Boston Next Weekend, Anyone? With Maybe A Side Order Of Provincetown?

[dr_pretentious]

For years, Dan's been trying to get me to join him for the weekend he does the big charity bike ride for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. He and his college friends spend the year training up, or intending to anyway, to ride 150 miles in two days.

Of course I won't be riding with the guys. Pedaling 150 miles in two days is beyond my fitness level this year, and possibly for the rest of this incarnation. Which is fine.

What I will be doing is schlepping up to Boston Friday, then probably bringing Gareth to children's museums and science centers and such on Saturday and Sunday, and then joining Dan and his friends for a celebratory dinner on Sunday. There's a remote possibility I might spend Sunday in Provincetown, where the finish line is for Dan's ride, if some known fellow grown-up were to join me for the whole day to help keep an eye on Gareth.

It's possible, even easy, for one adult to keep a two-year-old amused, safe, and enjoyable in an environment that's designed and maintained specifically for children. Keeping that same two-year-old amused, safe, and enjoyable in an open field or paved lot on a hot day while hundreds of exhausted, distracted cyclists pedal past the finish line and then meander heedlessly around at fifteen miles an hour to cool down requires the attention of at least two vigilant adults. I can't tell you how many times jeneralist and I narrowly prevented serious injury to the kiddo, to say nothing of narrowly avoiding heatstroke, at the finish line of the Livestrong Challenge last summer. I hear there's a lot of fun stuff to do in Provincetown, but I can only consider it if I've got someone I already know in person committed to spend the day with us there and brave at least half an hour finish line chaos.

Comments

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Yes! Well. Hm. We should meet up but I don't know for what. There's a folk concert Saturday afternoon that I'm going to, which you should either go to or avoid -- I don't know how musical the toddler is -- but we could have dinner afterwards. Sunday... I think I have a text-adventure reading group session? It's unclear.

For a person with no life I have a lot of *appointments*.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

I'm thinking Saturday would be a good day for the Museum of Science. They've designed their Discovery Center for kids under 6, so my current notion is that I'd get him over there as early as traffic, navigation, etc., allow, sometime after that part of the museum opens at 10am, and stay until we need to head back to Bill R.'s house for Gareth's nap, around 2pm. We usually aim for dinner around 6:30 or 7:00. I don't know where's good to eat near Bill's place in Somerville. Anyplace with pasta will work for the small person.

Gareth's musical, but at too impulsive a developmental stage to have good audience manners, so unless it's a concert specifically for kids, we probably shouldn't join you for that part of the day.

I've still got the same cell phone number I've had all along, or you can email me. I don't have a number for you, though. (The phone that knew your number disappeared in the ER that time I got pneumonia, right after we saw you in Pittsburgh. Weird, the things that stick in my mind from that flu.)

[showingup.livejournal.com]

Well, no. But I am making Boston Creme Cupcakes for the East Cheshire Quakers Area Meeting the weekend after - does that count? No, prolly not...

Good luck with the child-wrangling. I wish I could be there. Or you could be here. Either.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

One of these days, we WILL get to your side of the Atlantic, darn it. Not this year, for obvious reasons, but it's one of the things on our long-term budgeting radar.

If we have Boston Creme Anything, I will be thinking of you.

childrens museum

[cthulhia]

I am likely up for a sunday morning session at the children's museum. particularly the climber thingie in the lobby.

Saturday is ridonkulously over-booked, Sunday is suspiciously open. (I thought I had no plans yesterday, and turned out to have forgotten about a bunch of stuff).

edit: after the race I signed up for on Sunday morning, anyway. see? (it was a 7.5 mile race, and is now 5K, so I'll be running for 40 minutes, rather than 80 or so, which gives me slightly more time to go and shower before heading back out again.)

Re: childrens museum

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

So glad I'll get to see you!

Sunday at the Children's Museum sounds perfect. It opens at 10:00, so I'll aim for that general time frame. (Arriving promptly when traveling with kids is dicey, though.) We'll need to head back to Somerville for Gareth's nap (and mine) around 2:00.

Re: childrens museum

[cthulhia]

the race starts at 9 am, I'll probably get anywhere near a train station by 10, then need a shower before meeting up with you. 11 am at the earliest, and probably more like noon. Take your time with getting there.

where are you staying in somerville, in the event that we need a plan b?

[spindlewand.livejournal.com]

I will be nowhere near Providence on that or any other upcoming day that I can think of, but I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the situation and a two year old. I had to keep mine on a leash in public at that point, and public was like "let's get out of the car and go look at the water in this lovely little park where there are only five other cars in the parking lot" as opposed to the minimally organized chaos of a finish line.

(They are sweet. They are lovely. They are oblivious to danger and a bit short to be seen. Better to keep them in one piece, I agree.)

I do hope you go and enjoy the museums and dinner part, though. That all sounded EXACTLY how I would like to enjoy a long bike ride - elsewhere than on a bike!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

We've had to resort to a leash a few times, like at the Philadelphia Flower Show, and it was a total godsend. There are settings I just don't take him to (like the NYC subways or the DC Metro) because a leash would be the only way to keep him safe, and he's about as amenable to being on one as the average terrier is.

Mantra: The Terrible Twos Are Not Forever.

My definition of a long bike ride is really different from my spouse's. Once Gareth was old enough to ride in a bike trailer, we hitched it up to Dan's bike, and for a few months that evened out our speed and endurance so that it was easy for us to ride together. Dan didn't have to remember to slow down for me, and I didn't feel tempted to push too hard to keep up with him. After a few months, he adapted to the extra weight and drag, and he could outpace me easily even as the kiddo got heavier. Ah, well. He gets his resistance training, and I go at my own pace and get some solitude, which is also nice.

[oaktavia.livejournal.com]

I've no suggestions for P-town (what us Bostonians call that place ;->)
but the Museum of Science in Boston with 2 full sides - each with 3 floors of exhibits (a great many interactive) and an iMax theater - will take up almost a full day (when I lived in public housing in Boston, I took Tabitha there all the time as our neighborhood was so NOT safe, I even had an annual membership so we could go anytime we wanted) and Tabitha was under 5yo when we moved so Gareth should be interested.
There's also the New England Aquarium which was Tabitha's second favorite place to repeatedly revisit...
:-)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Definitely doing the Museum of Science! We joined the Liberty Science Center, and they've got reciprocity with a bunch of other science museums, including the MOS.

These days, I love any air-conditioned place that's designed with small children's running-around needs in mind, and have been known to make do with the carousel (again and again all afternoon) at Woodbridge Mall on especially stir-crazy days.

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

I'm working this Saturday at the library, but presently have no plans for Sunday. (Or for Friday night, for that matter.) (I also have access to museum passes for places like the Museum of Science and the Aquarium, but keep that on the down low...)

Send me an email if you'd like to get together: chschweppe@gmail.com.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Okay. Email on its way!