Two Days in Boston

We hardly slept on Wednesday night knowing that we had to be up early to catch the bus to Boston. We surely did not want to miss it! Rosemary and Wadi took us to the bus station and we purchased tickets. The station manager said that there would be a lot of people so we should save our place in line with something. We didn't have anything, so he decided to take care of us --- Earla was the sharpie and I was the highlighter. Then, Earla realized that we had tickets for the wrong bus line. We exchanged our tickets, didn't need to save places any more and were back to being us. The bus came about 7:50 and we were on our way. What I saw of the scenery was very nice. While dozing, I saw little.

We arrived in Boston about 9:00 and took note of where the driver left us off as that would be where we needed to be to get on the bus for our trip back.

We decided to find the hotel first so we could get our bearings, and then, explore the city. We walked to the hotel with little difficulty. Earla read the map on this trip, and she is great! We were able to check in when we got there, which was wonderful. There were rooms available on higher or lower floors, so we chose a higher floor and our room was on the 22nd floor. Consequently, we had amazing views of the city, both by day and by night. I, especially, like the city by night with all of the lights.

After checking out our room and putting away some things, we headed downstairs. We checked with the concierge about tours and ended up buying tickets for the trolley that goes all over the city and is a guided tour. Before we got on the trolley, we had lunch at the hotel. We had coffee and split a lobster fritata. It was good, but we knew we'd be having better lobster Friday night at Rosemary's. Coffee was good.

After lunch, we found the trolley stop and got on the next one. We could get off and on at any stop all day, so we took the trolley two stops and got off at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. What a good idea that was. One of their major attractions is an exhibit of Egyptian artifacts. It was amazing and a wonderful learning experience. We knew that the Egyptians included items in their tombs, but had no idea the quantity or the intricacy of the carvings. There were replicas of eating utensils, carvings of people and animals in various activities, etc. There were coffins with writing not only on the outside but inside the cover. We saw actual mummies, and stone sculptures that were incredible in detail. There was some jewelry which was beautiful. Unfortunately, before the architects found the tombs, they had been looted, so much stuff was missing. We were so glad to have the privilege of viewing this exhibit.

We, of course, found the impressionists. Again, Monet drew my attention and the BMFA has a wonderful collection of Monet's. There were others that were very nice as well. We stopped by the gift shop and, then, went outside to wait for the trolley.

We rode the trolley through the rest of its stops and back to the hotel. The entire ride was about two hours, went through Cambridge and MIT, by the USS Constitution, and by many places of interest. We changed guides about half way through, and both of them were very informative. I especially liked it as I'd never been to Boston.

We were tired and feeling a little punk when we got back, so we decided to stay in for a while. WELL, we couldn't stay in with nothing to do, so we found a Barnes and Nobel in the Prudential Shopping Mall across the street. They had Scrabble games... we needed one. And, I found a new Scrabble dictionary with larger print. We stopped by Starbucks in the lobby of the hotel, and we were set.

A little Scrabble, a little coffee, a little nap and we were ready for dinner, but still didn't want to go out, so we ordered room service. We got a very nice selection of cheeses on a cheese plate which, also, included crackers and toasted rounds. We'd ordered bread to go with the cheeses but chose to save that for morning. The vegetable platter we ordered turned out to be the most interesting. The veggies were very good, nicely done, nice colors, but quite skimpy? We enjoyed all along with a few more games, and crawled into bed early.

This morning, we played one last game of Scrabble while we enjoyed the bread and more coffee from Starbucks. Then, we left a note on the game that read, "Please take if you want. Game is complete." Neither of us wanted to carry it around all day. We checked out and left the hotel about 10 and walked to Trinity Church. We discovered very quickly that it was quite chilly today in Boston with wind that augmented the cold. We were glad for knit hats and gloves.

As we were approaching the church, we noticed that there was a farmers' market out front. What beautiful fruits and vegetables! They were colorful and healthy looking and very nicely displayed. Also, we discovered a bread stand. We forwent the farmers' market for the moment and went into the church.

We couldn't get into the sanctuary as there was a convention going on. We did find the gift shop however and had quite a nice time there. Then, we wanted to see the Boston Commons. We walked toward the commons and were particularly interested in seeing the ducklings representing the book, "Make Room for Ducklings," up close. We had to ask exactly where they were and, then, we found them. We did sit on a bench near the ducklings for a while during a let up in wind that made it a little more comfortable. Then, we were ready for lunch.

We walked out of the park and started down Charles Street. At the end of the first block, we found an Italian restaurant and decided to give it a try. This turned out to be a very good find. They had homemade soup that was delicious and just the right thing on a cold day. Earla had minestrone and half a mozzarella/tomato grilled sandwich. I had chicken vegetable and, what else in Boston, Boston Creme Pie? It was quite good.

After lunch, we started back across the park and back towards Trinity Church. On the way, we saw roses blooming. It was an incredible site - in the midst of winter coming to see roses blooming. We found the farmers' market again and bought some raisin apple bread for breakfast tomorrow morning and a couple of cookies. Then, we were ready to find the bus stop to make sure we knew where it was. We found it and went inside to have a cup of coffee since we had a couple of hours until the bus left. We drank the coffee, ate one of the cookies and read for a while. Then, we wanted to use the bathroom, so we asked where it was. The proprietor of the coffee place said that it was on the second floor, that we would need to use the elevators and we would need a code to get in. He gave us the code. We headed toward the elevators and discovered that we needed to check in... (we are in a big federal post office!). We decided we really didn't want to go to all that trouble, so we bundled up and went out to wait for the bus. Once outside, we decided that we really did want to go to the second floor. Now, we have knit hats and gloves on, are all bundled up and carrying shopping bags. The man at the desk looked at us a little strangely - we suspect we looked a little like bag ladies. We explained our predicament and he assured us that it would be OK to go to the second floor, and did we know the code? We assured him that we did and went on our way.

When we got out of the building, we still had half an hour to wait for the bus so we pulled our hats down and our gloves up, put up the hoods on our coats and sat on the bench in the bus stop. Who knows what we looked like at that moment? It was cold!

The bus finally came at 4:05 and we got on and took the front two seats. As we were waiting, people started to file on one after another. We were astounded! We had been so bundled up and focused on staying warm, we had no idea a long line of passengers had formed behind us. We made one more stop, crawled through rush hour traffic, finally got on the main road north and made it back, a couple of naps later.

Rosemary and Wadi picked us up at the bus station. At their house, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of shrimp and tomato on toast appetisers and lobster rolls. We were right. This lobster was fresher and much more delicious that what we had in Boston.

One more game of Scrabble tonight -- and hurray for us, we finally did it.. What was it?? A tie game!!!

Now to bed and more fun tomorrow.