FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2nd
The flight from Baltimore to Boston takes a little over an hour. The cheap-o tickets are for flights at 6:15 am, so we started with at VERY full day in Boston. I definitely brought the least amount of stuff I've ever had for a weekend getaway (one tote bag, people) but it still proved too heavy for long periods. But enough about that. We landed early on a clear day and pretty much got straight to the business of being tourists after a quick snack near our hotel in Cambridge.
For first-time visitors it's a good idea to check out the 2.5-mile stretch of pavement known as The Freedom Trail. It takes you through the oldest part of the city past some iconic landmarks that either pre-date or were important during the American Revolution. Typically people start at Boston Common but fearing a potentially large weekend crowd we began at the end of the trail with the USS Constitution.
Map from www.thefreedomtrail.org
The ship is undergoing a significant two-year dry-dock restoration that should be finished in 2017. There are periods when visitors can still board and see the ship up close but Hans and I decided to enjoy the museum and admire the new hull while it is still above water. At the museum I learned that the ship's official first launch had to be rescheduled numerous times over the course of a couple months because each time the shipyard workers made an attempt the immense boat got stuck on the supports or in the mud.
The guns are patiently waiting to be re-installed next year
The nearby monument for The Battle of Bunker Hill (221 feet of granite) sits where the Colonials first held back the British army (while Charlestown burned to the ground). Hans and I climbed the two hundred and seventy-something steps to the top! The views were cool but the Plexiglas up there is pretty scratched up so my photo below is blurry.
We had a really nice lunch at historic Warren Tavern (opened 1780 in the first Charlestown building that was built after the British sacking), one of Paul Revere's favorite hangouts and also a place that George Washington stopped at occasionally.
We crossed the Charles River over to downtown Boston and picked up The Trail again. Copp's Hill Burying Ground is behind the Little Italy area and dates from 1659. Some of the headstones are in better shape than others, but all of them lean at forlorn angles and appear thrust out of the ground like teeth. Some have obviously been replaced by more recent materials and many were made from the recycled headstones belonging to forgotten graves with the original inscriptions still visible on the back. The "death's head" was a popular ornamentation for many of the headstones at the time of installation and I wondered if Edward Gorey had been inspired by similar markers from this period.
My favorite headstone. Would have loved a rubbing but these old cemeteries are so popular the general public is strongly discouraged from doing so due to risk of damage.
Just down the street from Copp's Hill is the Old North Church, where the "one if my land, and two if by sea" signal lanterns were hung on the night of Paul Revere's famous ride. The steeple is 191 feet high and is still the tallest in the city. Having never been in an American church from the 1700's, the layout with boxed pews was new to me. This was a church for prominent families and each one would rent out a box for services. During the church's heyday each box was lined with rich red fabrics and cushions but now all but one of the boxes are bare because it is still and active Episcopal congregation.
Roaming further through north Boston we found ourselves on a cobblestone street and encountered the oldest building in downtown: Paul Revere's house, built around 1680. What?! For a house that was used as an immigrant tenement for about a hundred years it is in remarkably good shape. Sure, the ceilings are low and the slanted floor makes you feel like you're in a funhouse, but it was very interesting to see a upper middle-class building from the 17th century. Contrary to the historic mansions I've visited, the entertaining parlor was in the master bedroom because that would have been the best and largest room in the house. Some of the other visitors didn't like the idea of playing cards right next to your bed but I just thought about modern city dwelling in studio apartments and it didn't seem all that weird. There were some fine examples of Revere's silversmithing in a small display case. No interior photos allowed, folks. All you get to see is the outside:
At this point it was late afternoon and we had been up since 4 am. It was time to check in at the hotel and take a break. We headed into the middle of downtown in search of the nearest underground train station. Incidentally, we walked by nearly every other historic site along our way but we paid them no mind because we were going to come back the next day. We collapsed onto our Red Line train and rode back to Cambridge. We had a nice rest in the hotel room and cooled off for a couple of hours.
It turned out that we were just a few blocks from one of the best ramen places in the area. When we showed up an hour after Santouka Hokkaido Ramen opened for dinner, the place was PACKED. You could see through a small window into a room with a dozen huge stockpots simmering (each, as Hans pointed out, with its own fire suppressor). Hans and I are still pretty new to the ramen experience that doesn't come from a little plastic pouch but we're total fans after trying the authentic stuff up in Baltimore. I went for a more traditional sesame one and a soft boiled egg (that's my jam!). Heaven. Absolute noodley heaven. Hans got a spicy dish that was pretty good too. I'm still not sold on the pork cheek. No matter how thin you slice it, it's an awfully fatty piece of meat. There was one hilarious moment when Hans tried to pick up his egg with chopsticks and it bombed right back into his soup. Broth. Everywhere.
