Day 4

Our final morning in Boston dawned sunny and hot again. We’re pretty much used to hot and humid summer weather so we just carried on. We headed out first to do some more walking around Beacon Hill. We hadn’t really explored the side streets much, maybe because we were avoiding the hills! We had read about a section of the neighbourhood called Louisburg Square that consists of a central tree filled and fenced area surrounded by large, old, expensive homes. My wife mentioned that Louisa May Alcott lived there. It was a bit of an uphill trek getting there but worth it for the views and the atmosphere. We were amazed at how tight the parking was on some of the streets. We watched as one poor woman rushed out of her place to her car to find that the car behind was actually touching her bumper and she had only inches in front. She wasn’t getting out unless her wheels could all turn 90 degrees. We hoped she didn’t have an important appointment. It gave us a real feel for the area to just wander around, look at homes and listen to the locals get on with their day. We felt like we could really live here.

Next we went back to Boston Common again to see if we’d missed anything. It reminded us of High Park in Toronto because it is basically an oasis in the middle of the city. If any of you from Boston ever come to our city, you must visit the park. Afterwards we jumped on the T again and headed towards the Prudential Center. Before going in, we noticed a large plaza with a major reflecting pool in front of a massive church-like structure. It turned out to be The First Church of Christ – Scientist. The place was built by a woman named Mary Baker Eddy who started the organization. We had no idea that the Christian Science movement originated here. We had seen reading rooms in every city and town and even have one in Toronto. In any case the building was amazing and while we watched, water filled a wading pool and hundreds of kids appeared to fill it.

We finally entered the Prudential Center and looked around at the stores. It was a fairly high end mall, but similar to ones we have at home. The best part was going up to the Skywalk on the 50th floor for the 360 degree view of the city. There was also an informative audio tour about the history of the city. It was great to get a bird’s eye view of places we had walked through.

After we left, we walked by the Symphony Hall which we learned was home to the Boston Pops. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to hear them. From there it was off to the Copley Center. This was a really high end mall with stores like Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co., Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Most of the stores in this mall were way out of our price range so we just window shopped.

Next, we were off to lunch at a cool brew pub that I had researched. It’s called The Publick House and is famous for having hundreds of beers available from all over the world. We started out on the T but were a bit surprised when we went above ground and it operated as a streetcar. The only unfortunate part was that in my research I had failed to notice that it was not actually open for lunch. Soooo, after walking around the area a bit, we hopped back on the streetcar/T and went back to Copley Center. From there we walked back to Newbury St. to Stepanie’s for lunch. But, there was a half hour wait and we were already starving. We continued on to a place called Charley’s On Newbury. It was a pub that served good, cold beer and pub food. We were happy to be sitting in AC with a beer and good food. After lunch, we strolled along the Commonwealth Ave. Mall which is a green space dividing a large street. We don’t really have a street like that at home. It was a very pleasant, shady walk under the trees. The homes along the way were interesting to look at as well.

We had read about the Esplanade that runs along the Charles River and decided to walk home that way. What a great thing to have in your city. We hope that we can come back to Boston in the fall some time and do this walk again. It was a warm, but pleasant walk that took us back to the hotel and let us see another side of the city.

After our break, we decided to walk to dinner instead of taking the T. That meant about a half hour walk to the Charlestown neighbourhood. It was still hot, but there was a breeze. We explored Canal Street and the area around the TD Banknorth Garden. We also saw the Federal Building and were at first puzzled by all the large concrete balls surrounding it. Then we saw the Homeland Security vehicle and the guard and realized what they were for. It was a bit sobering to think about.

We were looking for the Warren Tavern which is the oldest tavern in Massachusetts and was built in 1780. Apparently, George Washington and Paul Revere stopped in for a beer or two at some point. We had simple dinners along with, what else, some Sam Adams beer. I actually had my first chowder here and it was great. We’ve had chowder before but this was different and I will be making it at home. We were also amazed at the little round oyster crackers that came with it and had not seen them before. (This is sort of like teacher91’s experience with the hot dog buns!) We later went to a supermarket and bought a box to take home so that we can have authentic chowdah.

I really wanted to take the water shuttle again so we used our T passes to go back to Long Wharf again. It was great to see the city with the sun going down this time. There was a lot going on in the restaurants and bars around the market and street performers were all over the place. After poking around in the shops for a bit, we decided to walk back home by a new route which took another half hour. We wanted to experience as much of the city on foot as we could and were sad to think we’d be leaving in the morning. This is definitely a city we’ll be coming back to and will recommend to our travelling friends in Canada. Our last TR will be a bit of a summary and favourite things (yes, we use the “u” in words like favourite and neighbourhood).