A Short Trip to Boston

Yesterday I talked about the heath insurance in Bermuda, and the infrastructure of services on the island.  I briefly touched on how Bermuda has a wide range of services available for its population, which is necessitated by it's remote location.  Every once in a while we have to go overseas, usually to John Hopkins, Lahey, or in my case Mass General. Again, we are very fortunate that our health insurance covers us to go overseas to facilities with such good reputations.  My trip to Boston was part of my week as a ping pong ball, going from Bermuda to Canada, back to Bermuda, and then off to Boston.

I don't want to talk about health care today, I want to talk about Boston.  Boston is one of those cozy little cities that doesn't feel like it has 635,000 people in it.  It is easy to navigate, has that "small town" or "college town" feel, where you don't encounter crowds on the street while you are taking in the history between coffee shops and cafes.  I have a lot of fond memories of earlier trips to Boston -- this was the origin of the infamous story of the Dior shoes story (if you haven't heard it, I will blog it eventually), the beginning of years of craving PF Changs food, a tradition for cocktails at "The Top of the Hub," and some random dance moves that all parties present probably agree should never be
mentioned again.  We may all be in different places physically, and different places in our lives, but I think we will all remember that trip -- the only time I saw Simon dance, introducing our Australian(ish) Dev to snow and watching him dance around and holler "it's cold!  it's in my underpants!" after doing snowangels, and seeing the smile of Cherie's face when the cookie desert arrived at the Top of The Hub.  Life changes.  But memories always bring warm smiles.

 Boston is a clean looking city, and very pretty.  It has historically preserved buildings amidst the modern buildings, and just a lot of fascinating things to look at.

Passage of time can be seen in the layers of architecture in one place

Two things that I think a visitor to Boston must do is to buy a ticket on the double decker bus tours -- they do a tour of the entire city, explaining the history as you go, and you have the option to get off at any of the points of interest, take pictures, shop, eat, explore, view the museum, and the hop on the next tour bus that goes by.  The frequency of these tour buses is about every 15 minutes.  I still remember doing this tour 3 years ago with enough clarity to know that the bus driver was actually called Paddy, and with all the ons and off's I eventually end up on Paddy's bus several times during the day.  There is a portion you will want to walk however, and that is the busiest section of the Freedom Trail.

The Freedom Trail in Boston covers an area that skirts along Boston Common and traces a rich history through the old Boston core back to Paul Revere's house in the North End, and across the Charles River to the Bunker Hill area.  The Freedom Trail is not a hypothetical trail, it's path is blazed onto Boston's streets either by a painted red line, or in places by a subtle red brick line in a the brown brick walking paths.

Following the Freedom Trail

My plan to take pictures the day I arrived in Boston was thwarted by rain, so I was forced indoors and tried to keep the shopping prudent and stick to winter boots, which will be needed in Canada next year anyway.  The duty allowance when returning to Bermuda is $200, so I had lots of room to get a nice pair of boots.  Once that was done there was time for a cocktail at "The Top of the Hub" for old times sake with Cherie, followed meeting up with Lisa for supper at PF Chang's (great food, great service, and some complimentary appetizers just because).  I got a chat with Simon who was leaving on his own adventure, and fell asleep in yet another shoebox hotel.  The morning brought blue skies rather than rain, giving me a couple of hours to take the camera out before heading to my appointment.

I decided to pop out of the Subway at the State Street stop, emerging across from Faneuil Hall.  Fanueil Hall was one of Boson's first major marketplaces, built in 1740.  Like so many historic buildings, it burned down at one point (1761) and was rebuilt in 1762.  It has obscure weather vane in the shape of a grasshopper.  Persons suspected of being British spies during the Revolution were asked what sat atop Fanueil Hall...if you couldn't say grasshopper, you were convicted as a British spy.  When the Brits occupied Boston, they turned it into a theatre, one of the many cruelties performed against Boston buildings, such as removing church steeples so that they could not be used as signal platforms by the revolutionaries.  Faneuil Hall has hosted many important speeches against British Rule by the likes of Sam Adams and James Otis, possibly why the building is sometimes referred to as "the cradle of liberty."  Barack Obama chose this location to deliver a defense of the Affordable Care Act in 2013, and the Boston Classical Orchestra has used this as home base since the 1980's.  Around Faneuil Hall is the Quincy Market -- 3 old "longhouse" style buildings that now house may shops, cafes, and the famous bar "Cheers" featured in the 1980's sitcom of the same name.

