In
August our nephew Benjamin visited us in Boston. Most of
these
pictures were taken using the digital camera he received for his recent
birthday. Click any picture for a larger image.
Arrival
On
his first night in Boston, we all went to a "gourmet" pizza restaurant.
In front of Benjamin is a salad of avocado, black beans, and
diced tomatoes. The pizza on the left was classic pepperoni.
The pizza on the right had fresh corn, diced potatoes,
pancetta,
scallions, thyme, and mozarella.
Badminton
Benjamin
loves playing badminton. We setup the net in the backyard and
managed to play several games before the mosquitos found us.
Note
Benjamin's "Abbey Road" t-shirt -- he is a fan of the Beatles.
Benjamin
playing badminton. Despite the lack of recent practice, he is
quite good.
Benjamin
playing badminton.
Here
is a 43-second (silent) video clip of Benjamin playing badminton. ________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________ Or
if you would prefer to download a video file, right-click
this .wmv
file (5 MB) or this .mov
file
(40 MB) and select "Save Target As". Either way,
the
movie file is large, so it will take several minutes
to
download if you are using a dial-up connection. To
view the
.wmv file, you will need player software (such as Microsoft's Windows
Media Player) installed. To view the .mov file, you
will need player software (such as Apple's free
QuickTime
Player) installed.
Our
line judge -- Bruiser on the balcony overlooking the backyard.
"Let
me look, was that In or Out?"
Benjamin
and Brett shake hands after a game.
Cats
Amanda
relaxing on her favorite "cat pad". She slept under
Benjamin's
bed every night of his visit. He knew this because he could
hear
her snoring.
Amanda
looking out the cat door into the backyard. It's actually a
dog
door -- our late cat Teddy was too big for a cat door.
"This
is MY scratch box. Understand?"
The
Beach
We
spent a day at Crane Beach, a beautiful wide sand beach north of
Boston. The water temperature was 64 degrees F, not "bath
water"
but quite nice once you've dunked.
Brett
and Benjamin feeding the seagulls. They love Bugles.
A
seagull on Crane Beach. They're very skilled at stealing food
from your bag when your back is turned.
Diane's
toes in the sand at Crane Beach. Note the sparkles -- the
sand contains a lot of quartz. If you look down into the surf
in
the bright sun, you can see sparkles from bits of quartz suspended in
the seawater.
A
seagull perched atop the bathhouse at Crane Beach. We stayed
until late afternoon.
Science
Museum
The
next day we went to the Boston Museum of Science. This is a
view
of the Boston skyline along the Charles River taken by Benjamin on the
ride to the museum.
This
picture is blurry, but it shows the 30-foot tall Van de Graaff
generator in the Hall of Electricity at the Museum of Science.
It
is the world's largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator.
It
generates voltages greater than one million volts, and is used to
create impressive lightning demonstrations.
At
Home
Brett and Benjamin hard at work playing computer games.
Can you find the cat in this picture?
Benjamin
took this picture of Brett and Diane.
Thanks
for visiting, Benjamin -- come visit us again soon!
