Mercer's people

Mercer walks over the Hudson River

Grandpa came up to visit today so we drove about an hour north to Poughkeepsie to take in the Walkway Over the Hudson - an old abandoned train bridge that has been converted into a great pedestrian/bike walkway. It was a beautiful day for walking and Mercer seemed to enjoy himself.

Afterward, we all grabbed some suds, sodas, and ciders at one of the best retail stores in the world, Half Time Beverage, and then had lunch at Sonic. I wish we could've taken better pictures, but someone broke our camera while we were in Boston.

6/23/11

Mercer pumping gas.

Father's Day

Mercer and Mommy got Daddy a nice bottle of rye whiskey for Father's Day. Just what the doctor ordered. Since it was a beautiful day, we went for a long bike ride in the morning, did some shopping, and then spent the majority of the afternoon playing soccer at Pierson Park in Tarrytown.

For dinner, we went to Los Abuelos, a fantastic, tiny Mexican restaurant in our town. Dad had a cemita, pictured above. On this beast of a sandwich was sausage, ham, roasted pork, mozzarella, mayonnaise, sour cream, beans, onion, avocado, papalo, string cheese, and chipotle peppers. It was fantastic.

R.I.P. Swimmy

On Friday, Mercer won himself a goldfish at the Yorktown Relay for Life event. By this morning, the fish was dead. Above is the only known photograph of the fish, which Mercer named "Swimmy."

Mercer got a haircut.

Mercer's hair was finally getting too out of control, so it was time for a haircut. He jumped right into the chair and behaved perfectly the entire time. Mercer loves his long hair, but we think he knew it was time for a trim.

Mercer went to Emma's birthday party.

Emma had a birthday party at a local gymnastics center and it looked really fun. I think there were more than a few parents who wanted to jump into the foam pit.

Mercer wrote Emma's name on the card but ran out of room. I think that's happened to all of us a few times.



The birthday girl and Mercer eating some pizza.

Mercer gave blood.

Mercer had to give blood a few weekends ago to prepare for his entry into the local school system. It took 2 nurses and Mom and Pop to hold him down, but we got 3 viles filled. Most of the crying started when the nurse brought the rubber strap out to tie around his arm. He didn't like the looks of that thing at all.

Mercer makes a pledge.

Happy Sunday

Here we have Mercer snuggled up for a long nap in the hotel room in Boston. We're not sure how he was breathing.

Mercer visits Boston / Part III - Sunday

Our last full day in Boston started with a walk to the aquarium. We were met by a large group of runners finishing a 13+ mile race, which was kind of fun. Suddenly, Mom and I felt very unhealthy.


The aquarium, situated on the eastern harbor of Boston was, um, not great. Mercer wasn't in the best of moods for some reason and there wasn't much to see. No dolphins, no sharks, and one seal. The cost was way too much for what we saw and it made us appreciate our local aquarium much more. Still, we saw some penguins, seahorses, and um, a bunch of other fish. The main tank in the middle of the building was cool - apparently, the whole aquarium was built around it. We did get some cool sea creature toys that Mercer will use in the bath for the next year, though.





It was a nice, hot day so we took another walk to find a place to eat. Mercer loves statues.

And bookstores.

After lunch, Mom took Mercer to the hotel pool and Dad walked to the new Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The best thing Pop can say about the place was that the building was pretty cool to walk around and look at. The work on display inside was very poor: uninteresting people with mundane thoughts who have too much time on their hands to put their work into broad political and social contexts. Everything lacked depth, thought, and quality. The video installations were particularly dreadful. Pop felt ripped off at every turn. Amateur.


The walk back to downtown was gorgeous.


After Mercer woke up from an epic nap, Mom and Pop had a nice meal at Jasper White's Summer Shack (very touristy): cajun BBQ shrimp, baked cod, beans, corn on the cob, parsnip puree, and lots of great summer drinks. Mercer didn't feel like eating, so we headed out to the 26th tallest building in the country, the Prudential Center, to drink in a great view. We surveyed the town from 50 stories up and it was very impressive.

Downtown:


North Charles River bridges to Cambridge:


Something or other:

South Bay:

Fenway Park:

Charles River, looking south:

Charles River and Cambridge:


The next morning we packed up the family Charger and headed back to New York. We think Mercer had a pretty good time.