I've Been a Little Busy -- Boston Edition

We stayed at the Beacon Hill Holiday Inn at the Northern base of Beacon Hill. Perfectly acceptable. Great location. Although it did mean a lot of walking up Beacon Hill. (Myfanwe has not completely wrapped her mind around the hill concept until we got there.)

Our first visit to the Boston Common was awesome. It isn't a place that pictures can do justice. It is the oldest, and I believe the most incredible, public park in America.

Norbert, Myfanwe and I were particularly fond of the Frog Pond, as wading through it was cooling and a balm for weary feat. We walked a lot. A LOT. My feet still hurt.

It was Turkish American Day at the Boston Common.

And where there are Turks...

...there's Turkish Coffee.

We didn't understand the significance of the costumes, but these men really, really wanted to have their picture taken with Norbert, who was very kind to oblige.


We saw Senator John Kerry's house.

And the house where Louisa May Alcott died.


There were Lobster Rolls and Chow-dah.


An Unofficial Harvard Tour. (Highly recommended.)



(Note: DON'T rub John Harvard's foot for good luck. Apparently Harvard boys, when not attending meetings of their secret societies, like to get drunk and figure out what nastiness they can do with Harvard's feet, knowing that every day a new batch of people will come through and rub it. Upon since hearing this, I instantly became addicted to hand sanitizer.)


We went to Herrel's for Ice Cream!

This is malted vanilla with Heath bars smooshed in. Possibly one of the best things I've ever eaten.


This was the view of the Charles River from our hotel room.


We went to the Kennedy Library.



We went to the most unusual book store I've ever seen.


Boston's Chinatown, where we had some excellent Vietnamese. (Go figure.)



Everyone knows how much I love Laughing Buddhas.


We went here...



At my cousin Kevin's recommendation we stopped at Mike's Pastry in the North End.




Oh. My. Dog. Everything there was so good. Sinful. So sinful, we stopped in here:


We saw this:

And this:


We ate a Giacomo's -- possibly the hottest table in Boston. We lucked into it, really. If you look closely, you can see some of the 60 people lined up down the street waiting to get in.


We liked the name, so on our last day in Boston we ate lunch here.


We also a number of graveyards. I don't remember who was buried here, but it was someone dead.


I loved this statue of Benjamin Franklin at the old City Hall -- which is now a steakhouse.


The Irish Famine Memorial:



I believe this was the seat of the Colonial government.

Amazing that the lion and unicorn survive.



We got to go out on the water a bit. Just on the ferry to Charlestown. But it was free (we had Charlie Cards) and it was beautiful.




One day we did the Back Bay. This is the Boston Public Library.


The building is truly a work of art.


Shopping on Newberry Street was very pleasant. There was Condomworld...



... and Kitchen Arts.



So wherever we went, we were cookin'!

There is a monument in the Public Garden commemorating the discovery of ether as an anaesthetic.



I still think that is way cool.

We didn't see the signs that say not to feed the ducks until after we had fed the ducks. They ate right out of our hands.


Then we took a swan boat for another water excursion.


It was a glorious day.


That evening we were taken to dinner by an old friend of Myfanwe's from childhood. We dined at a waterfront restaurant.



Now, to close, I offer you a glimpse of the fountain in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library. Absolutely top drawer.




Now I have to go to bed. I start back to work in the morning. And I'm still a little tired!