Boston

 

Jeff and I had both only had quick trips to Boston before, so a long weekend there seemed like a chance to explore which we did.  However, covid did diminish our trip some since several museums and places we wanted to visit were still closed.  Having said that, Boston is very much alive right now.  The hotel seemed like it had a good occupancy level even though it only had room service food no restaurants or bars open.  We also had challenges getting served at restaurants because they were full or not taking reservations.  We stayed in the Back Bay area which is an upscale part of town.  Two blocks away is Newbury Street which is full of high end stores - window shopping only territory but also lots of restaurants.  Our hotel was attached to 2 malls one which had a Saks and stores like Gucci - again just window shopping for me.

Schooner sail of the bay

Since we no longer have a sailboat, any chance we get to go sailing we tend to take it.  So on Friday afternoon, we went on a harbor sail on an old schooner that sails to the Bahamas in the fall.  The sail was nice, but we got gypped a little bit.  Seems the harbor bottom is being blasted for dredging to make it deeper and when they are blasting ships can not be near.  Guess what they were doing that Friday afternoon.  Now don't get me wrong we did sail for a couple of hours, we just did not get to go explore the islands and we did some circles (lots of tacking - kind of like sailing the Mississippi). We saw the USS Constitution /Old Iron Sides which is still officially in service, went past Logan Airport, past some nice newer apartments/condo and just plain sailed.

Boston Commons

 

We walked a lot in Boston.  Part of the time we walked the red line(heritage trail), part of the time we were walking through Boston Commons and adjoining public gardens and then down a tree covered median back to our hotel.  

Boston Public Library

Jeff had read about the historic Boston Public Library and that it was full of gorgeous artwork.  I was surprised to find some religious references in some of the paintings - guess division of state and church was not a big thing back then!

Boston Public Garden

While he was on a run, Jeff took a selfie and a couple of pictures of the public gardens.  The lake behind him has some boats that you ride on with a huge swan in the back.  The spring flowers were dying or gone and summer flowers were starting to bloom.

Cambridge

A dining hall at Harvard

More from Harvard - we liked the duck design in the bricks

Yes this is a wild turkey in the middle of Cambridge!

Another day we spent walking around Cambridge.  We walked around Harvard's campus some before window shopping for awhile.  We walked out of a store and crossed the street to look closer at a light fixture when we found this turkey.  Squirrels, chipmunks, birds are the animals I expect in an inner city area - turkeys are not the norm!

Waterfront

Salem

All of these pictures are from the memorial to the people killed as witches.  Each of the jutting out stones is a memorial to one of the individuals.

While we were in Salem, we also visited the museum of the House of Seven Gables.  Seems that Nathaniel Hawthorne's cousin owned this house at the time he wrote his novel.  It is also interesting because parts of the house date back to before the revolutionary war time period.  The tours started in the 20th century by a lady who used the profits from the tours to aid immigrants to the city.  To this day, tour revenue still supports programs for immigrants in the community.

exterior of the house and its gardens

a room showing its original construction.  The house model in the background is how the house looked at one time when gables were no longer trendy.

secret stairway built into the chimney - added in the 30s to align with the novel

After a few hours exploring Salem, it was off for Ogunquit, Maine is our next stop.