love for science.
On Sunday we got to visit the Roethkes who live and work at Milton Academy. The place looks far more like a college than a high school... amazing facilities, beautiful historic campus, quaint New England neighborhood. We had brunch and then Finn hung out with Davis and played with some of his music toys. I think the boys bonded and Davis even gave Finn a hug before he took off for Nantucket. We got in the car and headed back to New Jersey, which I think is often called the Nantucket of the mid-Atlantic. Yes, it's that nice here in the Garden State... scrimshaw baskets and turnpike tolls for everyone!
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