In one of our Boston posts Brance briefly mentioned our interrupted trip to Harvard Yard and that I would tell the story.  Well here I go  -  finally, the long-promised story of the missing shoe…

I must begin by saying that it seems stories of missing things could easily become a regular theme around here as I’m not the best at keeping organized and well, the mobilization of our dear Haddie hasn’t helped matters any either.  Things going missing have become a daily, if not hourly, occurence at the Gillihan residence.  I’m sure I have at least one hundred stories of things gone missing  over the past few months that I could share with our readers… a shoe’s mate mysteriously vanishing to be found hanging out with the dust bunnies under my bed, favorite pens suddenly missing critical working components, keys to the vehicle taking a leisurely stroll from the table to the kitchen trash can to hang out for awhile, or my personal favorite – Haddie’s hairbrush going missing only to find it taking a swim in the toilet (that’s when we decided to gate the bathroom).  And though I’m sure you would find some of these stories pretty hilarious, at least we have, none of them are as intriguing as the story of the missing shoe.

Before Brance and I discovered the glories of mass public transportation in Boston (we’re simple rural folk) we abused our feet.  Yes, Boston is a lovely, lovely walking city.  It is probably one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever visited and it is relatively compact and easy to walk, but we briskly walked e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.  It wasn’t until after this story we became mass public transportation converts.  So this story begins with us racing along, Haddie in stroller, from our hotel in Boston into Cambridge on the glorious 3rd day of our trip.  Our legs and feet were already tired from the previous 1 1/2 days of vigorous walking, but we were looking forward to eating a packed lunch leisurely in Harvard Yard before our return walk.  Once we had crossed over the Charles River from Boston into Cambridge we walked up the main strip which took us through part of the MIT campus and an enormous main street district that was bustling with shops and people.

We had to have been walking in the shopping district for about 20 or so minutes when we realized that Haddie was wearing only one shoe.  Somewhere between the MIT campus, where we had stopped to rest, and where we were currently standing Haddie had managed to lose her shoe.  We debated whether or not we should take the time to hunt for it.  There we SO many shops and SO many people, it seemed highly unlikely that her shoe would be found.  If a helpful person had found her shoe surely they would have taken it into any of the dozens of shops on that block and there were dozens of blocks where the shoe could have possibly fallen.  But because Haddie needed shoes to be able to walk around outside, we decided it was worth a try.  And though it may seem silly to pray over trivial things, we said a quick prayer asking God that we might find Haddie’s shoe.

Once we decide to try and find Haddie’s shoe, we literally ran up the sidewalk in the opposite direction back toward Boston dodging people and looking intently for a little white sandal.  I’m sure we were a funny site.  We had ran for ten minutes or so and were waiting to cross a busy intersection, I thinking that it seemed rather unlikely that we would ever see this shoe again, when Brance hollered loudly, “There’s the shoe!  The runner has the shoe, go get her!”  My attention was drawn to a runner on the other side of the intersection holding something and looking inquisitively all around her, only to turn and sprint off in the direction away from us.  With little caution I ran through the busy intersection and sprinted up the sidewalk after this runner (she was booking it) all the while wondering what in the world she was doing.

To be continued…

We started out following the Freedom Trail. We saw a couple old churches, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, the Paul Revere monument, the Old North Church, and the Union Oyster House.

It didn’t long though and we headed off the beaten path into North End to enjoy lunch at an Italian restaurant. Lauren took a turn navigating our way back to the hotel from there and took us through Beacon Hill and Back Bay. We stumbled upon the home of Senator John Kerry on our way.

After a brief stop at the hotel we headed back out to South Boston’s Pleasure Bay for a walk along the beach. Unlike the almost rainy Saturday afternoon we spent there, this time the area just outside the bay was filled with sail boats and there were lots of people out walking the water front.

We soon hopped the Metro bus back to the hotel though and got a good nights sleep in preparation for the long drive back to Virginia.

We hope you all enjoyed the photos!

After waking up, we took a short stroll through a posh Back Bay neighborhood and then headed across Harvard Bridge into Cambridge.

Once in Cambridge, we walked through the MIT campus and headed toward Harvard. For reasons I’ll let Lauren explain in another post, we never quite made it to Harvard. After eating lunch, we hopped a bus back into Boston, switched strollers and took our first subway ride!

We took the subway, or the T as the locals call it, out of town to the suburb of Newton. We strolled around there for a while taking pictures and eating ice cream, then headed back into town. Once off the T we walked up toward the Boston Commons, crossed Hadassah Way and picked up burritos for dinner and came back to the hotel for the evening.

Quite a busy day, here are the pictures.

We’re worn out, but really enjoyed the day. Here’s a gallery of photos from the trip, in the order I just described.

And here’s a message from Haddie to her grandparents. Apparently she types in Greek or something!

bbm   m biiibgx5fpgbbhbzax aΩ x vc vvcxsxfbgbvbvn vtxx  vvxz

,s a >mswaq

Pictures coming soon…