Becky's photoblog

I took a nice long walk around Boston, starting and ending at Symphony Hall. I walked through the Christian Science Plaza, passed the reflecting pool, passed the Prudential Center, down Huntington Ave, and left on Ring Road at Copley Plaza to Boylston Street. Left on Boylston, right on Fairfield, straight down Fairfied Ave to the foot bridge over Storrow Drive and down to the Charles River Esplanade. At that point, I realized that there was some kind of walk for something going on because there were TONS of people walking along the river in blue t-shirts. I took a closer look, and realized there were tons of little kids walking. Their t-shirts said it all: Boston Children’s Hospital: Raise funds, Save lives, Repeat.

As I crossed the little bridge to my favorite part of the esplanade, the little island that gives you a great view of Back Bay, I was so moved to see so many families walking together on such a gorgeous day and raising money for sick kids. There were even a bunch of what looked like high school cheerleaders cheering everyone on. From where I was, I could see two long streams of families in blue-tshirts, some coming towards me along the island, and some crossing back over to the Storrow Drive side and walking in the same direction as me.

Later, I looked it up and learned that the event was NStar’s Walk for Boston Children’s Hospital, and that there was a 2-mile route and a 7-mile route, both starting and ending at the Hatch Shell. I was right at the turn-around point for the 2-mile route which I why I was seeing walkers in both directions.

I continued along, and crossed back over Storrow Drive near Clarendon Street, then walked down Clarendon towards Back Bay Station. As I passed through Copley Plaza, I was pleasantly surprised to see rainbow flags and an American flag flying from facade of Boston Public Library (it’s usually several American flags). Not sure if there’s some occasion I’m not aware of, but I don’t care – it looked absolutely amazing! I stopped to watch some street performers, then continued on down Clarendon.

Across from Back Bay Station, I took a right into the Southwest Corridor Park, and walked through the gorgeous tree-lined park that runs through the beautiful residential neighborhood of the South End. That brought me back to the Prudential Center, and then again through the Christian Science Plaza and back to Symphony Hall!

It had been too long since Melissa had an excuse to make her absolutely amazing orange and cranberry scones, so she and I decided to host a super fancy girls-only tea party while the boys were away for a bachelor party weekend.

I inherited a gorgeous set of china dishes from my great-great-aunt, and they’ve been in storage at my parents’ house for many many years. When they moved, it was finally time for me to store the set in my own basement. I had only ever seen the china once before, when my parents’ basement flooded in 2010 and the dishes had to be dried out like everything else. So, we brought up the dishes and laid out a gorgeous table with little tea cups, a huge platter of scones, a plate of tiny little sandwiches, chocolate covered strawberries, blueberry coffee cake, English muffins, jam and tiny cupcakes. It was kinda perfect 🙂

Our cousin is moving away from Boston, and we hosted a little make-your-own-sundae party on Sunday. By the way, mugs are a great way to put dessert toppings on the table – just shake ’em out!

We’ll miss you, my dear

The best way to catch up with friends is over a long walk around town. The Chestnut Hill Reservoir has great views of Boston and Boston College … I’ve been meaning to walk around it for years, and I finally did!

Date night with D! We walked along the esplanade to Beacon and Exeter, then along Beacon Street to Charles Street for dinner, then across the Public Gardens and down Newbury Street to take the T home from Copley Square. I love this city

Click here for photos from a similar walk a few years ago

Gorgeous day for a lunchtime walk along the Charles River to the Mass Ave Bridge and back.

We got rhododendrons for mom for mother’s day because we used to have them in our front yard. Gorgeous day!

We pitched in and helped Maureen and Rachel pack up the truck for their move to the north shore. We’ll miss having them so close, but I’m exciting to see their new house by the ocean!

Every year on Mother’s Day weekend, Harvard’s Ceramics Program hosts a spring sale, and we’ve gone to see it a few times before. This year, they were in a beautiful new light-filled space, and we saw some really gorgeous pieces.

When my birthday falls on a work day, even if that day is a Friday, all I want to do is go out for a nice dinner with my sweetie, and go home and hang out. But when Brian’s sister offered us her tickets to see Eddie Izzard at the Wang, we figured carpe diem. We still had a nice dinner together, and then we laughed our asses off in a fancy theater. Just another lovely birthday.

Enjoying the gorgeous weather by walking home from work, which means walking by Fenway Park an hour before a home game!

After the after-party, we wandered around the Charlestown Navy Yard towards the USS Constitution, and watched the nightly ritual of lowering the flags and setting off a cannon exactly at sunset.

Courtney’s mom and her bridesmaids hosted an amazing bridal shower, and we had a wonderful day celebrating Courtney and Brendan’s upcoming wedding. It was a great chance to get friends, moms, friends’ moms and aunts together, and it gave the guys a chance to catch up too! It was really wonderful to meet so many people close to our dear friends.

Duck risotto with asparagus, because my baby loves me.

Our annual Greek Easter celebration … a great evening with family, especially our adorable little cousins! We were at a restaurant in Swampscott, which gave us a gorgeous view of the Boston skyline as the sun set.

I got a few photos of the girls opening their presents from Brian’s parents, and Brian’s dad reading to the girls, but the rest of these photos were taken by two rapidly improving little photographers!

Hannah was in town with her family for Easter and their son’s baptism, and we all used that as an excuse to have ice cream for dinner! Two of my oldest friends became mommies in the last few months, and they got to meet each other’s babies – it was great to get everyone together.

We didn’t know it at the time, but last year was our last Passover in the house I grew up in. After 26 years of two consecutive nights of Passover seders in our dining room in the old house, we made our old traditions brand new again in my parents’ new dining room in the new house. Quite predictably, it was strangely new and yet utterly familiar.

On Monday (the day of the first seder), I took the day off so that we could spend the day helping mom. We let the breeze in because it was absolutely gorgeous out, and the bright sunshine made our platters look lovely!

As always, we sat down to a delicious meal with family and friends, some who had joined us before and some for the first time, and we retold the familiar story of freedom.

Check out my other posts tagged ‘Passover‘

After a long day of playing games, we headed over to the South End for an early dinner at the Gaslight Brasserie (in the Summer of 2009, we became very familiar with the Gaslight, and their bathroom, since it’s right next to the SOWA Open Market).

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that they have an awesome prix fixe menu before 6:30pm, and also that they were willing to take a four-year old gift certificate, so we had a great meal!

Last year, Brian and Brendan had so much fun at PAX East 2013 that they decided their significant others would also love a gigantic gaming conference. They bought us one-day passes, and on the day in between our first Open House (at work) and the first Passover seder (ie, a very long week), we spent 5 hours wandering around an enormous conference center with several thousand other video & board game enthusiasts. It was exactly as I expected … really overwhelming, really fun, and we ran into Jake!

I love surprise visits 🙂 Shayna was in town for Passover, and found herself not that far from our neighborhood, so she came by to introduce me to the newest member of her family!