Quack, Quack!

Peanut & Tex's uncle from the Netherlands was here last week for his first visit to the US! He's just headed home last week after a leisurely drive down the coast to NYC with a friend. We think he'll be back.

Peanut certainly hopes so! Mama & Papa were simply swept aside when Peanut realized what a good time she could have with her uncle. At first, she referred to him simply as "This" - as in, "Let's go to the pool." "This come along, too?" with a little finger tapping his shoulder. By the end of his visit, she was very clear on who he was :-)

To get a quick look around Boston with the whole family, we jumped aboard the local Duck Boat Tour ! We arrived a half hour before launch, but it wasn't a minute too early. All the other passengers were also clambering up the ladder-like steps dropped from the back of the amphibious vehicle. The Duck Boats are renovated World War II vehicles made for moving from land to sea and back again. They played a major role in the Normandy landings. It gave me a strange sort of feeling imagining what those original passengers must have felt and now we were just leisurely riding around in the Ducks for fun.

We had a lively operator/captain by the name of "Hardly Davidson" who kept us entertained while also sharing a few stories about the city; the strangest was the tale of the Great Molasses Flood. After a loop on dry-land we headed around to a specially-built launching site on the Charles River for our splash-down. I had imagined a more dramatic race off the edge of the pavement, but it was still a new adventure.

Next time we move (because I just know we will), I'm going to make sure we hop aboard whatever sort of local city tour bus/trolley/boat/tram/amphibious vehicle within the first weeks. The little ones had fun watching the city whirl by and I learned a lot about the history, culture, politics and people of Boston in that short 80 minute tour.