Boston Trip: Settling In, Quilt Show, Textile Museum

Timing is everything. Since I do not twitter or tweet, you will not be annoyed with blow by blow descriptions of what I am doing each moment of my day. My posts will occur after our trips, once I have had time to reflect on them. Hopefully, this is also before enough time has passed for me to have forgotten them.

Frank and I just came back from a nine day trip to the Boston area to visit with college friends. We stayed with MIT cohorts John and Sue at their lovely brick home in the country north of Boston, not far from Lowell, MA. Mid-trip, Joe and Margaret, also of MIT days, flew up from the Washington, DC area to join us. We also met up with local MIT friends, Norma and Stan. The tail end of our trip we drove north to Center Harbor, NH to meet with Saint Joe's college friends Richard and Linda and check out Keepsake Quilting. Just before heading home to California we took a day just for Frank and me at the scenic seaside towns of Rockport and Gloucester.

Not counting ~ 3000 miles flying, we drove about 300 miles this trip.

Aug 07-09      Wed-Fri     "The T", Settling in, Quilt Show, Textile Museum

Aug 10-12      Sat-Mon     MIT, Boston, Lowell, Kimball's

Aug 13-15      Tue-Thu     Keepsake Quilting, Rockport, Gloucester

For this post I am going to tell about the first third of our trip, Wednesday through Friday.

We flew out on a direct flight of Jet Blue.  Frank and I are used to Southwest and its multiple-hop, little-leg-room, approach to flying. We'd been dreading the flight east but knew the end justified the means. Getting up at the butt crack of dawn to make an 8:00 am flight out of SFO was par for the course. We were pleasantly surprised, however, that the Jet Blue flight east was not at all miserable. There were little TVs in the seat backs and we enjoyed watching some HGTV television to pass the time. We arrived at Logan Airport in Boston a bit before our scheduled arrival time of 4:30 pm. 

John had been away on a trip of his own; he had arrived at Logan about 20 minutes earlier, and met us at the baggage carousel. (See, I said timing is everything!) We got to ride the silver line to the Red Line and walk a few blocks through a drastically changed Kendall Square to John's car, which was parked in the garage where he works. Frank and I were re-experiencing "the T" of our MIT days in Cambridge, MA. Back then in the college days, however, the silver line did not exist and to fly home for school breaks I had to walk to Kendall Square and take the red line to the green or orange line, to the blue line, to the bus to get to the airport.  And back then luggage did not have wheels – you had to lug it!

I remember all those exchanges I made lugging my suitcase. Take a cab? Not on student budget!

John drove us to his and Sue's home about an hour's drive northwest of Boston. They live on 12 acres and have a natural lake in their backyard courtesy of a family of beavers. Sue had dinner all ready when we arrived. We were famished. The meal was great, complete with the veggies that had been fresh picked from their garden.

How's this for a view from your backyard window?

We spent our first evening just talking and catching up. The next morning in the light of day Sue gave us a grand tour of their home and yard. They have just renovated their kitchen to include beautiful rustic hickory cabinetry, further bringing the country outdoors inside. That evening we went out for an Italian dinner at a local restaurant and returned home to further reminisce while playing the dragon board game Tsuro. As described by the manufacturer... Create your own journey with Tsuro, the Game of the Path. Place a tile and slide your stone along the path created, but take care. Other player's paths can lead you in the wrong direction - or off the board entirely. Find your way wisely to succeed. Stay the path - your journey begins here... We spent Thursday evening just plain relaxing. Felt good!

Frank and I'd played the game before yet John won the first two games straight out!

Friday we set out to the nearby town of Lowell which was hosting a Quilt Festival. John, Sue, Frank, and I marveled at all the quilts and the detail and craftsmanship of each. I bought a lot of fabric. You can see my purchases at my other blog post DianeLoves2Quilt. It was pouring rain that day but we were indoors. We lunched at the show under a tent set up on a second floor outdoor patio. It was kind of cozy, perched snug under the tent, munching our food while the water pounding down all around us. We then moved on to a nearby textile museum. There were to be shuttle buses about Lowell that weekend for all the different quilt related events.  But the shuttle stops were unsheltered curb side locations and we were umbrella poor. Our chauffeur John braved and dodged the rain deluges to fetch and bring the car around to Sue, Frank, and me. What a guy!

The American Textile History Museum had great displays illustrating how thread was made from the flax plant, the cotton plant, and the cocoon of the silk worm.

I wanted to be sure folks knew where we were.

I don't remember what John's beseeching long face was all about. Can anyone remind me?

We saw how wool was carded and spun to make yarn. We also saw an overview of the weaving and looms used to make fabric and the machines that print the patterns on the cloth. John and I got in a quick game of speed checkers while Frank and Sue engaged a bit longer in a couple of the displays.

John won at checkers. But I was a good sport about it.

There was a large exhibit on the role of fabric in aviation. It had never occurred to me how important the production of parachutes was. The women who made them were extremely dedicated and conscientious. They did not let the slightest imperfection pass since that could mean the life of one of "our boys". Many women also wrote personal notes of encouragement and support and included them in the parachutes they packed for the soldiers.

Sue is experiencing the sounds and rushing air that were piped in to make the airplane exhibit realistic.

We ended our Friday back at John and Sue's, comfortably tired. We companionably dined on the remaining casserole and Italian food, all of which had been plentiful the nights before. At our house we call an evening like this "a night to remember" - remember what you ate earlier in the week! We worked on a jigsaw puzzle and looked forward to the next morning, Saturday, when Joe and Margaret would be flying up from Washington, DC to join us and continue the riotous revelry.