Boston in Pictures

Here's two shots of the navy yard's drydock, which is pretty neat:

I did get a number of good shots of the Cassin Young, however.  Here's a selection of exterior shots, followed by one of their huge mixer on board, which I thought my mom and dad might find interesting.

From the navy yard, there's also a good view of the Bunker Hill Monument (where the Bunker Hill Bridge gets its name from -- notice the shape at the top of the bridge's supports), commemorating that Revolutionary War battle; as you leave the navy yard, there is also a plaque showing where British troops disembarked before the battle.

After that, we went to the Museum of Science; it was a bit of walk, but it wasn't bad -- that's one of the things I like about Boston.  It's possible to get almost anywhere within the city very easily using the T or just walking; it's a much more concentrated city than Chicago, or at least seems like it.  Most of what you want to see is within a few miles of the city center.  I didn't take many pictures at the Museum of Science; I did get one of the Charles River through the massive window at the center (the Museum itself straddles the river).  At the bottom of the picture, you can see the top of Archimedean Excogitation, a large kinetic sculpture that takes up much of that area.

That was pretty much it for Tuesday.  Now, I'm trying to remember what we did when, and I think Wednesday is when we walked the Freedom Trail, but I might be mistaken. :) I know we squeezed in the trolley tour sometime too, which may have also been on Wednesday -- if Marc is reading this, maybe he remembers better.  Next time I go somewhere I think I'll take notes (or blog about the day's events on that day!).

Anyway, assuming I'm correct, we went on a guided Freedom Trail tour for the first mile and a half or so, which was pretty neat.  It left from Boston Common, so we took advantage of the time there to take a few pictures; here's the Brewer Fountain in the park:

The first stop on the trail after Boston Common was the Massachusetts State House, which was completed in 1798.  It's really magnificent looking building sitting at the top of Beacon Hill, and it's pretty amazing to think that it has served as the center of Massachusetts government for over two hundred years now.  Boston is one of the few places in the US with that kind of history (at least, in terms of continuous history -- having been to Cahokia Mounds, that is pretty damn impressive too, but not quite the same).

The next stop after the State House (or at least the first where I took pictures) was the Old Granary Burial Ground, where John Hancock, among others, is buried.  This is right next to the Park Street Church, which you can see in the upper right of the last picture.  This picture gets a good shot of some guy's bald spot, but you can see our period-dressed tour guide in the middle there, who did a really good job of showing us around and making it really entertaining at the same time.  I definitely recommend taking one of these if you get the chance when you're visiting Boston.

Further on (and yes, I know I missed a few places in there -- sorry!) is the Old City Hall, which I believe was in use until the 1960s.  It's now a steakhouse (which is a little weird), and the new city hall is much larger and....much different.  I've put a picture of the new one right after this one (even though the new city hall is at the end of the guided tour, near Faneuil Hall).

As you can see, the new one is a little....less classical. :) After Old City Hall, we get to the Old State House, which is the oldest building still standing in Boston.  Built in 1713, it housed the colonial government and then the state government until the current State House was finished.  It was also the location of the Boston Massacre, and the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Massachusetts (something which is done every 4th of July from the balcony in commemoration).

The guided part of the tour comes to an end not long after that, at Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.  This is a very neat little marketplace in Boston -- I'm sure it's full of tourist traps, but there's a ton of little shops and food places there, and it's a lot of fun just to walk through.  I'm sure it's packed during the warmer months.

I know that's not the best shot of Faneuil Hall, but it should give you some idea of how big the pedestrian marketplace there is.  From there, though, we had to go on our own, so we walked towards the North End, which is Boston's Little Italy and also the home to Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, and other sights.  Paul Revere's house was first; unfortunately, there's no pictures allowed inside, but I did get a few of the exterior.

Here's a shot of the small square nearby to give you some idea of how narrow the streets tend to be in the older parts of Boston; you can see this even better in the Beacon Hill pictures I have a bit later.

Following on from Paul Revere's house, we walked towards Old North Church.  On the way, I got this shot of the steeple of St. Stephen's, a Catholic church designed by the same architect that did the State House and the parish of Rose Kennedy:

Across from St. Stephen's is a courtyard with a statue of Paul Revere where North End veterans of every war since the Revolutionary War are commemorated.  This runs from St. Stephen's to the Old North Church, which you can see in the background of this next photo.