"Sluurrrrppp"
To walk off our dinner, Hans accompanied me around Harvard's campus while I listened to an audio tour on my phone (highly recommend). I didn't take any pictures inside the historic yard because I didn't want to be yet another asshole tourist making the students feel like zoo animals. Many of the buildings in the yard are freshman dorms and there were a couple of times we could totally see into students' rooms because it was getting dark outside. Check out this appalling news article.
That being said, I really enjoyed learning about the buildings and a little light history. My favorite tidbit was about the statue of John Harvard, or "the statue of three lies". The inscription says "John Harvard, founder, 1638". All known portraits of John Harvard were destroyed in a fire so the artist used a student as a model for the statue. Harvard didn't establish the school, it was merely named after him. Finally, the college was founded in 1636.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3rd
Yesterday we began at the end of the trail. Today we started at the actual beginning! First we had breakfast in Beacon Hill at The Paramount, probably one of the craziest diners I've ever been to. It's tiny and if you've never eaten there it's probably easy to give up all hope. How it works is this: You squeeze into a line that snakes into the very back of the restaurant until you wind your way to the counter where the line cooks are preparing everything. You have plenty of time to check out the menu while making your way to the counter. Orders are placed with one of the cooks and then then they get to cooking your meal as you slowly creep up to the register. In the meantime all of the tables are completely full and so you start to wonder if you're going to have to take your plate into the street outside. At the cashier we ordered our drinks and as I was praying that this silly but highly-recommended restaurant had some kind of seating system an employee asked me how many people were in my party and then brought us to a table! It wasn't until we were seated and eating that Hans noticed a huge sign that basically told people not to claim a table while the rest of their party ordered because this system has been working since the 1930's. Clearly. Unfortunately Hans' huervos rancheros were a bit soupy...I felt bad because he had been in agony in the claustrophobic line. My omelette was actually quite good and the fresh-squeezed orange juice I ordered was probably the best I've ever had.
After our meal we walked to Boston Public Garden, made famous by Make Way for Ducklings. The grounds are landscaped with very interesting plants and palms, very much how it probably has been since Victorian times. The crown jewel of the park is the swan boats that glide around the lagoon under pedal power and steered with simple rope rudder pulls. The boats have been in operation since 1877 and my guess is that their preservation is aided by the famous children's book that as of 2005 has sold over two million copies. As people lined up to wait for the boats to open (a very reasonable $3.50 per adult and $2.00 for kids) I thought of the generations of Bostonians that have been coming to the garden to ride the swan boats and smiled.
We traversed through Boston Common and I made sure I stepped on the exact first red brick of the Freedom Trail. Across the street from the Massachusetts State House is the monument for the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Walking past Park Street Church (formerly known as "Brimstone Corner" we checked out Granary Burying Ground (1660). There are some kind of famous people here: Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Otis, the five Boston Massacre victims, and Peter Faneuil. As it was a Saturday and close to the beginning of the trail we encountered a lady in colonial garb that was leading a tour, which in itself is fine of course but she had the screechiest voice in the world. It would turn out that the rest of our morning was spent desperately trying to escape this group between landmarks. Bless those poor souls who listened to her all morning at all of the trail sites.
King's Chapel is still decorated in the style of well-to-do congregations in the 1700's with beautiful red upholstery. The cost of renting a box in colonial times amounts to about $2,000 today. No riffraff allowed here.
We lost the screechy-lady group at one of the few pay sites, Old South Meeting House. In 1729 it was a place of worship but it quickly became the gathering place of commoner colonists as talk of revolution spread. Five thousand colonists crammed inside to determine what was to be done with 30 tons of taxable tea that had been moored at Griffin's Wharf. When the British seized this building they tore out all interior seating boxes and turned it into a training facility for horse riding. The building was saved from demolition after it was nearly destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872.
The Old State House (1711) was probably my favorite landmark of the day because it looks like someone plunked it down in the middle of modern high rise buildings. It has been so seamlessly incorporated into the city its ground level serves as an entrance to the subway system. As we climbed the winding staircase inside I joked to Hans that we are now experts at stairs after walking up the Bunker Hill monument! We joined a free tour that discussed the Boston Massacre, which I really didn't know much about so at least I continued my very piecemeal adult education on American History since I didn't study very hard in high school (sorry, Mr. Brown).
Outside in the street is the site of the Boston Massacre but the memorial dial was moved onto the building's sidewalk because tourists were clogging up traffic in a rather busy intersection.
The Declaration of Independence was read to the public from that balcony. Wow.
Overlooking the intersection, where the Boston Massacre occurred.
