Oct 2, 2019 – Mansfield , MA

Today we moved a little closer to Boston.  Nancy has a reunion with some of her college girlfriends there this weekend (Friday – Monday)…..they’re all staying at the swanky new Ritz Carlton in Boston. Also, since we were in the Boston area, Nancy wanted to visit a life long family friend, “Jimi” K. and his wife Jinnie.

We left The Cape around 11am and were in our Canoe River campground site by 1:30pm. We left around 4pm to head into downtown Boston to meet Jim and Jinnie for dinner.  We did’t anticipate how heavy the traffic would be.  Even though we were going into Boston while most were leaving for the day, the traffic was horrendous once we got downtown. It took us two hours to do the 40 minute drive.

I really enjoyed meeting Jim and his wife. Jim and Nancy’s dad’s have been life long friends since grade school. Their families (including 9 kids) often vacationed together, and had lots of weekend get-togethers at each others houses.  After college in Ohio, Jim left to attend MIT in Boston to complete his graduate studies. He works for a company that develops new cancer drugs. Jinnie has her own hotel interior design business.  They just moved from their old historic home in the downtown area to a condo they have owned and rented out for many years. Jinnie spent 14 months remodeling the space before they moved in last year.  It’s a spectacular address right on the waterfront of the river, across from MIT’s campus.  And since the condo is on one of the top floors, the views from the balcony were incredible! Jim said the college row teams (Harvard, MIT, Boston College), along with college sailing clubs,  are out on the river practicing almost every day, unless it’s frozen.

Its obvious they love living right downtown…..I can see why.  I have often thought it would be nice to live right downtown in a great city where you really didn’t need a car except to leave the city. And even then, you could just rent a car.  But I’m not sure I’d want to do it for very long…..but we might if I had their condo!

It was great that Nancy and Jim were able to connect for a visit. We enjoyed some champagne and wine before we walked to a great sushi restaurant in downtown. Our food was delicious!

Afterwards, we walked back and headed back home. Thankfully, it only took 40 minutes to get home (10pm).

The view both directions from Jim and Jinnie’s balcony