Fanueil Hall

Just kitty corner to Faneuil Hall is the Old Statehouse.  The Old Statehouse was built in 1713 (because the Old Townhouse burned down in the fire of 1711 of course), with an interior redesign (after another fire) in 1747.  It would once more be damaged by fire in 1832.  Life was a lot more flammable back then I guess.  This is the oldest public building in Boston, home to the legislature until 1798.

The Old State House

Below its balcony was the site of the Boston Massacre, where a group of citizen had formed and were hurling insults and snowballs at British soldiers on the balcony.  The Brits shot and killed 5 people, including a 12 year old boy.  Paul Revere did a famous "folk art" rendition of the event, he was know for getting word out after all, and interestingly, it was John Adams who was the lawyer who got the soldiers off for the act in the court of law...and then later helped design the Declaration of Independence which was first read to the public in this building and from its balconies...and then became the first president of the USA.  Wonder if anyone ever let him live down helping the Brits get away with murder.

Marker in the sidewalk below the Old State House where the 1770 Boston Massacre took place

The Old State House would later becoming Boston City Hall, until they built a new City Hall in 1865, which is now called Old Boston City Hall, because they built yet another new one in 1969.

Old Boston Hall

I think Old Boston City Hall looks way cooler than the current one, which makes it about the prettiest Ruth Chris' Steakhouse location I have ever seen.  I really liked the effect of time on some of the old statues (this one was of John Quincy).

Liked the texture of this

Now Old Boston City Hall sits next to the King's Chapel and Burial Ground.  If you have time, they do crypt tours below the Church as well.  That surpassed my creepy index for the day so I just stuck to the above ground cemetery.  This was Boston's only cemetery between 1630 and 1660.  The creepy index won out above ground too when I learned that the ground wasn't suited well for the family tombs, and sometimes people would visit the tomb and find them flooded with bodies floating around.  Not sure who you put a complaint in to when that happens, but they may have had the worst job of the 1630's.  It would make for a good Halloween movie scene.

King's Chapel Burial Ground

The Old South Meeting House is where the Boston Tea Party was organized.

Old South Meeting House

Across the street is the Granary Burial Ground, which has some interesting markers including the victims of the 1770 Boston Massacre, Samuel Adams (politician and yes, the beer guy), and a big Franklin Memorial, which is not for Ben Franklin, but a monument he erected for his parents.  Continuing with the creepy, the cemetery as one sees it is relatively modern, as the grave markers were all moved and aligned in the 1800's to make way for the push lawnmower.  And not all graves are marked, as a tourist discovered in 2009 when the ground beneath her feet gave way and she fell into a an unknown crypt.  Would have liked to have seen her reaction.  I checked you tube, doesn't look like it was caught on video.

Granary Burial Grounds

Crossing the road from there we enter Boston Common, which is overlooked by the State House (not the Old State House though).  This one was built in 1798, and its roof has a lot of history.  As you can see, it's shiny.  It was originally wooden, but it leaked, so then our jack of all trades guy -- horseman, artist, revolutionary, and roofsman -- Paul Revere shows up and covers it with sheets of Copper, quite a genius thing at the time in 1802.  Then it was painted grey, and yellow, covered in gold leaf in 1874, painted black in WWII, and regilded in 1997 in 23 karat gold for a cost of $300,000.  With the cost of gold now, I'm surprised they don't have people chipping away at it in the night.

New State House

Boston Common has more of those chubby little American squirrels.

A well fed squirrel

I know why they are so chubby -- this one is eating either a fig newton or a breakfast bar.  Very uptown squirrel indeed.

Now THAT is a happy squirrel

The lagoon has some very distinctive weeping willow trees that always catch my eye.

Boston Common

My last stop was to go to the Copley Square to catch the train back.  Copley Square is flanked by the famous Boston Public Library, and the famous Trinity Church.  I still remember Paddy the tour bus operator telling us that they have a 5 year waiting list for a wedding at the Trinity Church, and it couldn't hurt to go put in an application, then when you find the right one, you are already on the list.

The Trinity Church was built in 1832 (after the old one burned to the ground in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, which didn't claim any of the other buildings spoken about catching fire earlier, those were all destroyed in other fires apparently.)  Today it stands beautiful, intricate, and stone faced alongside mirrored glass skyscrapers.  But in another time, she would have been a skyscraper on the Boston horizon.

Old meets new at the Trinity Church