The Charles River

All is quiet in the Clark house. Lilly is asleep and Jim is out having beers and wings with some of the guys from work. I don't even have music on at the moment. I'm enjoying the silence. The doors are open so there are crickets chirping but that's about it. If I wasn't writing this blog, I'd probably be lying on the couch asleep by now!

This weekend, we were in Boston. It was one of those perfect Boston weekends that made us remember everything we loved about going to BC. The weather was gorgeous so we got to sit outside and have lunch in Boston Commons and go for a walk along the Charles. For us, Boston and the Charles River are one and the same. It's the place where we spent most mornings, watching the sun rise while rowing our way from one end to the other. It's where we spent many weekends, racing other people crazy enough to be a part of their school's crew team. When we were training for the Ironman a couple of years ago, our longest run was around the Charles, from end to end. It is part of who we are. A walk along the river is never complete without crew flashbacks, of which Jim and I had many. As we were walking by the basin, we inevitably started talking about all the 2000m races that started there. Of course, on Sunday morning as we were walking along the river, it was perfectly calm--not a ripple in sight. Whenever we raced along the Charles in college, we may as well have been starting our races in the ocean. Every race, without fail, started by taking in buckets of water and throwing off the set of the boat. Luckily we got used to it and learned to expect it as that was our "home river." We enjoyed taking Lilly along the river and know that one day, we'll be able to share these memories with her. Boston will always be a special place for Jim and me. It will forever be the place where we met; where we rowed together; where we studied (every once in awhile...), where we ate Presto's Pizza and Anna's, where we started dating, where we fell in love, and it was in Boston that we knew that we would spend the rest of our lives together. A gorgeous, sunny weekend like this past one, brings up every happy memory we have from our four years spent there. It was also a weekend of creating new memories; memories that now include our daughter.

We spent Saturday with Carolyn and Jeremy and enjoyed walking out to get pizza and sitting in the Commons. We talked about their wedding, and I'm sure that Jim and I gave vital wedding planning advice that Carolyn and Jeremy found essential. On Saturday night, Joe Stanley came to Carolyn's to catch up and have a few beers. Joe is one of our close friends. We can sit and chat for ever with him, as we did many nights in Italy. In Italy, we'd chat over bottles of wine, cheese, salami and bread. In Boston, it was over beer. It's always great to see him and we enjoyed catching up. On Sunday, after our walk along the river, we met up with Kelly and Corey, Kelly's fiancee. Again, we walked out for food, this time Anna's, and sat in the Commons to enjoy the day. Lilly ran around, chasing squirrels all over the park and stood under trees, pointing up at the leaves when the squirrels disappeared up them. Kelly, Corey, Jim and I got to enjoy sitting and chatting--something that we definitely don't do enough of. Kelly is like Joe; I can sit and talk to her for hours, or days, about nothing. She was one of my very first good friends at BC and still is one of my favorite people in the world. Naturally, Lilly adores Kelly, giving her hugs and kisses and showing her all of her tricks. She also cleaned out Kelly's wallet and went through her purse, pulling things out one at a time. That's how you know Lilly likes you. We walked out by the "Make Way for Ducklings" Statue, and pushed our way through the crowd so that Lilly could sit on a duck. I didn't think that Lilly would want to sit there for a picture, with all the people around and because we wanted her to. I couldn't have been more wrong! She loved sitting on the duck and had no intentions of getting off. She waved to the other children and to all the people around taking pictures. She knows how to entertain a crowd--just like her dad!

This picture of Lilly on the drive home sums it all up. As relaxing as the weekend was, we were all pretty tired. None of us as tired as Lilly though.