Saying Goodbye to Boston

The last night we were in Boston we went down to the wharf area to eat at Legal Seafood, a restaurant that came highly recommended from a teacher friend.
I had delicious crab cakes with grilled shrimp and scallops. Dan had stuffed shrimp. All of it tasted like it had just come out of the ocean. We miss our night-time strolls through the downtown area. Anywhere you step you are standing on history.

I can’t say enough nice things about the way we were treated at the Omni.

I just had to take a picture of the elevator doors. They were almost the focal point of the lobby.

We realized that we had not taken a picture of us together so we decided to use the long arm technique. Dan couldn’t quite coordinate the position of his arm with that of his head. Ha! I know we have both looked better. Oh well…it is what it is!

One last look at my beautiful flowers. Thanks again to our precious daughters.

The next morning we decided to take a stroll through the Boston Public Gardens and down Commonwealth to see some of the brownstone homes and shops  in the Back Bay area.
 
The statue is of Edward Everitt Hale, an author and Unitarian minister. He is famous for the quote "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I should do and, with the help of God, I will do." He was the nephew of the Nathan Hale and was at one time Chaplain of the Senate.



These are the famous swan boats.

One of my most favorite thing about the Boston Public Gardens is the duck statues from Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. I loved that book and read it both to my daughters and my students. It takes place in the Boston Public Gardens where Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are trying to find a place to hatch and raise their babies. The picture below isn’t mine, but I couldn’t have a post about the gardens and not have the ducklings.

Many, many commuters walk through here everyday. Wouldn’t you like for this to be your commute?


Where would we be without General Washington?

 
If you aren’t interested in brownstones and churches, you might want to skip to the end. I couldn’t resist taking all of these pictures.

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The front door on this one was just gorgeous.

This is the First Baptist Church.





I’m sure that people walking behind were wondering what this stalker woman was up to…or maybe they’re used to crazy Texans fascinated by their architecture and gardens that are still blooming and not dead from the heat.

 
Another beautiful front door…



This is the Church of the Covenant. A lady on the street told us that the stained glass in the church was made by Tiffany and that we should really try to go in to see it.
  
We walked down Newbury St., the premier shopping area in the city.

After we checked out of the hotel, we drove to Cambridge so that we could see the Harvard campus before we headed to the airport.


The Old Harvard Yard…this is where the freshmen live. We know because we kind of attached ourselves to a group of prospective freshmen that were on a tour. When we weren’t attached to that group we followed along on a tour specifically for tourists.



John Harvard…





Our group of nervous freshmen. It was starting to drizzle a little bit, so some were beginning to drift away from the group.

I’m unsure what this building is…it looked like some kind of student center. In many of the grassy areas, like in the Old Harvard Yard, they had groups of multi-colored chairs. It looked funny to see such modern chairs against the backdrop of such old and staid buildings.

This is the Harvard Memorial Church. We were about to seek shelter in the portico because it was raining, but it looked as if they were having some kind of service.
 
This is our “tourist” group that we drifted in and out of.

The library…these buildings are part of the “new” Harvard Yard.

Another church with gothic architecture…it happened to be a  Baptist Church (but obviously not Southern Baptist-a tad more liberal). 


There were no vacancies in this inn.

We had lunch at Grafton Street. It’s on Massachusetts Ave., a main street that runs through Cambridge, Boston, and down to Quincy.


I had gourmet baked macaroni and cheese. Afterwards, we headed down Massachusetts Avenue to Logan Airport for our return home.
What wonderful memories we made and what memorable places we saw!