State Street (formerly King Street) extends down to Long Wharf
We had lunch at an obvious tourist trap, Union Oyster House. It wasn't bad, truly. They boast the best clam chowder in town and it was quite good. My seafood sampler was grossly overpriced but the onion soup was decent. It was nice just to get off our feet and chill with a couple of beers.
That pretty much spelled the end of our Freedom Trail tour. We opted not to go inside Faneuil Hall but otherwise we had covered all of the sites. I did not snap a photo of the Old Corner Bookstore (1718) because today it only exists as a facade...and a Chipotle...but hey, it's Boston's oldest commercial building.
With some afternoon time to kill, we checked out the very picturesque Beacon Hill neighborhood near Boston Common. I needed a little pick-me-up so after a little bit of window shopping on Charles Street we hit a local ice cream place and I had an espresso frappe. Hans thoroughly enjoyed the peach ice cream. We went back to the public garden where the swan boats were now active.
Can you guess the name of this street? Check out that knocker!
We tried in vain to see John Adams' properties in Quincy but by the time we took the train out there the last tour had departed. Bummer. After a wee break back at the hotel we went to a trendy restaurant in Cambridge (Alden and Harlow) for sexy cocktails and really inventive small plates. I was still full from that frappe so I was glad that our meal was light.
I had a message on Instagram from somebody I knew who was also visiting Boston this weekend. I offered a meetup in the evening since Hans and I were going to watch the harbor fireworks from Christopher Columbus park, right next to Long Wharf. It was nice to see some friendly faces for a little while. After a very excellent fireworks show we walked to the very end of the wharf and then back to the Old State House, pretending we were the British reinforcements that had been sent into the city during the Massacre aftermath.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th
Harvard has a huge ornate building on campus that was built in dedication to Harvard men who died in the Civil War. Annenberg Hall (1874) is not open for public viewing, which was disappointing because it houses over 9,000 square feet of hammerbeam trusses, stenciled ceiling, walnut paneling, and both Tiffany and La Farge stained glass.
Here's just the outside, y'all
The Harvard Museum of Natural History has a very unique exhibit of glass flowers. These were commissioned by the founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum for teaching botany. This was the 1800's and so the only other life-like representatives available were poor papier-mache or max models. With the help of German artisans, a 50-year collaboration began and the scultors used wire-supported colored glass that was occasionally painted for finer detail. The nearly 4,400 models were made between 1886 and 1936. The rest of the galleries are filled with exhibits like other educational museums of their time. Lots of dead or taxidermy animals. There was a pretty cool geology room.
They're GLASS
The rest of our day was spent wandering a few parks in the lesser-traveled areas of the city. We found our way to Back Bay, which has a lovely pedestrian stroll called Commonwealth Avenue Mall. We did some shopping along Newbury and Boylston Streets. There was an interesting statue of a local mariner and I liked the detail of little bronze barnacles that were attached to the rock. We had to head to the airport straight after dinner so we were carrying all our stuff around all day. I had begun to develop pain in my back from carrying a bag on the same shoulder all weekend so we took it easy.
Hans wanted to see the public library so we headed in that direction. As we were walking down Boylston Street I began to wonder if we were close to the finish line for the Boston Marathon. Soon after those thoughts passed through my head I looked down at the ground and saw several sections of newer cement in the sidewalk near the road. I also saw this:
Shane is the owner of the running store next to the finish line that had it's windows blown in when the first bomb exploded. People immediately started grabbing clothing off the store racks to use as tourniquets on the injured people. The city doesn't have an official memorial for those who were killed in the marathon bombings and that's partly due to mixed feelings over whether it's appropriate to set up markers where people were viciously killed or maimed. Time will tell. Alright, let's not end this post on a sad note:
The library is indeed an impressive building (sorry I forgot to take pictures) and sits across from Copley Square. Pictured is Trinity Episcopal Church.
We had a really comfortable Irish pub meal at Green Dragon (incidentally tucked away in an alley behind Union Oyster House. Today's Green Dragon is not the original one, which was demolished in 1854, but it has a vibrant enough feel and a cozy menu. I took advantage of their seasonal apple cider themed cocktails. However, at this point my back pain had gotten so bad that I couldn't lift a beverage glass without hurting. Hans very kindly carried my tote bag to the airport and pretty much until we boarded. Our plane left a little late but we were still home to all of the animals by about 11 pm.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th
Back still recovering and both of us still bleary eyed, we had a very slow day at the house. I'd very much like to see Boston again but I think next time we'll drive so that we can do Quincy, Salem, and maybe the Cape. Downtown Boston is very cool and easy to get around. It's not too hilly so as long as you have some good walking shoes it's an easy experience.
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