Prologue

Boston is where my daughter was lucky enough to grow up. This is where I showed her the world (or at least all over the East Coast.)

We could catch the bus from the top of our street, and from there we could go to the North Quincy train station, where all of Boston was at our fingertips, at the sole cost of a train token. I took her to the Boston Public library. We saw the children's room all decked out in the Curious George theme. We saw the atrium with fountains. We saw the Trinity Church across the street. We walked down Beacon Street, all the way to the Public Gardens and Boston Common, where we splashed around in the frog pond and rode on the swan boats. We rode the bus through Chinatown, and into South Boston to go visit daddy on his lunch break at school. We would go to the farmer's market downtown on Friday mornings. We walked the freedom trail, shopped at Downtown Crossing, saw the Old North Church and Paul Revere's house. We saw the John Adam's house, and the Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was first read. We've rode on the red line, the green line, the orange line, the silver line, and the blue line. I took her apple picking, and pumpkin picking, and to the Children's Museum. We played at the beach, fed seagulls, and played in the sand. She played in the snow, made her first snowman, and learned to ice skate on the Frog Pond at Boston Common. We took her to see Plymouth Rock, and the replica of the Mayflower. We ate lobster in Maine and went to a beach on Cape Cod. We sat on Memorial Dr. and watched the 4th of July fireworks over the Charles River. I took her driving to look at fall leaves in New Hampshire. We saw lighthouses, and gas tanks, and windmills. We flew kites and she learned how to ride her first bike at Castle Island. We took her to New York City and she saw the Statue of Liberty, stood at the top of the Empire State Building, ate at Planet Hollywood in Times Square, visited Ground Zero, Grand Central Station, and even stood on Boadway and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. She started preschool and rode her first school bus.
I showed her so many things, and we went so many places, that even though she only lived here until she was 4, I still will always remember that this is where she grew up. What I didn't realize at the time, was that it was also the place where I grew up.