Finally, we get to Old North Church, where the "one if by land, two if by sea" lanterns were hung.  I got one shot of the outside, and then one interior shot; you'll also see it again in the pictures I have later from further down the trail.

Just past Old North Church is Copp's Hill Burial Ground, which is where we ended our walk along the Freedom Trail; further down is Charlestown and Bunker Hill, where we had gone on Tuesday.  Copp's Hill was also a site where the British set up guns to watch the harbor, and as a result many of the gravestones there have dents and holes from musketballs.

Wednesday night we had dinner with benoc and his wife at Cambridge 1, a tasty pizza place just a couple blocks from Fenway, and Thursday we took it pretty easy.  I'm pretty sure that's the day we went on the Duck Tour (which, no, I didn't take any pictures on, yes, I know that was silly), but we didn't do a whole lot else.  Frankly, I was fine with that because I was getting a little worn out after two days of running around Boston (which was following on from some very late nights at FanFest the week prior)!  Friday, however, we spent most of the day just walking around Boston having a look at all the things Marc wanted to see before we left that we hadn't seen yet.  So, the next bunch of pictures are not linked in any special way, just happen to be the way we went through the city.

We started off at the Boston Public Garden, which is right next to Boston Common and just a couple blocks from our hotel.  While I'm sure it looks much nicer in the spring and summer, it was still a great place to walk through.  I didn't take too many pictures there, but here's a couple.

Here's the statue of George Washington that sits at one end of the Public Garden:

As you can see, it was pretty foggy that morning, but we still got a few pictures of the city from Boston Common as well; here's my best one, of the John Hancock Tower, the tallest building in New England:

We then went on to Beacon Hill, which is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Boston.  It is an absurdly expensive neighborhood, where almost all the buildings are historical sites, and as a result there are a variety of rules to maintain the look of the neighborhood like something out of the 1800s.  They still use gaslights to light the streets, and all the signage in the area is appropriate to that period -- and most of the streets there are tiny, like those in the North End I showed you earlier.  It's very cool, and one of my favorite places in terms of atmosphere anywhere I've been (Pioneer Square in Seattle is pretty close though).  The neighborhood begins at Beacon Street, just north of the Common; that's the street where the Massachusetts State House is at, and also where you can find the Bull and Finch Pub, which is the exterior used for Cheers (and boy do they milk that for every cent!):

Here's a shot of Beacon Street, looking up towards the State House:

Here are a couple of shots of Beacon Hill streets, with two shots showing the period signage.

After a while we made our way to Copley Square.  This is where the Boston Public Library is, where the Boston Marathon ends, and where Trinity Church and Old South Church are; the John Hancock Tower is just across the street as well.  It's a pretty impressive place, and there was a well-stocked farmer's market there as well that Friday.  Here's Boston Public Library:

In the bottom right of that picture, you can see the hare from the tortoise and hare statues that mark the end of the Boston Marathon; here's a picture of them together:

Behind me in those pictures is Trinity Church, which is very impressive.  Across the street from it is the John Hancock Tower, which reflects the church perfectly.

After that, we headed out to Cambridge, where we stopped by Harvard and MIT; here's a couple shots of Harvard Yard.  If you have seen this and the U of I's Quad, you can definitely see some similarities.

Here's some pictures of the Stata Center on MIT's campus, some of the most bizarre-looking architecture I've ever seen (at least in person):

From there, we walked back to Boston from Cambridge, over the Charles River, over the Longfellow Bridge.  I took two pictures; one of the Boston skyline from there and one of the "salt and pepper shakers" that crown the bridge:

From there, we made our way back towards Quincy Market, because we were going to have dinner at the Union Oyster House.  On the way we saw the Liberty Hotel, a luxury hotel which used to be the county jail.

And just across from the restaurant is the Boston Holocaust Memorial; each of the six glass towers stands for one of the six major concentration camps, and on each one are a million marks, representing the six million Jews killed.

(Now that I look at that, I'm pretty sure I took it on a different day.  But whatever.... :))

Anyway, that is all the pictures I had of Boston; Saturday we flew home, and I got back home on Sunday for the first time in over two weeks.  Quite the experience!