Rocker by Night, Duck Tours by Day; Duck Tours, Boston, MA

Duck Tours

Prudential Center

Boston, MA

Tad McKitterick is my sons' very own, personal, super hero.  (Kami and I share in this adoration-society).  Like any good superhero Tad rocks two important careers.  By night he is the lead singer and keyboardist of one very fine Boston band: Sidewalk Driver.  Kami and I got crazy last weekend and saw them kick it at Rosebud in Davis Square  for their new album; "For All the Boys and Girls."  After a day of dadventures with the boys, I was ready to pass out at 11PM when we arrived.  They went on at midnight, sharp.  They were so good we rocked out in our sleep, joined by many of Kami's other New World School of the Arts alums from her and Tad's days together at this fine Miami performing arts high school.  When we were without kids, we rocked out with Sidewalk a lot in NYC when they opened for her brother Zach's band Disposable Thumbs.  Tad sports some pretty serious outfits and theatrical stage presence.  Sydney really wants to hit one of his shows.

But today was all about Tad's alter ego, Super Size the super hero.  For many pleasant weather months of the year he drives a WWII era amphibious vehicle for Duck Tours.  This wildly successful tourist extravaganza has spawned legions of copycats across the USA on one simple concept.  A tour bus that turns into a tour boat.  So we met Tad down at the Pru and hopped on board.  We first revisited a bit of the Walk for Hunger route (Sydney of course pointed this out.)  We passed the finery of the state house, draped in Celtic green for the Finals (Go C's).  We  took an odd turn past our fav haunt, the Museum of Science.  Then we did something really wierd, we drove into the Charles.  We were laughing so hard at Tad's jokes, we almost missed it.

A minute later we were cruising past the Museum toward the salt and pepper (Longfellow) bridge.  Needless to say, we were going so slow Tad was able to take his "union five" while the boat steered itself and he ripped off a few more funnies.  But the highlight was watching my visiting sister-in-law, her fiancee and then Sydney take the helm.  Now, I grew up in Boston and even taught US History, but today I learned quite a bit about our fair city from our man Tad.  The most interesting of which was the namesake of our duck boat, Molly Molasses.  The Boston Molasses Disaster killed 21 as a thirty foot tidal wave of molasses broke out of a nearby north end factory.  Who knew Tad?  And who knew super heroes really do exist.