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Day’s Verse:

I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

Luke 21:15

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Note: every link leads to a picture in this post.

Yesterday we played tourist in Boston, a desperate attempt to escape Worcester and its deadly nothingness of existence. The commuter rail took us in to Boston in a little over an hour; by 9:30 we emerged from Back Bay station with the wonderful realization that we were not in Worcester anymore. I took this really cool picture of a fountain just as we left the station. After some small wandering through the Boston Common, we found the Freedom Trail and huge hordes of schoolchildren. After some amount of jostling we got on our way. Not, however, being on a learning tour, we refrained from stopping at all the historic spots. Instead we opted to head straight for the important stuff: the Quincy Market. After eating, I snooped around and found this picture. The food was delicious, traditional Boston chowder; but I think we most enjoyed the smells. The blending of all sorts of different foods – Japanese, Greek, Bostonian, candy, bakery, hotdogs, and more – turned walking up and down that hall into an olfactory experience not to be missed.

The forced march continued thereafter, however; we saw a Paul Revere statue adorned with a rather stretched Boston Red Sox shirt (no picture because the angle would have been terrible), enjoyed the Old North Church ambiance despite the pushing, shoving crowds while speculating that the Old North Church should be one of the richest Episcopalian churches considering the number of visitors it receives each year, and visited a lovely, touristy old graveyard. The oldest stone, according to an information board, serves two men who died in 1661 and 1678. As a person from the West Coast, I find these dates hard to fathom: my home would not be discovered for another hundred years or so; our oldest buildings and such date back to the mid-1800s. One incredible thing about Boston is that its inhabitants take the history so casually, walking past two- or three-hundred year old buildings without thinking about their incredible age.

We visited a couple of museums near the USS Constitution, but never boarded the ship herself – we did not want to surrender our bags or be searched. At one stop we accidentally got roped into paying $4 each for a rather cheesy, outdated show involving lifelike (albeit dusty) statues that talked and were complimented by strangely-sized screens. It told the story of the Battle at Bunker Hill through pictures and by turning lights on to highlight the dusty figurines while narrating or reading letters written by participants. My favorite part of the trail came as we neared Bunker Hill because the city surrounding the hill offered wonderful pictures, although I refrained from large street shots, as I prefer to focus on the little details that give a place charm.

After climbing the 290-odd steps to the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial, we had officially walked from one end of the Freedom Trail to the other. This took us a few hours, as I continually stopped and the guys had to pause and wait for me as well. After that we wandered our way back to the Boston Commons via a neat park with a crazy statue of a fish, and another tiny frog statue. We also found a Peace Park dedicated to homicides; it was filled with stones engraved with names and dates. Near one that occurred on October 21, 2002, we found a yellow rose that seemed so very, very sad and touching. Somebody had just come a day before to that rock, to think about their lost loved one, and perhaps to cry. Also in that park, which was mostly stone, flowed a fountain with lights where the water hit the ground. Finally, as we crossed a bit of Big Dig construction a splash of red, green, and blue caught my eye and – barely pausing to let my camera focus, and without adjusting any settings – I snapped this picture of two brightly-colored generations.

Earlier we had earlier noticed a movie theater in the theater district, near Emerson and Tufts Colleges. Arriving there, however, we found nothing showing that appealed strongly to any of us. Eventually, after some time of fruitless searching for another theater, we decided to just catch the commuter rail home via the South station. That we did, and after a napful hour ride and half hour walk back, we found ourselves tired but safely back at the apartment. Today I begin reading my Calc 2 material as per the instructor’s directions. So at least we ended break with a bang, an excursion and a story to tell people who got to go home. And for all Boston’s charm, I do miss home.

– KF –