For various reasons, we will be visiting the Boston area several times during the month. While these are not "trips" in the sense of a holiday, there are holiday-adjacent events that may be worth recording.
After the NEC STO8 Concert on 12/14. Both sets of grandparents came to support Emmie playing in the cello section of the orchestra. At Jordan Hall.
November 29 - December 3. We scheduled this because of a possible ACCESS event, and I noticed there were a couple of concerts that should be interesting. One was a Handel and Haydn Society Messiah concert, the other was a BSO concert featuring Scandinavian composers. So when the ACCESS meeting was postponed, we decided to come up anyway. We would stay at Putnam for all these trips, and would get to see our grandchildren, whom we enjoy seeing, and they also enjoy to have us visit.
Saturday 11/30. Today we attended both the H+H Messiah performance, and a concert by the BSO, conducted by Andris Nelsons. In between we ate at Ichiban Yakitori Sushi House.
At the conclusion of Handel's Messiah. Performance by the Handel and Haydn Society.
The Boston Symphony performed works by Sibelius and Grieg. Here is the soloist, Benjamin Grosvenor, for Grieg's piano concerto.
Monday 12/2. Visited Museum of Fina Arts for a couple of hours. Uber and Lyft are typically inexpensive ways to get around the compact city. We stopped by for lunch at Anny's place after our MFA visit.
A 2-hour visit to the MFA really doesn't do the collections any justice. We did see some well-known paintings. I used Google to identify some of the ones posted below.
"The Riverbank at Giverny" by Monet.
"The Rue De La Bavole At Honfleur" by Monet.
:The Execution of Emperor Maximilian" by Manet.
Summer Night's Dream (The Voice) by Munch.
"Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where are We Going" by Gauguin.
"Dance at Bougival" by Renoir.
Portraits of "Johannes Elison" (left) and "Maria Bockenolle" (his wife) by Rembrandt.
"The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" by John Singer Sargent. The two vases in the painting, donated by the Boit family, are on display next to the painting. Perhaps influenced by Velazquez's "Las Meninas"?
"Long Branch, NJ" by Winslow Homer.
"Portrait of a Doge" by Gentile Bellini.
Lunch prepared by Anny.
December 12 - December 17. Our second trip was the rescheduled ACCESS event. The dates were on our calendar already as the STO (String Training Orchestra) Emmie is in would be performing.
Thursday 12/12. Our original plan was to fly up Friday afternoon. Anne then decided she wanted to be a judge at the Science Fair at the Boston Museum, put on by the Seniors at Fenway High School where Joe Jr teaches. Moving the flight by a day cost all of $5 per person. Our flight was uneventful, but every seat was taken. There were quite a few flight crew on standby - and I believe some didn't get on.
Our flight left from Terminal A, which has gotten quite a bit of good press since it opened a couple of years ago. I had mentioned how chaotic things could be if things go awry: like impossible car share situations, and food services shutting down after a certain time. Today it was the security process. It's been a while that it took 20 minutes to get through security. The fancy luggage scanners were excruciating slow; the lines were long. We used CLEAR which may or may not have helped. Not that we chose to use CLEAR, but it was unclear where the Pre-Check lines were. We usually get through Terminal C security in about 5 minutes, so today was a disappointment.
Emmie is also a member of the (impressive-sounding) Somerville All City Middle School Orchestra, which had a performance tonight starting at 6:30 pm. I had a zoom call at 7 pm, so couldn't make it. Anne managed to go and got back before the start of her class at 7:30 pm.
The Sommerville All City Middle School Orchestra. I didn't get to go because of a zoom call. The performance was at the Sommerville High School.
We managed to gulp down some burgers from Burger King as dinner.
Friday 12/13. Anne went off with Joe Jr to the Science Fair early in the morning. I Lyfted to the Rental Car Center at BOS. The wait at Alamo was a bit shorter than last time, but it still took me a while to get the car, and to set up EZ Pass properly.
Saturday 12/14. Had to wake up early to go to Jordan Hall for Emmie's 8:30 am STO concert. We actually got there a little after 8 am to see their rehearsal. I used Lyft instead of driving since I wasn't sure of the parking situation. The ride cost $15 or so. Parking at a nearby garage would cost $30. Street parking can be found, but quite a few blocks away; and I didn't want to risk a parking ticket. After the concert we all had breakfast at the NEC cafeteria, and we got a ride back with Joe Jr.
When we got to the Lighthouse Fellowship church at 3 pm (I drove), they had an arts and craft class in session. The Christmas Tree lighting service started at 4 pm, and ended at around 5 pm.
Members of the ACCESS Board went to Ming's to have dinner. We chatted for quite a while (from around 5:30 pm to 7:45 pm). Anne and I then picked up some food at the 99 Ranch store next doors.
This was the first time I was at Jordan Hall of the New England Conservatory. This was taken as they were about to start their final rehearsal before the performance.
Intent on getting it right.
Service at Lighthouse Fellowship in Quincy, MA.
The lit Christmas tree. It was a cold night, around 30F.
ACCESS Board. So I can remember the names: Jane, Wilfred, Florence, and Victor.
Monday 12/16. This morning we attended the Winter Concert at the Healy School. Both Emmie and Harrison performed in a couple of ensembles.
