Entering Boston

Friday, May 28 - Rolling into town in our Chrysler 300 (more on our free-upgraded wheels from Alamo later) was a lot more relaxing than the last time I saw this sign at about mile 25 of the marathon...

On our way into town, we stopped at the Arnold Arboretum, part of Frederick Law Olmstead's Emerald Necklace string of parks throughout Boston. We took a little walk up to Peters Hill in the Arboretum, which has a nice view of the Boston skyline.

Which brings us to the word of the day: As Sandy was reading to me from the guide book about the plant life in the arboretum, she said they had "cra-BOPles". "What?" I said. "Cra-BOPles". "You mean "crab apples?" "....Uh, yes." [Cue the chuckles.] In her defense, Sandy cited the name of Bart Simpson's teacher, Mrs. Krabapple, as the source of her pronounciation. Uh, OK.

"Krabapple" was in the running to be the word of the day until we got to the top of this hill, which, we learned, wasn't just an ordinary hill 240-foot hill. It is actually a "drumlin," which is a hill formed hundreds of thousands of years ago when the glaciers melted and left a pile of debris. Interestingly, there are crabapple trees planted on the slope of the drumlin, where colonial farmers planted fruit tree orchards. (See photo below of the crabapples on the drumlin.) Thus, the winner for the word of the day is "drumlin."