6.15pm, Sunday August 10 ....porch

My mom is indirect. She doesn't say, 'When are you planning on having dinner ready?', but 'We're starving.' Or she'll say, 'I'm hoping Rachel doesn't want to do anything for the next few days because I'm exhausted'. My first response, the one that mostly stays in my head, is hostile: 'Well, eat, then.' Or, 'I didn't ask you to entertain me'. This must be how I developed my well-honed sense of sarcasm. N responds to Mom similarly. Given I am so much like my mother I probably have the same problem of indirectness, so a new goal: say things politely - or, just, say what you mean, don't imply it.

Being on a family holiday seems to make Dad more demonstrative to Mom. He kept taking her hand in Boston. Lovely.

Yesterday, after a morning when N had to throw our parents out of the tiny hotel room because they weren't leaving on their own accord to give us space and privacy, we finally all packed up and left.

After leaving the hotel we walked through the ubiquitous Quincy Market. Dad and I decided to go to the aquarium together, Mom and N walked and shopped. I finished my deli tub of marinated mushrooms while waiting on the long, traffic-guided ticket line to the aquarium, and when Dad and I finally made it into the exhibits the exorbitant ticket fee was worth it. While on line we caught a glimpse of the sea lions, and the first exhibit inside is the penguins, endlessly fascinating, playful and cute to watch.

The phosphorescent, large-lipped and expressive-faced fish were a wonder, and I also enjoyed finding tiny camoflauged frogs, watching corals float in the water, and especially loved a tent of transparent small jellyfish with trails of lacy tenatcles and long, long threads. They were exceptionally beautiful and delicate creatures.

After meeting back up with Mom and N, we all, starving, tried to find a nice place for lunch, but we were walking through the business district on a Saturday, so no open restaurants. Finally we found an open cafe, and though it had no ambiance to speak of, it did have decent cheap food. I enjoyed a goat's cheese, fresh basil and pesto foccacia sandwich.

We then walked back to the central gardens. I kept walking, circling the park, while everyone else sat in the sun. Finally Dad decided it was time to go. He took a different route back to NY, one that involved getting lost and frustrated again. It was a much prettier route through rural New Hampshire.

The past Wednesday and Thursday I spent in New Hampshire with L, a work colleauge from my Ellery Queen days. We met up in Woodstock, where she and Mom communed over kintting, and then L drove me to her old, odd and characterful house. She and her husband J had finished putting antique-blue floor to ceiling bookshelves on one wall of the dining room and the house had a half-furnished, just moved-in look even though they'd been there for 4 years. Wood-floored, the large kitchen had a severely sloping floor that led to a screened-in porch with table and benches as well as chairs and coffee table - a lovely spot.

Upstairs had one very large bedroom and another smaller bedroom off an adjoining front room, a strange design. Their cat, a fat tabby, took to me and allowed me to pet her, whereas usually, according to L, she swats visitors. We spent Thurs evening at a meeting of L's book group (not as good as the group we were all in together in NYC - I still miss that group!) and drove to Hanover on Friday to meet Mom and her friend E after a morning of kayaking between the shores of Dartmouth College.