Smith Family Weblog

Last Saturday, Bryan and I arrived in Boston. For the first time in many trips to Massachusetts, Katie didn’t meet us at the airport. We missed her, but we appreciated the cab ride through the city to our hotel—it’s important to be reminded of your mortality every now and then. 

We stayed at Bryan’s conference hotel in South Boston, but spent most of our time up and down the Red Line. Our first top was Cambridge, were we revisited a pub Katie introduced me to years ago. We stepped in to find it filled with Husker fans, and we had a great time chatting with other Nebraska alumni during the game. 

Towards the end of the night, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around to find our friend Steve. He and Bryan were in the same lab in grad school, and Steve’s now a professor at Tufts. We toured his lab and had a lovely dinner at a Lebanese cafe in the area. 

(I have to apologize for the photo quality throughout this post—I’m using a very old (vintage!) iPhone for a while.) 

The next day, we walked most of the Freedom Trail, stopping along the way for a few “restoratives.”

We had dinner at another favorite of Katie’s—the Barking Crab. I love this restaurant. We sat at a picnic tables and drank wine from plastic cups, taking in the incredible view of the city and river. 

Then, we met up with two friends from Lawrence—Alex and Laura, who just started post docs in Boston. 

The next few days brought a bit of extra sleep, some remote work, and of course, a conference presentation for Bryan. 

I was able to sit in on his presentation—while I can’t say I really understood a whole lot of it, I can tell you he was handsome and charming.

By Wednesday, I was so ready to be home, I didn’t even hassle Bryan (much) when he had me at the airport and through security a full three hours before our flight. We followed the sunset west, home to three sleeping kiddos and an equally exhausted Katie and Tom.