Tall Ships and a Tired Baby

All week I have been obsessed with seeing the tall ships. I dont know why because I see them all the time. I walk by the USS Constitution every day on my way to work and I live almost within sight of the Friendship. Whatever, they still rock.


The first thing that I have to say is that Boston's Harbor Walk was not intended to accommodate 5 trillion people. Some of it was one-way and I felt bad for the people traveling north. Until I saw that some of it was not accessible by a ramp, which meant that my stroller, Ryder and I were not going that way either.

Some people are so inconsiderate of strollers, too. Granted my stroller is kinda big, but that isn't the point.

It was a beautiful day to be at the harbor. It was sunny, hot, and a little windy which cooled us off at just the right times. I think I got a nice tan, as well.

This was all courtesy of Sail Boston:

We began in the North End and worked our way south, ending at the World Trade Center in Southie. Yes, it was a long walk.

The first ship we saw was the Europa:

So awesome!! At this spot there was also a floating Blues Barge. It was this blues band playing on a barge. Seriously. There was too many people to stop for a picture, unfortunately.

Next we went over to Fan Pier where there were a bunch of schooners.

I heard someone saying that this flag was in WWII or something. I don't know if I believe it though. Just because its old doesn't mean that it was in a war... What would a schooner be doing in a war?? I am certainly no expert on boats, though.

More schooners.

By this time I was absolutely dying of thirst. I could not go a moment longer. I assumed that there would be vendors along the harbor, but there were not. None. So, when we got to the Institute of Contemporary Art, we went in. We stood in line at the ICA cafe for 35 minutes. There was only one person at the register so we waited. And waited. And waited. Tons of people left, but I was too thirsty to go anywhere.

Ryder was very cranky about standing in one place for 35 minutes and I wasn't in a joyful mood either. Actually, I was pretty bitchy. All I wanted was some water, but after we waited for so long, I figured I had to buy some more to make the whole thing worth it. So we bought a smoothie, water, and candied papayas to split. Ryder promptly put a papaya into the water. I was pissed! I drank it anyways.

Finally we made it to the World Trade Center. From a distance it looked like there were a few ships over there. When we got over there we saw that it was just one. One huge ship!

This ship is called Kruzenshtern (don't ask me how to pronounce it!) and is Russian. She is the largest traditional sailing ship in operation. Pretty awesome! That is the WTC behind her, by the way, for a bit of scale.

We didn't get any closer to that ship. I could feel the awesomeness from across the canal. So, it was back north for us. Ryder fell asleep in the stroller and I found some guy selling water quite close to where we were. Without a line. C'est la vie.

That brings us full circle back to the Europa. Everyone and their mother took this picture. Some of them are standing in mine.