The Subway To Sea Lions

Bob and I took Friday off from work as it was the last weekday before Matthew would be starting preschool. We took him to Boston for the day. It would have been quicker to drive, but took the train in as a treat. This was his first time on a subway train and he named them after Thomas trains, based on their colors. The red line was James, and when we switched to the orange line he yelled, “There is Murdoch!” when it arrived. The blue line was Hiro, which took us to our first destination, the aquarium.

Matthew wanted to see his favorites, the sea lions, first. At home he often pretends to be a sea lion and I have to feed him imaginary fish to encourage him to stop barking at my feet. At the aquarium he spent a lot of time conversing with the sea lions, “Arf, Arf, Arf!” I imagine if sea lions had eyebrows they would have looked over his head at me and raised one.


After the aquarium we walked to Faneuil Hall to have lunch at our favorite restaurant. Bob and I ate there together before we were dating, and a few times while we were dating, but this was Matthew’s first time there with us.

“Did you ever think that we would come back here with our child someday?” Bob asks me after the waiter takes our order. We think back and recall the very first time we ate here.

We were across the city and I mentioned I liked this restaurant but it wouldn’t break my heart if we didn’t eat there that night. “I would never break your heart,” Bob replied. I wondered if he misheard me or if he was just stating a fact. We bought subway tokens, which no longer exist, to take the train to the closest stop. We ate there and got lost on our walk back to the train station. A homeless man heckled Bob to hold my hand, but he didn’t because it wasn’t like we were two people dating on a date or anything.

“Can I buy a toy after lunch?” Matthew asks bringing us back to present day.

“The day is your present, we brought you here as a treat,” Bob answers.

“A treat is something you eat,” he argues. “I like toys.”

“Yes a treat can be something you eat, but it can also be getting to ride the train and to go to fun places,” I explain.

This sinks in a little while later when leave empty handed from the toy shop that we agreed to let him go in to look around.

We stop at the Children’s Museum before heading home. We usually go in the mornings but the afternoons are a lot less crowded so Matthew got to play on the exhibits a lot longer than usual. Then we took the red line, James, home to the station where our car was parked.