We then drove to Worcester to see the "Van Gogh Immersive Experience." The exhibit is anchored by a room where Van Gogh's paintings were projected onto the four walls and the floor, and the objects (iris petals, crows, etc) move and the scenes morph from one to another. We felt it was worth the one-hour drive each way for the exhibit. With the exception of the "Yellow Cafe," all of Van Gogh's famous paintings were represented.
Emmie on the cello. She was there for all the grades pieces.
Emmie in the chorus.
Harrison in the chorus.
Playing the trumpet in the band.
A mock up of "The Bedroom."
Visitors are welcome to step in and take a photo.
Different self-portrait paintings of the artist are projected onto the plaster bust.
Van Gogh's 10 best known paintings. I imagine the list is somewhat subjective.
Collection of his Sunflowers. His earliest set had the flowers on a tabletop. I wonder if there was ever an exhibit where all the real paintings were together.
A description of the Immersive Experience.
The crows fly.
L'Espace. We visited this earlier this year on our Viking cruise.
The Tree Roots was probably Van Gogh's last painting.
Tuesday 12/17. The car rental return process was quite straightforward. It cost only about $12 to fill up the tank - we ended driving the car for 138 miles. For this trip Alamo personnel were very courteous - when Alamo first came on the scene its agents were aggressive in upselling. From leaving Putnam to going through security it took 45 minutes; and things went smoothly.
Our flight was again quite full. We decided to Uber home.
December 20 - December 21. This would be the third trip, and I will be making it by myself.
Friday 12/20. My flight was at 11 am, with a 757. 757s are great planes to fly in, when they work. As they are now quite long in the tooth, maintenance issues often cause of delays. Indeed the specific plane for today's flight (N12125) had a hydraulics problem a couple of months ago.
The plane (in service since 1/1998) flew okay today. My problems were more of my own doing; most of it, anyway.
The main reason I came to town was to have lunch with ACCESS staff. I have been involved with this Chinatown organization for several years, but have met only a few of its staff. This would be a chance to get to know them.
For the longest time I thought lunch was going to be Saturday. My original plan was to go visit Francis in Needham today, stay the night at Putnam, then do the lunch, before heading back to NJ on Amtrak, with Harrison. A well planned 2-day itinerary.
After I boarded, I found out lunch was going to be today. So I shifted my events a little, and with the plane scheduled arrival at around noon, I should at most be a little late for the ACCESS lunch. I can move the Needham visit to tomorrow. The weather turned a bit for both NJ and MA. The plane had to be de-iced; there was no noticeable snow, but the temperature was around 37F. Takeoff was at 12 noon, and touchdown at 12:36 pm, gate arrival 12:42 pm (data from FlightRadar and United). Uber pickup was reasonably fast, but we then have a traffic problem, contributed or exacerbated by the moderate amount of snow. I showed up at the hotpot restaurant at 1:30 pm, and gulped down some food. And I talked only to a couple of people sitting next to me. I did get back to ACCESS and had a nice chat with Pasang and Wilfred.
I took the Orange Line to Assembly Square - one can now tap and go - and walked back to Putnam. The sidewalks and footpaths were generally okay, except for the walking under Route 28 (too much snow), and Putnam Road (slippery uphill).
Dinner was instant noodle, and the leftover cheesecake from our last trip. Joe Jr did bring in Burger King after Emmie's soccer practice.
[Turns out I lucked out with only a 30-minute delay for my flight. The four United EWR-BOS flights after mine were late by 4:17 hours, 2:44, 13:53, and 9:56! Joe P's in-laws came back from the Caribbean, their flight on JetBlue was late by 5 hours, and the plane waited for an hour after it landed to get a gate. This is Boston, where 2" of snow is just a dusting.]
It was then time to finish packing up (brought only a backpack) and go to South Station to catch the 4:25 pm Amtrak. Harrison decided to come with me after I had already bought my ticket to Metropark. By then tickets have gone way up from the $63 I paid to $300. Joe P found out the cost to NYP was "only" $175. (I assume that's because NY-Philadelphia was very busy.) These are adult fares, a child can't buy a ticket by himself, and when I called Amtrak they said I still have to buy him a ticket separately (as an adult) and they can then link the reservations together. We decided not to bother, and just bought the BOS-NYP adult ticket for Harrison. The conductor didn't have any problems; I simply told him we would both get off at NYP.
Taken at New York Moynihan Station.
Dinner was hot dog and half a pack of M&Ms.
They go pretty fast.
The train was quite full. We boarded at the starting station, but had to walk to nearly the front of the train before we got two adjoining empty seats. Harrison enjoyed the ride, and was well-behaved; that he could play his video game for an hour or so didn't hurt. We got off at NYP, but it's physically the Moynihan Station, and it took us a while to find our way to cross the street (34th?) to get to NY Penn. We did make the 9:07 pm NJ Transit train, but it was quite full. I got a seat, but Harrison wouldn't sit with strangers. After Newark things cleared up a bit, so we moved to an empty 2-seat row. Anne picked up us at the South Amboy train station.
Standing room only on NJ Transit train to South Amboy.
While I didn't quite make my objective of getting to know the ACCESS staff better, the trip was overall a pleasant (at least okay) experience.
