Boston Vacation, Day 3

Technically Day 2 of sightseeing in Boston. We maneuvered the hotel shuttle and the train again...we are getting pretty good at that train thing. We even are figuring out the transfers. The most confusing part at this point, which only means we have to think it through a little longer, is whether we need to get on an incoming or an outgoing train...so that depends on which side of the train tracks we need to be on. If you have ever ridden public transportation trains before you know that this normally means a long walk up a bunch of stairs, across the way, and then down a whole bunch more stairs! :)

We rode the train to an exit by the Boston Public Library, which is what is in this picture. It's HUGE! We probably should have gone inside, they say it's beautiful, but just enjoyed from the outside. We boarded our tour bus for the second day of our seeing the sights from this location.

Allison and I thought this "Tortoise and Hare" statues were pretty neat.

This picture was taken for my BIL...it is one of the Boston Fire Department buildings, and it is the oldest fire department in the United States.

One of the sights on this leg of the tour is Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

Part of the package with our tour bus / trolley was to take a choice of one of four "bonus" activities, one of which was a Harbor Tour. I'm so glad we did. The weather was gorgeous and we got a different viewpoint of the Boston cityline.

I liked this view, you can see a sailboat and a Nantucket boat, which has a story behind it, which I can't remember the whole thing, but basically it's like the last one surviving, and it was sold to some lady for like $1 as it was going to be trashed. Now I guess it has been found out that the wood used in the boat is some special wood that is very special and very expensive, so she is trying to refurbish and fix up this boat.

Another part of our sightseeing tour was to see the Navy Yard where the USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides" is docked. It is a part of history that I actually remember seeing in the History books, and it is a pretty special story and has a special place in our American History. It is approximately 214 years old I believe. It goes go out every 4th of July and does a 21 gun salute from it, and then goes back into dock for another year. (We went back later in the afternoon and actually went on the ship and had a tour of it).

I just thought this was a cool photo...I like sailboats.

I wondered, so, what do they do? ... take a boat out to get to their boat?

Ask my mom...I'm a sucker for birds....turns out, so is Allison. She had a blast 'playing' and feeding and chasing the birds while we ate our lunch, feeding them little parts of her bun. I think the birds had more of her $5 hot dog than she did. I laid a piece of my bread on the bench right next to me to see if someone would hop up and find it. Sure enough did...in no time at all.

My camera battery was nearly dead, so lucky for all of us that I don't have a whole bunch more of aquarium pictures like I sometimes do when I visit places like this. Allison and I visited the New England Aquarium, while Bruce did a National Parks Service walking tour again. It was a good aquarium, and there were some unusual species of different aquatic life, and we enjoyed ourselves, but there were SO MANY people there! wow! and it just didn't have an inviting atmosphere like some of the aquariums we visited before. I think I still really like the Atlanta one the best.

They did have a lot of different varieties of jelly fish which I like to see. I couldn't get a picture (because of the glare) of these really cool white ones that looked like they had lace and tatting on them...very cool.

Penguins are probably their biggest draw. This is only one picture, but they had lots and lots of penguins. Their main floor has a huge open air display/habitat with different segments with different types of penguins. It's pretty cool, and it was one of the feeding times when we got there and it was fun watching that.

We finished off our evening with dinner at an Irish pub...it was tasty, but ironic that an Irish pub was playing country music! :)

BTW....While we were on the tour, we drove by a theater in Boston, and flashing across the screen was a promotion for the group "Gaelic Storm" which I've seen in Manhattan and Lincoln before with my friend Carrie. Let me tell you, it gave me a thrill to say the least. They were at the theater in Boston on Thursday night, THIS NIGHT! I looked up to see whether there were tickets available, and it looked like there were. Bruce said I could order the tickets, but I decided against it...because I'm a wuss....I hated getting out of there at like 11:00 or 1200 at night, and then having to walk to who knows where to find a train station, ride to our stop and then call the airport shuttle, with 6 year old in tow, etc. I didn't think it would end well in the long run. But, here's to the memory! :)