Day 3: A Danielle Day in Boston

Peaks Island, Near Portland, Maine


We're in a military base, right now.
Actually, we're on it.
But more about that later.



The Harvard logo



We left relatively early this morning (10:30), and drove to Boston. Mum had this idea about walking around the Harvard campus, but the trouble was, we had a hard time finding it. I mean, it's just so huge, and there are so many buildings and all, and we couldn't decide on which destination to select on Rilla. Harvard Medical School? University of Harvard? Harvard Quad? Apparently, they're not all the same thing. Gaby was complaining the whole way through (Sorry, Gabs), until we gave up and stopped at Starbucks for smoothies and lemonade. And she kept complaining after that, until she spotted an Urban Outfitters and begged to go. So after following the signs marked "P" for parking leading us in a circle about four times, we hopped out and decided we would stop at a) Urban Outfitters, or b) The Harvard book store (Gaby wanted a Harvard sweatshirt, as well, although she didn't want to see the actually campus...), whichever we would find first.

We found the book store.

While Gaby was looking at a book about the Periodic Table of the Elements (She has this thing where she likes science), I found the fiction section, and more importantly, the scripts/screenplays section. There, I found The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, just about all 37 Shakespeare plays, and the entire works of Gilbert and Sullivan. After finding this last one, I read through the entire Major General song, which goes pretty much like this:

I am the very model of a modern Major-General

I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral

I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

That's just part of it, and I want to learn it by heart.

Anyway, all in all, Gaby bought her Elements book, I bought The Crucible and Pygmalion, and Mum got buttons and a really cool bag. (Two out of three of the buttons are mine, the Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare ones.)
We also went to a Harvard clothing store, where Gaby bought her sweatshirt, and I a T-shirt. Then, to Urban Outfitters. We didn't buy anything, there (And after all of Gaby's begging!.



Mum on the ferry to Peaks Island



After taking the last ferry in Portland, we arrived here, on Peaks Island. The Island is an old military base, and nothing like the cemented, symmetrical, underground, single prison-like building Gaby and I were expecting. It's filled with houses. Ordinary houses, and restaurants, and cafes, things one would find in any small village. It's quite cute, actually. Except that we're on a military base, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

The man who own our hotel-that-looks-like-a-cottage (Everything looks like a cottage, here: restaurants, stores, bicycle renting places...) is about a thousand years old (84, actually), and although we share a bathroom and cafeteria with the other non-existent tourists, it's nothing like a military base.

After he showed us around and explained the detailed history of about every chair and picture in the house, we went out for dinner (seafood, yum!) and watched the sunset and a little boy putting out lobster-traps/net-thingys in the water. Can't wait to eat some lobster, we haven't eaten any, yet...

Mom announces that since this was a Danielle Day at Harvard, tomorrow should be a Gaby Day at the beach (I'm fine with that, as long as I have my book! I'm reading The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, aka Wicked.).