Piping Plover, Willet

This morning, a trip to Duxbury Beach to see what I could see, but the usual suspects appeared.  I did get a good Piping Plover, and a very showy Willet. 
Here they are.

Calling "Whit willet, whit willet, whit willet"

I had a great opportunity to get a fabulous Horned Lark shot, but I had the wrong mode on.
This gives an Idea of what could have been.

And the Piping Plover

Willets are somewhat boring until they fly, and then,
Wow!

I love this shot.  Look at that tail!

"Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"

"Can't you see I'm, eating?"

Alex and Boston Cruise

I had Saturday free, and Scott and Cheryl were going to spend the day moving furniture to their house, so I took Alex on an adventure.  We had breakfast at the Café Deli in Hanson, caught the 9:15 train to Boston, and then boarded the Boston Harbor Cruise 11:00 AM historic cruise (90 minutes) around the harbor.  It was incredibly beautiful, breeze perfect, and we had a great narrater.  The pictures are self explanatory.  We had lunch at South Station, caught the 2:00 train back to Hanson, and he was asleep 5 minutes into the car for the ride back to Caron and Riggo's. 
The Cruise is really expensive, you can do the Hingham ferry for a third of the cost, and see most of what we saw, but that ferry doesn't run on weekends anymore.  Pity
La Pictura:

Our cruise ship

Alex ready to go!

A really busy Saturday in Boston Harbor.

The 1% must always let us know they are there.

Fantastic day on the water.

This is all that remains of Anthony's Pier Four restaurant, at one time
the highest-grossing restaurant on the East coast.  Anthony gave free meals to cab drivers when
 he first opened, so that when a rider asked, "Where's the best place to eat?" they would get
the right answer. I bussed there the two months before I married Susan.

That grundgy brown hill in the distance is all that remains of many metric tons of snow dumped from the past year's
record-breaking snowtorms (110", I believe)

Huge provisions ship, US Navy yard.

The "Veedam", Holland

This one flew pretty low over us.  Alex loved it.
(Coming from a place I really, really want to go!)

This is the remains of the Donald McKay shipyard, the producer of the
famed clippers "Flying Cloud", "Sovereign of the Seas" and many more. 

The Tobin Bridge, or as the narrator explained, the world's longest parking lot at 5 PM.

And here she is the U.S.S. Constitution in dry dock.

This is the Cassin Young, famous victim of a kamakazi attack during WWII

Zakin Bridge

Search and rescue ship "Seneca" US Coast Guard

I love the subtly of this craft.

Alex at South Station, perhaps winding down.

The wonderful Grain Exchange building, one of the architectural treasures of Boston

Castle Island

This is Nix's Mate, an outcrop of rock marked for navigation.  This was where the dead bodies of pirates
were hung in cages for passing ships to see.

One final look at "Old Ironsides"

Alex's graduation from Magic Touch

A production of historic proportions!  But really, really, cute.  With the exception of a melt-down by one of the participants (name forgot to be called, hat falling off, etc) everyone, especially Alex, had a splendid time.  Here are the photos.

The arrival of the proud mother, and perhaps
dis-interested younger brother

The class of 2015

Enjoying it much?

future graduate

Maya (on the left) had a rough day, having a melt-down, and pretty much
was unhappy the rest of the program, despite everyone (and I do mean everyone)
trying to change her mood.
(I am sooo glad I had boys)

This young lady nearly  stole the show. 

Maya did enjoy getting her "diploma"

Does this mean I start looking for work?

Almost a smile from Carter
(As they say, "Carter being Carter")
I am going to take the graduate out for a train ride (and maybe a boat as well)
tomorrow, while Cheryl and Scott move into their new home!