Fish Day!

Today I discovered what might be my favorite part of Boston:

The harbor. I positively skipped off the Blue Line (inbound to "Wonderland!") this early afternoon into a beautiful, warm, clear summer day after a leisurely morning and a large bowl of Frosted Minis. I could smell the ocean right away and almost ran toward the long wooden dock where the boats and buoys bobbed. Weaving my way through throngs of happy travelers, I zoomed all the way to the end of the platform and held out my arms toward the sea and sky in overwhelming ecstasy. It was the happiest I've felt in a long time. [I really feel free and breezy these days because my results at work are making me feel like a rockstar scientist. My PI loves the figures, quantifications, and statistical analyses I've made of my tissue culture work, and I love crafting them all by myself!]

The line to buy tickets for the New England Aquarium was immense, but after conversing with one of the worker dudes I was let in on a secret: if you want to see an IMAX, which I did, you can buy a special aquarium-and-IMAX ticket inside the theater where there is no line. I thanked him, smiling, and hurried over to the theater just in time to watch "Under the Sea: 3D," an unparalleled feat of movie engineering. The colorful documentary guides you through the weirdest and most impossible creatures that populate the ocean floor, and I gasped out loud as I watched crazy-looking rare fish swim in awe-inspiring patterns or gobble each other up. After the movie I entered the aquarium, which to my pleasant surprise was packed with excited children. I miss children in this city; I attend an all-adult singles ward and live in Cambridge, a city of students, so I feel like I never see anyone under age 18. Little bodies wriggling through the crowds, tapping on glass, and proclaiming, "That one's DEAD!" made me miss my family. The aquarium is built in four stories of progressive exhibits that orbit around one huge, central tank that spans the height of the building. My favorite sea creatures were the stretchy, gooey octopus; the ethereal baby jellyfish; the manta ray with the five-foot wingspan; and the titanic turtle who waved at me (I swear!). I watched the workers feed the swimmy penguins and the sleek seals and felt an undiscovered love for marine biology.

Lunch/dinner (when I eat out alone, I always go between normal meal hours) was enjoyed at Legal Seafoods right on the wharf, where I ordered light clam chowder and delicious fried clams with cornbread. I finished my solitary excursion wandering around Boston until I successfully located a huge Borders Bookstore I'd made note of two weeks ago and sped, addicted, through "Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It," a collection of essays by Maile Meloy, an author I met at a reading this Wednesday evening at Harvard Book Shop. I topped off my night at Finale desserterie in Harvard Square with a mini sampler plate of Boston Cream Pie, cheesecake, and Valrhona chocolate mousse. Dreamy.