Jen's Updates: Boston: Around the City

Day 3: Friday, May 24, 2013

We met Kjersten's friend Jake and I slyly asked what he was up to on Friday. He said nothing, so I said, "Oh! You should come touring with us!" He is a native Bostonian, born and raised, but he sure surprised me when he said, "Oh ya! That sounds like fun!" What!? Who goes touring with two people he just barely met and barely knows!? I tell you - a really nice guy does. That's who! We had a great time with Jake and he was so sweet to come up with a game plan for the day. He said, "I was thinking we could start here, head over to here, then visit here, and then... does that sound good? Anything else you guys want to do or don't want to do?" Awesome. Fabulous guy and tour guide!

Mike and I took the train to the Boston Commons again and met him there. Usually there are some lights on in the trains, so people can read or see where they are going. Our train for whatever reason had zero lights! It was pitch black! Not bad, just interesting. Nobody knew why, and they didn't make an announcement about it, but it was fun seeing faces lit up by only the electronics people were using.

Boston Commons -

The "New" Massachusetts State House was built in 1798. The dome on top was originally covered with wood shingles, but they leaked and so Paul Revere (yes the famous Paul Revere) covered the dome in copper. But the copper turned green in the heat, and so they had it refinished and covered by 23 karat gold which now prevents leaks and looks beautiful.

In this building is a wooden codfish which is called the Sacred Cod. It hangs in the House of Representatives chamber and if this Sacred Cod goes missing then the House of Representatives can not meet. Multiple times pranks have been pulled where people have stolen the Sacred Cod, and the House of Representatives were unable to meet for days. Now, don't you worry, the House of Representatives will go on because the Sacred Cod has a full time guard watching over it (don't you love how the government spends its (our) money?).

We stopped by the famous tourist bakeries yesterday – Mike’s Pastries and Modern Pastry, but today we stopped by the local’s favorite bakery. Yesterday we got Cannoli’s and today I got a lobster tail. I enjoyed the lobster tail much more than the Cannoli’s (apparently not a fan of those).

Afterwards we went to Paul Revere’s house so that we could get the actual tour. (Yesterday we were only able to look at the outside of the house.) They didn’t allow photography on the inside of the house, but it was interesting. It was a small house; 2 bedrooms and believe it or not, he had 16 kids. He had 8 with his first wife and 8 with his second wife. Only 11 survived to adulthood, so he only had 11 living there at one time. But his mother-in-law stayed there as well in the second bedroom, the kids all shared one bedroom up in the attic.

We learned that Paul Revere’s famous copper engraving of the Boston Massacre was actually made after Revere saw a similar drawing done by Henry Pelham. He sold more prints than Pelham, supposedly because one of his friends added color to his print. They were able to make lots of prints of the engraving, and he sold mass quantities very quickly. Pelham was upset and argued ‘copyright’ but at the time there were no copyright laws in place, so Revere was able to keep selling.

We visited the Haymarket Farmer's Market which is right in the center of the city. I thought that there would be some unique vendors, but it was all fruits and veggies. Yum :) I wish we had Farmer's Markets like that near our home.

We got to see the Boston Marathon Finish Line

And a make-shift memorial for the Boston Marathon Bombings :(

One of the most beautiful buildings that we visited was the Boston Public Library. One half of the library is very modern, the other half, is very old and has a very different look and feel. We visited the McKim building where murals and statues and paint filled the marble rooms and hallways. It was a sight to see. The library was founded in 1848 and was the first free municipal library in the United States.

The Chavannes Gallary - This is what you see as you walk up the grand stairway from one of the entrances to the library. The murals on each side of the staircase were painted by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, the murals depict the main disciplines of poetry, philosophy, and science and the center mural depicts "The Muses of Inspiration Hail the Spirit of Light."

This was just an old room that I really loved. It was very simple but you could tell its age. I loved how their were books perfectly aligned above desks on the floor and then a spiral staircase and a small aisle up above. The books look like they were rarely touched in this room and it reminded me of a library you would see in the movies.

