When life gives you flight delays...

...you explore the airport and try to not do anything illegal!

Ben flew in for a wedding this past weekend and his flight was majorly delayed.  To pass the time, I decided to explore Logan and try not to get arrested by the TSA.  I knew there was a 9/11 memorial at the airport and made my way over to it. It is such a gorgeous and wonderful memorial to the two flights that originated in Boston. 

It is a large cube with glass plates around the outside. They are spaced and allow air and light to flood the cube. 

 At either entrance, on opposite corners of the cube, are panels. On the front of each panel is the time in which in the plane struck the Tower. On the inside of the cube, the panel has the flight information and names of those who were on the flights. I got a chill down my spine as I saw those times, forever persevered.

 The roof of the cube is criss-crossed with metal wires and glass/mirror-y squares that were reflecting the sunlight every which way.

 The sunlight just streams into this beautiful memorial. I think memorials should be in sunny places, the sun, in my mind is a reminder that life does go on, all while basking the memories in warm and comforting sunlight.  It was also humbling to see the memorial at the food of the airport; the airport where it all began that fateful day.

The memorial sits in a grassy knoll surrounded by trees, as they mature it will be even more gorgeous there. From the skybridge that connects the parking garage to the terminals you get a lovely view of the structure. Such a beautiful memory of those who were lost.

I then spent the next hour walking the entire airport, and even passed the time walking the wrong way on the moving walkways, actually really easy and really fun! All in all, it was a nice way to pass the time waiting for Ben's flight to arrive. Usually when I am delayed I am on the other, more boring side, of security!

Zoo Interview

With only 15 more school days to go, I am beginning to get sad that the year is ending, so I am trying to preserve memories of our year together in cyber space.  So anyway, for homework a few weeks ago, I asked the kids to imagine that they could ask an animal a question and understand their answer. The answers were pretty darn creative!  

We heard from bats and cats. 

 And from tigers and cows.

Zebras and elephants.

Horses and tigers.

Giraffes and Asian elephants. 

So creative! I think they came up with some awesome questions and great answers! 

21st week around the sun!

Getting closer to summer! 15 more school days and school is out for summer! Not only has vacation fever set in, but also some gnarly allergies had me feeling iffy parts of this week. I have also started to get super sad about saying good-bye to the kids in 15 days, so lots of pictures of them lately.  The real pictures for 144 and 145 are different, but have the kiddos' faces so no posting them! I also ended up spending over an hour at Logan airport waiting for my brother-in-law's delayed flight and stumbled upon the gorgeous 9/11 Memorial! Cannot believe it is the end of May! 

Scav Hunt Sunday: Toes and Texture

Beneath my feet:

 I am sure everyone did this...but it was so nice out yesterday I went out into the little yard and read with the grass beneath my feet.

Movement:

 I had to tag along to gym on Tuesday. The kids played some fun games with the parachute, they had it moving all over the place!

Current:

 Think of your current computer, think of how much smaller it is than this one! I so wanted one of these as a pre-teen. Now I am happy to be a apple user through and through.

Texture:

 A new pizza shop opened up down the street from me. Along the big picture windows they have old distressed beams supporting a seating bar. I love the texture I captured on the beam, while taking a picture through a window covered in a nice thick film of pollen!

Facing my fear:

Snakes. I really really don't like them. Indiana Jones and I could get on great. I am doing better with the fear, and was meaning to take a pic of the snake in the tank in the school's science lab, but the chance never presented it self. So the snake in the opening for Around the World in 80 Plates it is. But it shows growth that I could rewind the DVR 50x until I actually got the picture!

Riverway Art

I live right around the corner, and over a few blocks, from the Riverway, a small river that runs along the border between Boston and Brookline. It has lovely pathways alongside it and it's such a lovely place to walk about. They have some really cool sculptures along the river right now, so over the weekend I seized the opportunity to take a walk and take some pictures!

 There is this very cool nest cave. It reminds me a bit of the structure that Max and the Wild Things build in the Where the Wild Things Are movie.

 This metal bee hive looking piece.

I love the little foot bridges that cross the river. This one leads over the river and up to the edge of Wheelock's main campus. Just such a pretty area. 

I nearly missed these cool pained cans/tubes hanging in between these two trees. The colors blend so nicely into the greenery that is everywhere. 

 These are hanging from a high branch and are made from colored and painted blinds! The sun was hitting them and the wind was moving them around. So delicate and fun!

 This is a mass of dryer vent tubing! Looks like it might be either the brains or intestines of a creature.

 I half expected Alice or the Queen to pop out at any minute! There were some children on a bike ride and they squealed with glee when they saw the cat up in the tree!

 I at first thought the trees were wrapped for their health, but it was another installation! Love the white against the brown and green, great contrast.

 And since the day was so perfect, I walked along the river a bit longer as I meandered home. I seriously love the reflections you can see in the muddy river. I was tossing stones in and trying to capture the ripples as they permeated outwards.

I am going to make it an effort to stroll along here more often during the summer, it's such a peaceful place, even with a main street along one side! The river is down an embankment and such a perfect place to relax and stroll!

First Sox game of 2012!

After we said good-bye to Avi and Noam, mom and I rushed home to relax for a little bit before heading to Fenway Park for my first Red Sox game of the season! They were playing the Indians and anything could have happened considering their record this season...

 We had standing room only tickets, but found some awesome open seats along the third base line. Armed with my zoom lens (seriously need to use it more) I had so much fun taking in the game and taking pictures!

 The line-up was a good one.  A nice mix of old favorites and some of the new guys. Dustin Predroia is still a team favorite, everytime he came up to bat he got a roaring round of applause!

 And of course, Big Papi! He had a really good night as well!

 I love Big Papi's expression in this picture as they scored the first run of the game!

 It isn't a real game until your uniform is dirty!

 There were moments where the pitching and fielding could have been better, and there were a few meetings on the mound, but the Sox played strong and the bullpen backed up the team that night!

 Of course, there were the usual awesome parts of the game: the wave, the whole stadium belting out "Sweet Caroline," getting some super junky ice cream, and an overall perfect night for a ball game.

I was so happy that my first game of the season was a great one and I was so happy to take in the game with mom! It was the icing on a great "graduation" weekend!

Week 20 around the sun!

This week really dragged on. Everyone at work was saying it felt super slow for them as well.  I guess as we get closer to summer vacation the slower time will go, but only 4 weeks and 20 school days to go! This week I started my last class at Wheelock and have begun to knuckle down and get my portfolio finished, the real finish line is in site.  We also had a massive strep outbreak in 1L this week, by Friday 8 kids had gotten it and we only had 11/19 kids on Friday! Hopefully this week brings fewer germs!