After an adventure filled 4th of July weekend, P and I decided to stay closer to home and explore Jamaica Plain or “JP” (as most call it), a diverse, more suburban neighborhood within the city of Boston. We tend to stay near downtown, and haven’t really given JP a chance.
P and I decided to check out the boat house on Jamaica Pond and try our hand at rowing. The boat house was home to Courageous Sailing, which not only rents out sail boats, kayaks, and row boats, but also provides lessons. For only $10 an hour, we were able to rent a little row boat and some oars and take in the pond and all of its beauty.
Rowing a boat wasn’t really all that difficult… especially since P was doing most of the rowing. But, things got a little bit more complicated when a screw of an oar came loose and fell into the water. Since we had already made our way to the opposite end of the pond from the boat house, P and I had to work together with one working oar and one loose oar to get back. It was all very funny as we tried to paddle in sync and move the boat inch by inch towards the boat house. It took twice as long, with twice as many strokes, but the jokes and laughter along the way made the trip back twice as awesome.
The Arnold Arboretum, only a few streets down from the pond, is a favorite spot for many of our friends, so after rowing, we headed over to check it out. Trees for days, flowers and all sorts of plant types, and plenty of walking paths for exploring. Families were picnicking on the grass, and people of all ages were admiring and appreciating a little piece of nature in the big city.
Don’t you just love exploring new neighborhoods?
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