Marathon Monday is a celebrated day in the city of Boston. Conveniently it is always held on Patriot's Day just like St. Patrick's Day is always on Evacuation Day. Coming from the midwest, Patrick and I were unfamiliar with these holidays the city of Boston celebrates. Even though Citadel's offices were open for business, I suppose you could say Patrick and a few of his coworkers met Citadel in the middle and "worked" on Monday at a broker sponsored event at Fenway. Patrick was very lucky to sit in the coveted Green Monster seats for a day game. Afterwards they brought their work to a nearby Fenway bowling ally.
Emma and I had spent the morning at home and at about 2pm we left for Copley Square to see the runners. On our way there we ran into Manisha (Gadia) Bewtra (an AHS grad) and her husband Ravi, who were enjoying their day off from work. They were going to see the runners and then grab a drink. I found out later that afternoon they were at Crate and Barrel which is two doors down from the second explosion when the blasts occurred.
At 2:15 I took this photo of Emma in front of the runners receiving their warming blankets. The Boston Marathon is like a well oiled machine- they have everything very well organized. The block of Copley Square (which is half a block after the finish line) begins the cool down blocks on Boylston where the walkers begin walking and receive a drink, thin warming blankets, a banana, their personal belongings bags, and then then exit to meet their families and friends. In this picture you can see how many volunteers (in yellow jackets) the marathon uses.
At 2:30 we moved up the block closer to the finish line where the runners were getting their drinks. It is fascinating and inspiring to watch the runners at this point. Some are so fatigued they can barely walk, one lady got sick to her stomach :(, while most others are visibly very happy and proud of their accomplishment.
In these two pictures you can see the Public Library which lines the block of the finish line. In front of the library is the white medical tent where blast victims where brought to and triaged.
Our next plan was to go watch the runners a couple blocks up from the finish line where the crowd thins out. From previous years experiences I knew how crowed it gets at the finish and I didn't want to deal with meandering a stroller in that craziness. So we walked up to the corner of Dartmouth where the medical tent is and took a right. Newbury was very crowded as usual so we kept going until we arrived at the spacious and quiet Commonwealth Avenue. We took a left and started making our way down Comm Ave. When we almost reached the next block, Exeter, we heard the first blast which is best described as the sound of a large cannon. When we reached Exeter the second blast occurred and I could clearly see all the smoke as well as hundreds of people running down the street towards us. What a surreal moment.
After being holed up in our apartment for the remainder of the afternoon we took a short walk to get some fresh air. The streets were nearly empty with the exception of policemen everywhere. The SWAT team was driving around and SWAT members were stationed in front of every hotel. A Taj employee was only allowing registered guests into the hotel.
It felt like it was just us and the ducks in the Public Gardens.
We found the National Guard had set up camp in the Commons.
The next day Emma and I took another walk. Here she is again in front of the National Guard camp.
Media had set up camp on the corner of Arlington and Boylston.
Boylston was still closed all the way up to Arlington.
CNN and some other media had set up camp on Commonwealth Ave and Exeter. This is the intersection Emma and I were at when the explosions occurred. You can see Anderson Cooper was busy reporting. Emma was not as impressed as I was with his good looks :)
When Patrick was done with work Emma and I showed him the sights. The nerdy Finns enjoyed the celebratory sightings of Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, and John King!
Wolf Blizter reporting live.
Patrick had his moment of fame on CNN with a casual stroll in the background. He is hard to see but Patrick is the person walking in the distance behind Wolf's right shoulder.
Patrick and I felt strongly that the reports of "NO leads" yesterday were probably inaccurate. We know there are many security cameras on buildings lining Bolyston and the whole neighborhood that the individual has to be on. Sure enough from the time I began writing this CNN has reported that the man was spotted on a Lord and Taylor camera and an arrest has possibly been made. It is still hard to believe someone would do something like this.
This event will be in the front of our minds for a long time as we walk those blocks on a weekly occurrence. Our grocery stores, bank, library, Emma's playgroups/classes, etc. all take us to there or by there.
I want to thank all the family and friends who have reached out to us and have been thinking of us. We are doing fine and were fortunate to have been out of harms way. Fortunately Emma is too young to have any idea of what happened. We feel very sad that such a joyous day and a wonderful event ended how it did. Our hearts break for those who died or were severely injured from such a gruesome attack and are thinking of their family and friends.
