A few months ago Anne and I said we would go to a few BSO concerts with Joe P and Emmie. On Saturday 11/29 the concert will include Dvorak's cello concerto and his symphony No. 8. For this year, Emmie is on the NEC Preparatory String Orchestra (PSO). Her concert for this season is December 6, the following Saturday. So instead of coming up to the area twice, we decided to stick around for the week. It would be nice to spend some extended time here anyway.
Then Anne's dental problems got in the way. She needed a couple of her teeth looked at, and given our mid-December trip to Europe, doing it sooner is better than later. Her dentist could see her early Tuesday, so she would return to NJ on Monday. If the process goes well, she will come back to Boston.
Meanwhile, Ember Community Church will have her first public service on November 30, so we plan to attend that as well.
Friday 11/28/2025. Our original flight was to leave Newark at around 5 pm, and arrive Boston at around 6:30 pm. I probably picked it because I didn't know what the day after Thanksgiving would be like, and probably because that flight is considerably cheaper than earlier flights.
Today there were Newark to Boston flights that left at 3 and 4 pm as well. So we decided to standby for the 3 pm flight. One thing I didn't take into account was that United flights could leave from Terminal C or A. If the 3 pm and subsequent flights were to leave from different terminals, that would be an interterminal transfer, which would be a bit stressful. Last time I went standby (from Boston to Newark) I was on a standby that was somewhat stressful also. Today the process worked quite smoothly. We got our seat assignments at around 2:25 pm, before boarding began. With pre-boarding we got on early and found places for our rollies. Middle seats are tolerable for a short flight such as today's.
Alamo Car counter was quiet, three agents, and I was the first off the bus. The agent said since we were renting the car 2 hours early, the rental would cost $120 more. This was a first for me (I have encountered problems before with early returns). After I said I would sit at the terminal for a couple of hours to save the $120, she offered to see what she could do. It ended up being about $20 more expensive, which was okay. The "standard SUV" is a Nissan Rogue, which is quite a bit bigger than I expected.
Because of possible conflicts with visit from Jess's sister, Joe P booked a hotel room (award) for the evening. Turned out that wasn't necessary, but we decided to stay there for the night, and take advantage of the free breakfast the next morning.
Accommodation: Hyatt Place Medford (1 night).
Saturday 11/29/2025. Anne and I went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History and ended up spending quite a few hours looking at the impressive exhibits. In the same building is the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Many exhibits are covered up, as part of their "Ethical Stewardship in Action" initiative, awaiting a team to decide on their appropriateness for display; other exhibits have been returned to the appropriate communities. Perhaps that's why we didn't see a display of Mayan sacrifices; or we simply missed it. I find it hypocritical to not acknowledge a civilization's dark past (and every civilization has a dark past), while at the same time touting great strides such civilizations have made in the arts and science. If I recall correctly, the British Museum's display on Assyrians covers both their great achievements as well as their brutality.
The extensive collection of Glass Flowers was created by a father-and-son team of Czech artists.
The Glyptodont was a relative of the armadillo. They just weighed in at about 1000 kg. The species died out 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.
This kronosaurus from Queensland, Australia is about 135 million years old. The skeleton is 42 feet long.
Diversity of hummingbirds.
The museum has a large of collection of beetles donated by David Rockefeller.
A Mayan altar from Honduras, dated from the 8th century AD. Peabody Museum.
"Why is this case empty?" Peabody Museum.
It was about 3 pm when we got to Harvard Square, and we grab some pastries and coffee at Tatte (a subsidiary of Panera Bread, Jess told me later; turns out it is now majority owned by Panera's founder). Food was okay, and quite overpriced (perhaps everything is nowadays).
After eating leftover for dinner at Putnam, the four of us (Joe P and Emmie) drove down to Symphony Hall for a BSO all-Dvorak concert.
Pablo Ferrandez and Samy Rachid after the Dvorak Cello Concerto.
Accommodation: Putnam Road (rest of trip).
Sunday 11/30/2025. Emmie's fellowship group was to do the first advent candle lighting and scripture reading. Anne and I drove to CBCGB in Lexington, saw the "event" and left for Quincy.
Lighting of candle and scripture reading for first Advent Sunday at CBCGB, Lexington, MA.
