A flâneur skims Boston.

Saturday was another sweltering day, though not as bad as Friday (temperatures in Newark apparently hit a record high that afternoon. Well, well.) It didn't hurt that we spent the hottest hours of the day indoors in the air-conditioned comfort of the Museum of Science, learning that grass and apple smell really similar, trying to locate Waldo but finding only illustrated puns, and marvelling at the sheer range of diets and caloric intake around the world.
Sometime in the afternoon there was lunch at the museum cafe, which had a great panoramic view over the Charles River. The Charles was a recurrent point of reference over the weekend as we crossed back and forth over it along Storrow Drive, first to listen to Elaine gushing over this year's IMO results over dinner, and then to visit the MIT Museum the next day. They hadn't changed any of their exhibits since winter, but they didn't seem any less cool or interesting to me. Technology: it's awesome.

The heatwave had subsided by Sunday, and it was excellent weather for a walk down Mass Ave, by Beacon Hill and through the Public Garden to Chinatown. Far better than the snowy and biting cold that we walked the Freedom Trail in earlier this year. Ambling through the Public Garden after a tasty and very filling bowl of phở bò, watching the crimson and violet sunset over the Boston skyline and people lounging on the lawns enjoying the weather, ZM's comment that this was "such a liveable city" seemed almost undisputable.
Though I couldn't help but wonder---would any of us ever actually live here; truly "belong" here, whatever that may mean? Or would we never be more than mere visitors? And if so, is that reason to be sad? Or is it just the way the world is, something of no import or practical consequence?

Anyway, back to New Jersey now. Cheers.