Day 18: And I said "hey," what a wonderful kind of day

I'm Adam Sell and I have two months left before I leave Boston. My challenge? Do something in the city every day. Have ideas for my adventure? Send me an email.

It's a contrived way of getting a blog post title, but I really wanted to use the Arthur theme song somehow. And since there's an Arthur exhibit at the Children's Museum, I figured I'd go for it. Friday nights are $1 for entry, so my friend Danielle and I jumped at the chance. How often is it that the T fare to get there costs more than the event itself?

I'm a tall guy, and I spent a substantial amount of the time worrying I was going to step on a small child somewhere. And those little kids ran around the building with complete disregard for the big solid legs in front of them. This became clearest when we tackled the jungle gym.

Telling us that there was no age or height restriction to the jungle gym might have been the most dangerous thing a Children's Museum employee could have said to me. Naturally, I took their permission as an implicit challenge to climb the structure all the way up, despite being about twice as tall as I was last time. I remember ascending an earlier version of that tower some 15 years ago, where the exit on the second floor was unpatrolled. Now? There's a guard at the upper door, and kids can't get out unless they have "their" adult right there to meet them. Psh. When I was 7, that was the whole point. Jump in on the ground floor, race to the second floor, and lose your parents.

We also played with the giant chess board on the second floor. I only mention it because I won a game of chess, which is remarkable in and of itself. Danielle and I bit our lips as several ragamuffins strolled by and upset my pawn or her knight, and just reset the board once Mommy came by to collect the darling little terror.

It was a good time. We had the idea, while walking out to get some food, that the museum should have a college night in the fall. Let all the college freshmen and sophomores (a.k.a., those too young to drink) come in and just fool around on the jungle gym and the other active parts of the building. I think they'd get a decent turnout if it were similar to the Friday night dollar-to-get-in. But what do I know? Maybe it's an acquired taste.