Another reason we visited was to attend the first public service of Ember Community Church. I have been involved with the planning activities of this church for several months. We got to Quincy at about 12 pm. The service started at 1 pm, with refreshments and cleanup (Anne did a lot of the cleanup), we were done at about 5 pm. We picked up some items from a nearby Stop and Shop before having dinner with the start-up team at 6 pm, at South Garden Seafood Restaurant in Quincy.
Selfie with Anny, Susanna, and Kam. Anne was an usher.
Pastor Barry and his wife Sophie.
Overflow seating in Upper Room.
About 30 people showed up at the dinner. (I used Apple Intelligence to "erase" a couple of people on the right. The result is a couple of headless people.)
Monday 12/1/2025. Anne had to return to NJ to have her teeth fixed, so I dropped her off at around 10 am (for a noon flight). CBCGB has a monthly meeting for retirees, called the Joshua Fellowship, which I attended. That included lunch.
Afterwards I went to Somerville Parking to get a permit for the week. The wait was a bit wrong, but the agent was reasonably good natured about my lack of documentation for the rental car, offering to take as "proof" the photo I took of the license plate. (Now one can argue why do they need to be so specific.) Parking at the Parking Office is always a problem - which I find rather ironic.
Tuesday 12/2/2025. This morning was spent trying to monitor Anne's dental situation (not that much information can be had while her teeth were being worked on). It turned out okay, and she plans to fly back up tomorrow. Ellie was with her during the dentist visit.
Lunch was with Joe and Jess at An Nam in Assembly Square.
It has been raining since around noon today.
Wednesday 12/3/2025. I took CC and DN Costco shopping after they got out of school, and then it was off to the airport to pick up Anne. She felt good enough to fly back up.
Thursday 12/4/2025. Weather turned cold today. It started in the 30s in the morning, and will get to single digit by tomorrow morning.
We tried our luck to see if we can find parking near the Harvard Museums, and luck smiled on us. We found parking on Kirkland Street, a couple of minutes away from the Museum of Ancient Near East. It's displays are in three major areas: Assyria, Egypt, and Mesopotamia (that's my recollection, anyway). There is a lot of information on the web on how the museum has been using silicone to make models of artifacts. Perhaps something of interest to students of archaeology methods, the rest of us just want to learn something about the civilizations.
With my disappointment at my British Museum Assyria experience, I was somewhat hoping Harvard would save the day. It didn't. If I had no prior exposure to Assyria, all I learned was how lack of beard would indicate the person was a eunuch; how the "good" guys were made to be bigger in size than the "bad" guys; how the lion represented the enemy (thus killed in close quarters); and scattered facts about various kings. I didn't find the other two displays particularly illuminating either.
Reconstruction of a village house from the Iron Age II (1000-586BC).
Slaying of a lion.
In front of the Stele of Esarhaddon
Dream Stele in front of the Sphinx.
After lunch at Kelly's Roast Beef, we stopped by Hong Kong Supermarket (used to be Asian Market) to buy groceries for tonight's meal.
When I looked for classical concerts in the area this week, I saw that Boston Conservatory (of Berklee) was going to do a "dry run" of their concert in Carnegie Hall tomorrow (12/5). The program certainly looked interesting, and it's rather easy to get to the venue: Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The acoustics in the cathedral was such that all the sounds were blended together. I left during the intermission. It was getting very cold in the intervening two hours, Joe came to Assembly station to pick me up.
Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Boston Conservatory Orchestra.
Friday 12/5/2025. We left for Lighthouse Fellowship a bit after 9 am to attend the Ember Finance meeting. This was followed by lunch at Granite Links with Ember Board members. The location has a beautiful view of the Boston skyline.
At about 3 pm we returned the rental car from Alamo to the airport. The weren't enough agents to handle the cars that came in, so we were told to just leave the car behind. For a while I was worried I never got the final bill from them, turns out it was sent to another email address of mine.
We had dinner at 90 Putnam. Jess cooked.
Saturday 12/6/2025. PSO's concert was at around 9:15 am, we got to the area early enough that I could take DD and CC to Dunkin' for breakfast. After the performance Emmie went for her Robotics competition, and Jess dropped us off at the airport.
With both sets of grandparents.
We were there early enough to catch an earlier flight at around noon, which we could confirm right away (instead of being on standby). And we had enough time to stop by the Chase Sapphire Lounge; the lounge visit was a bit of a disappointment.
Our flight in a commuter plane was uneventful. I got to try out the free Starlink WiFi on the plane, and it was fast. We took an Uber home.
455 mb/s download speed. Of course one can't do much with it on a short 50 minute commuter flight.
