Day 7 - Wrapping it Up

There really is a lot to see and do in Boston and I felt it was my duty to crack the whip as uninformed tour guide du jour to get in as many of the sights as possible. So our last full day in the city and we were off to the Museum of Fine Arts. So much to see, so difficult to express. Don't get me wrong, I like museums and seeing things collected from all over the world representing many facets of history and art. It's just not easy to blog about. Here was my favorite bit:

Madame Monet in a Japanese Costume, 1875
However, I also liked seeing the works of Gaugin, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and many others. It was astounding to me how close I could get to the paintings, looking at the layers of brushstrokes and blending of oil paints. I thought the Egyptian mummies and artifacts were fascinating. Again, it's just hard to blog about a trip to the museum. I guess it's because it's too personal to me.

Anyway, after a few hours there, we jumped on the T (public transport) and headed over towards the Prudential Center. We grabbed a little yum-yum (coffee, pastries, etc.) to keep us sated until lunch and tried to get up to the Skywalk Observatory on the 52nd floor. When we finally got up there, we could tell that the weather was not going to cooperate. There were two many clouds obstructing the view of the city below to warrant us paying the money to look out of the windows...so we passed. We hopped on the tube again and headed towards Faneuil Hall Market Place.



Here's a shot of Craig with the statue of Samuel Adams. I think he brews beer or something. Er, Sam Adams, not Craig.

I have to admit, after wandering around there for a while I was pretty disappointed. The guide books said it was a must-see, but I really couldn't be bothered. It was a bunch of kiosks selling the same touristy stuff...and not quite the marketplace I had envisioned or hoped for so we moved on.

Around the corner is the Old State House, site of the "Boston Massacre".
From here, we thought we might follow the Freedom Trail for a bit. We saw a plethora of things, some related and some not so much. I tried to get a good shot of some of the Boston skyline
but these pesky tourists kept jumping into the shot.

We passed some neat little cafés like this along the way. There was so much to see that I was found myself getting a little camera-happy. I give you Exhibits A, B and C:

But we finally made it over to Paul Revere's House.

From there we found the Old North Church where the lanterns were supposed to show one if by land, or two if by sea. All we saw was Paul Revere on his horse legging it outta there.
So once inside we saw the enclosed pews
Some of which had interesting history attached.
While others, notsomuch.


We decided to have dinner in what appeared to be "Little Italy" with all the Italian restaurants lining the streets. The portions were gigantic and if we had eaten there the first night in town, we would have been set for every meal thereafter!

After such a busy day, we went back to the hotel to pack and catch some zzzz's before our early morning flight home. Even though it had been so rainy while we were in New England, I'm not sure I was ready for the scorching Texas summer ahead of us!