The Twelve Days of Summer

For a big chunk of the year, the weather in Boston is extreme, so you learn to celebrate each good day. The trade off of vacationing all over the West this past summer, was a very brief summer home. We had a total of twelve days in Sudbury,  and some of those days were spent packing and unpacking. So, as soon as school was out, I knew that I had to fit as much into our Boston summer as possible. 

Our annual neighborhood party began just moments after the kids arrived off the school bus. In the center of the neighborhood we had a catered picnic from Sudbury Coffee Works and then the children decorated their bikes and "paraded" them up the street. To the dismay of the "parade organizer", the "parade" looked more like a massive drag race on two wheelers and tricycles, with hoops and hollers and even a crash with bumps and bruises.

In New England, farms and fruit stands are tucked beside the narrow windy roads of the country side. We have our favorites that we frequent, keeping our refrigerator full of fresh, off the bush blueberries and apples, peaches and pears that were just picked. Several times a season we do the picking, trudging back from the orchards with overstuffed bags of fruit. In June it is strawberry season, and this year we added the Hansen's strawberry patch to our list of farms to frequent. (Notice Annelise's new found talent that she perfected over the summer of having control of each eyeball individually. I wonder which side of the family contributed that gene?!)

One of our must do's each summer is to swim in Walden Pond. The first weekend after we arrived in Boston two years ago, our ward had a summer activity, which was swimming in a pond in Western Mass. I remember how strange that sounded. I soon learned that swimming in ponds is quite popular, and in fact, there are even swim teams that regularly meet at ponds. Each summer we head to Walden Pond in Concord, with towels, snacks and fish nets in hand. Most swimmers plop down on the public beach at the bottom of the trail, but we walk the 1.7 miles around the pond and stop at different spots to jump in for a dip along the way. 

Last Spring we purchased a bike rack for our car. One of those, "Why didn't we do this 15 years ago" purchases. This summer we have hauled our bikes around Eastern Massachusetts, riding on the Minute man trail, with historic buildings and stops along the route, the picturesque Lincoln and Marlborough trails, the trail along the Charles River that takes us right past Harvard and MIT, and the Lynn trail which hugs one of the north shore beaches.

Throughout the summer our neighbors take their children to a local neighborhood pool in Concord. As part of our move to Sudbury, we looked at joining but were deterred by the cost. I did the math and figured that if we went to the pool every third day of the summer, including weekends, we would still be paying $50 per time to swim. Fortunately our good friends the Gormans put a pool in just before we moved here. They have given us an open invitation. Our children beg almost everyday of the summer to swim at the Gormans. Ironically, even after visiting several times, my children have never asked to swim at the high priced  neighborhood pool -- lucky for us. They will take an afternoon with the Gormans any day.  When we go, Steve and I visit with Paul and Adrene and the kids splash, dive and race all afternoon until it is time for Dilly bars. We love the Gormans and appreciate their generosity!

One of our last activities of the summer was an afternoon at the Boston Arts Festival in Christopher Columbus Park. The park looks over the dock for all the fancy yachts in Boston Harbor and is tucked up against the North End, Boston's Italian Neighborhood with our favorite place to eat, LaConte's. The kids painted water colors ranging the spectrum from abstract to realistic. While we browsed through the artists pavilions, the kids beamed after each comment they received regarding their art work. One man exclaimed that their pictures were beautiful and wondered where he could buy one. Sophia elbowed her way in front of Emilie and bursted out, "We made them!" with a huge smile from cheek to cheek. The man made Sophia's day just as Sophia made the man's day with her obvious joy from his comment. We ended the night with dinner at LaConte's and dessert from Mike's Pastries, enjoyed in Paul Revere Square.

Summer came to an end too soon, to our dismay. Our only consolation was that Fall had arrived, arguably the best and definitely the most famous season in New England.