Bean Town

Yep, I’m visiting Beantown.

The City on the Hill.

The Athens of America.

Boston.

My hubby had a conference here these past few days. It’s a conference having to do with school finances and lots of talk about numbers. As a left-handed, right-brained English major, number talk kind of makes my eyes glaze over. I’ve tried very hard to be at the top of my chit-chat game, but it’s hard for me to enter the world of business and finance. Fortunately, I’m thoroughly content to explore on my own.

Mr. Green and Orange trolley has been my close friend these past few days. It’s your best bet for getting around historical Boston easily and cheaply. For about 35.00 you can get a two-day pass. This pass lets you get on and off the trolley at any of the fifteen stops around downtown Boston. Some of the stops include Fenway Park, (I’m not much of a baseball fan, but you can’t be in Boston right now and not be a Red Sox fan–at least if you value your life), The Boston Tea Party museum, Beacon Hill, and the historic North End. Boston Common is a great walk in the park–literally. It’s the oldest national park in the U.S. The land was purchased by the first settlers of the area to be used as a common pasture for their livestock. Eventually, Boston grew up around it, and it was turned into a city park. It is the setting for Robert McCloskey’s famous children book, Make Way for Ducklings, and bronze statues of the mama duck and her eight ducklings draw many children and picture-taking parents to the park. Also, I must mention that every trolley comes with an entertaining and fact-packed driver who narrates your ride. My personal favorite was “Cracker Jack” who not only knew “the real story,” but he was quick-witted and had fun with his passengers.

The Old State House just had it’s 300th birthday! It was from this balcony that the Declaration of Independence was read on July 18, 1776. No, not July 4th. Remember, the document was signed on July 4th in Philadelphia.  It took two weeks for the document to arrive in Boston. It was also directly below this balcony that the Boston Massacre took place. Not that I’m taking there side or anything, but the Bristish really get a bum rap for this incident where eight Bristish soldiers fired into a crowd of civilians, killing five. If you check out the whole story, the colonist were picking a fight, and there are various explanations as to why the soldiers fired. Anyway, Paul Revere published some nasty propaganda about the whole incident and things really started rolling toward a Revolution.

Speaking of Paul Revere, you can’t visit Boston without learning more than you’d ever want to know about the man. On a previous visit to Boston some years back, we visited the Old North Church and also his home. Both well worth your time! For trivia’s sake: did you know Paul was married twice and had a total of sixteen children? Did you know he was a health inspector for the city and also a dentist? Did you know he was imprisoned twice by the British? See, more than you wanted to know–just sayin’.

Boston has AMAZING architecture! I’m surprised I haven’t done a face plant yet. I want to just walk gazing upward, which is truly dangerous because the sidewalks are awful here. I believe there is a church on almost every block, and each one is gorgeous, intricate, awe-inspiring. Street upon street of brownstones makes me want to walk up, knock on a door,  and ask for a tour. We’ve been told they are incredibly expensive (millions of dollars), and most are divided up into condos.

Have I mentioned the shopping? Yeah, I look but don’t buy. Again, interesting stores where I probably couldn’t afford to buy a shoelace. I have found an Anthropologie and a Restoration Hardware. I might be able to buy something off their sale racks–maybe. And for all you coffee hounds out there, there’s a Starbucks on every block and a Dunkin’ Donut on every other block–not kidding!

Overall, I love Boston. People seem friendly and helpful, and we’ve felt very safe out on the streets in the evenings. Be ready to walk A LOT, but the drivers are quite ‘pedestrian aware’ and seem patient.

But, I think I’m ready to be back home on my little piece of Iowa farmland. As they say, it’s been nice to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here.