The Johnsons

PART II: BOSTON


On the day of the Boston Marathon, and while my Father-in-Law was having fun (?) running in it, the rest of us went to Boston Public Gardens, where we rode a swan boat and had fun watching Everett wander around. He liked the boat because there were lots of ducks in the water, but he didn't like that he had to sit on my lap the entire time (there is nothing on the edges of the boat to keep people from falling in the water except their own balance). I wish we had been able to get pictures, but seeing as we were all in the boat, it would have been a little difficult.

One fun thing in the park is a famous series of statues called "Make Way for Ducklings". It was made a couple of decades ago for the Boston Public Gardens, after a book that had been published in 1941 featured these ducks wandering around Boston. It was one of the first books that had been awarded the Caldecott Medal.


We thought it would be fun to take some pictures of Everett with these ducklings. Apparently we were more excited about this than he was, because this is how it went:



Everett, meet the ducks. Ducks, meet Everett.





"Oh look, a duck", he thinks.





"Oh, LOOK! DIRT!", he thinks more emphatically.





"Ok. If I start running, maybe I can make it before they catch me. They are trapped behind a camera lens, after all, and this is a relatively smooth running surface. Ready.....set....and...I'm OFF!"



Oh, Boy! I'm faster than even I thought! I've made it to the dirt! This is SO much more fun than those silly ducklings that don't even move! Hoo, yeah!


Now, seeing as Joel and I outweigh Everett by over 100 pounds each, we had no problem at all bringing him back to rendezvous with the ducklings. And so, we finally did get that camera shot we wanted:







So, apparently, did some very friendly Japanese Tourists (this happened quite a few times as we were exploring the city--international tourists would furitively snap photos of this "cute local child", a.k.a. Everett). It was fun to see someone thinking our child is noteworthy enough to capture on film. Here is a very nice woman posing with Everett as her friend (off camera) is snapping photos. Naturally we started snapping photos as well. Hey, we're just parents like that.



Stay tuned for Part III: Philadelphia