Bates Hall - one of the most beautiful and majestic study rooms I have ever seen.

The Abbey Room - This room was covered beautiful gold accented murals titled, "Quest of the Holy Grail." You can't imagine how much it shimmered. It's called the Abbey room because the American Artist Edwin Austin Abbey is the one who painted the murals

There are 15 panels feature 150 life-sized figurines in the Abbey Room.

We visited the Trinity Church of Boston which felt like it was right in the heart of the city, but is actually located in the Back Bay of Boston in Copley Square right, near the Boston Public Library and the Boston Marathon Finish Line. I am confident that this church is known for its architectural beauty inside and out.

Boston's Back Bay was originally a mud flat, so this Trinity Church rests on approximately 4500 wooden piles, each driven through 30 feet of gravel fill, silt, clay and constantly wetted by the water table of the Back Bay, so they do not rot if exposed to air. (Thank you Wikipedia - seriously every tourists dream website.)

The church is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and was founded in 1733. When the original church building burned down in the Great Boston Fire of 1872 this building was built. It took 5 years, from 1872 to 1877 for it to be built.

The Boston Trinity Church is the only church in the United States and the only building in Boston that has been honored as one of the "Ten Most Significant Buildings in the United States" by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 1885, architects voted Trinity Church as the most important building in the U.S.

Inside the church there are many murals covering the walls. Artist John La Farge did the paintings and chose not to be paid but to only have his supplies covered. The murals cover 21,500 square feet of wall inside the church - that is A LOT of square feet!

If you are a film buff (like Mr. Michael Teagle) you would be interested to know that in "National Treasure" Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage)finds the grave of Charles Carroll of Carrollton inside this very church.

We visited the Boston Public Garden. It was referred to as "Boston's Central Park," comparing it to New York's Central Park; however, they are so very different, there wasn't much of a comparison. Boston Public Garden is very beautiful, and while much smaller than I imagined, it was a nice escape from the city and had a lagoon, swan boats, a beautiful bridge and some pretty flowers. It was a nice place to take a stroll.

A nesting swan that we saw down by the Boston Garden Lagoon:

The Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund sponsored a Memorial Day flag display on the Boston Common, with every flag planted representing each Massachusetts service member who lost their life in the line of duty.

There are 33,000 flags which represent the service men and women from Massachusetts who have died in service since World War I.

We visited Cheers! Yay! Some of my fondest memories growing up include watching Cheers with my dad while eating nachos J. It was fun to see the actual bar in real life. It was just like I remember, the outside at least. Against other people’s advice, who said NOT to go inside because it just ‘ruins’ it for you, I went inside. It didn’t ruin it for me – there was still a bar with tables, but it definitely doesn’t look like the Cheers set as seen in the TV show. Such a great tourist stop!!

We left the city and went to Harvard Square. We ate lunch there at a very yummy Spanish restaurant. We were so hungry that we didn't care much to stop and take pictures of all the buildings and statues that we saw. After lunch we kept walking around and I did stop to take just a couple of photos.

This is an Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard Square:

Another old building nearby on Harvard Square:

On our walk home from Harvard Square, the rain started coming down hard! So we ducked into a café for some hot chocolate. Mmmmm – not only very pretty but very delicious. Mike has some expensive taste in hot chocolate. He wanted to get it multiple times a day every day that we were out there.

The rain continued all through the night, so we decided to go on a double date with Kjersten and Jake to see Star Trek. Can you believe that Jake wanted to spend more time with us after touring with us for the whole day? The theater was pretty neat. It looked like an old opera house. Fancy ceilings, fancy balconies, multiple curtains that had to be opened to reveal the movie screen. It sure was something else.

Mike was so tired from the day of touring that he fell asleep waiting for the movie to start. I think this was the only time that Mike would ever fall asleep in a movie theater!