up in Boston. . .

Words cannot fully express how wonderful it was to have Evelyn here in the US. The transition back into the US has been hard and lonely, and having a good friend around for two weeks was good for my soul.  Because she came for a course at the New England Journal of Medicine, we couldn't do as much as I would have liked. But, we managed to squeeze a lot in over the weekends and evenings that she was around.

There was plenty of shopping, eating ice cream, and talking and catching up. We actually talk quite a bit on the phone since it is super cheap for them to call us (a 45 minute phone call is usually less than two dollars. Imagine!), but nothing beats a long conversation over an ice cream cone, a cup of chai, a walk on the beach, a ride in the car... etc...

Here are a random assortment of pictures to recap the time.

Since she was commuting from Essex into Boston every day, my parents and I took her on a dry run of the bus and subway routes she'd be taking into the city.

Kyalo was excited for his first train ride

Evelyn's course was being held at the library in the Harvard Medical School.   Here she is, standing in front of it. . .

 . . . and representing Aga Khan, the University Hospital in Nairobi where she got her Master's training.

Unfortunately, that's the extent of my Boston pictures, even though after this trip to the school we walked through the Farmers' Market at Quincy Market (strawberries were $1.00 a pound, I think. It was ridiculous!) and grabbed pizza there before heading home. 

The next day, I gave her a little tour of Essex...which took about a minute, and then we went to Gloucester to walk along the ocean.  It was a cold, windy day, but clear and beautiful. 

 is she enjoying this?

 I would love to see the inside of the house

The highlight of the tour was, without a doubt, Nor'East Cleaners my dad's dry cleaning business. Sadly it was closed being Sunday, but we got this picture anyway.

Well, this ends the first weekend she was there.  I have some more pictures and stories of what we were up to in MA to come. Stay tuned!