After our awesome Halloween out trick-or-treating we didn’t have the best nights sleep due to noisy Halloween parties near our apartment. Some adults were obviously out much later than our young kids, or us tired adults, wanted to be!

We woke up to a cold start to November at zero degrees Celsius, the beautiful Autumn weather we experienced at the start of the trip was definitely now gone. After breakfast in the apartment we rugged up in coats and beanies and headed out for another day of exploring, ticking off a few places we hadn’t yet got to.

Fenway Park

Even most non-baseball fans have heard of the iconic Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, it was not baseball season, so we had no chance of catching a match while we were in Boston. We were, however, keen to have a bit of a look at the stadium. So, we caught the Red Line from Cambridge over to Park street and the Green Line to Kenmore, which only left us with a short walk to Fenway Park.

There are guided tours of the stadium available but we concluded they were rather pricey for a bunch of non-diehard baseball fans, and also not a at a convenient time that day. We instead decided to wander around ourselves, and have a look at the outside of the stadium and the (currently closed) bars, and souvenir shops.

On a future trip to the US we’ll definitely try and catch a baseball game. Anto had managed to see some while travelling for work on his many US trips, but it was definitely not the right time of year on this trip!

Checking out some Boston Sculptures…..

We had found quite a few cool sculptures around the waterfront, near the USS Constitution, on our visit there during the first couple of days of our trip. Boston definitely has some lovely street art. We all enjoyed these interesting sculptures outside Fenway Park. The head looks very interesting from lots of angles.

Coincidentally, next on our sightseeing itinerary for the day were some more sculptures at the Museum of Fine Arts. As we were walking in this direction we came across the World War II memorial in the Back Bay Fens parkland, not far from Fenway park. There was a large school group there but after they left we had a little look around.

The Fens parkland (a marshland that was landscaped into a park in 1879) had some very pretty waterways and lovely tree colour, even on a dreary day!

A short hop from the park and we were at the Museum of Fine Arts. We had no intention of going inside the museum today, but were keen to see the sculptures surrounding the museum. The trees lining the facade were certainly a picture of colour.

At the Fenway entrance of the Museum are two giant (3m high, 1.65 tonne) baby head sculptures entitled ‘Day and Night’. One is awake and one is asleep. They are by a Spanish realist Antonia Lopez Garcia and are modelled after his grandchildren.

We also loved the nearby sculptures of the archer and the deer.

As we wandered onwards, towards our next stop at the Mary Baker Eddy library, there were plenty of beautiful apartment buildings in the area to look at. Different areas of Boston and Cambridge had very different architecture.

Soren also found some geese in a park that he thought he should say hello to. The geese weren’t all that fussed by him but are definitely larger than the squirrels he had been fascinated with all trip.

The Mapparium

Our next stop was the Mary Baker Eddy Library, a research library and museum named after the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. The reason we’d come to look at this library was nothing to do with religion, the building is quite beautiful and it also houses the ‘Mapparium‘. A 3 story inverted glass globe made of 608 stained glass panels that you walk inside across a glass bridge, thereby allowing you to stand inside the world.

As we entered the Mary Baker Eddy library we found plenty of (overly) helpful staff. The building is rather beautiful and it was blissfully warm, compared to the outside freezing temperatures, so we had a wander around while we were waiting for our Mapparium tour to start.

You are allowed to take photos within the library but no photography is allowed inside the Mapparium. The library is free to visit and is home to many papers by Mary Baker Eddy but the majority of tourists visit for the Mapparium. You can only visit the Mapparium on a timed ticket, at a small cost of $6 per adult, children under 18 are free. As the exhibit isn’t large groups are taken through in small numbers, it was only the 6 of us on our ‘tour’. No photography is allowed inside the Mapparium, but here is what it looks like…..

As the globe is to scale and you walk inside, you can really see the distance between places without the usual distortion of a flat map. Being inside the spherical globe, looking out, the continents are less distorted by your perspective and the relative sizes of each continent and distances from the poles become more apparent. The really interesting thing about the Mapparium is that it was constructed in 1935 and the political boundaries of many countries (and names of countries) have changed many times since then. It was fascinating looking at the world in 1935 versus how it is now, and trying to figure out where the countries we know now, are. The Mapparium was definitely worth a visit and was very different to other things we’ve done.

It’s never too cold for icecream….

We had covered quite a bit of ground in our morning wanders, and it was still rather chilly, so we were all feeling a bit hungry, we headed to a nearby Tatte bakery. We’d heard from a few people this chain of bakery/cafes were good and they were certainly always busy. There was plenty of delicious food on offer and plenty of cakes but we all ordered something warm (and sensible).

The kids had scored vouchers for icecreams from our fire station visit during our Halloween trick-or-treat, the previous night. One of the stores was nearby so they convinced us that they needed ice-cream, despite it being freezing outside!

Downtown wanders.

Next we decided to pay the Prudential Towers a quick visit. This is the second tallest building in Boston, and can be seen from quite a distance away. There is an observation deck but we decided we weren’t that keen on paying to go up today and instead looked at giant puffer jackets and had a quick wander around.

We had been enjoying our walk around downtown Boston and the variety of buildings and streetscapes were quite varied.

Boston Public Library

Our next ‘interesting’ building to check out for the day was the Boston Public Library. The historic library is known for it’s grand Renaissance-style architecture and grand spaces. The building also has a mix of new and old spaces, providing interesting contrast.

The new parts of the library, including the kids area were amazing. Zinnia was rather annoyed we weren’t going to be in Boston long enough for her to borrow some books!

The Boston Public Library was the first large free municipal library in the United States and the first library to lend books, have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. The building also features in a number of well-known movies.

Bates Hall in the McKim Building is one of the most beautiful rooms and worth a visit to marvel at it’s beauty. We were trying to have squiz while not disturbing too many of those studying. It’s a well-known spot for tourists to visit, so we weren’t the only ones!

The Chavannes Gallery in the McKim building has beautiful murals and very fetching stone lions!

The contrast to the newer spaces is quite something!

We had quite a wander around the various buildings. Even the cafe is quirky and fun, although we didn’t have time to eat there. It was certainly busy!

The front of the library is also quite impressive, even the many pigeons added to the atmosphere.

From the South End to Boston Public Gardens

We continued our sight-seeing walk from the Boston Public Library through the South End and off towards Boston Public Gardens. Despite the maximum temperature being about 3 degrees it was a pleasant (if cold) day to wander around admiring the different buildings, and and there was still plenty of colour on the trees.

Boston Public Garden

The Boston Public Garden is adjacent to Boston Common, in the heart of Boston. While we had walked through the Common many times, we had so far only seen the Public Garden from our Duck Tour, right back at the start of our trip.

The park was the first public botanical garden in America and is 97 hectares (24 acres) and was opened in 1837.

We again found plenty of squirrels playing amongst the leaves. The kids had not yet got sick of seeing squirrels, a novelty for us Aussies!

The Public Garden contains a 16 hectare (4 acre) pond, with beautiful views to the city. During the warmer months there are swan boats you can take around the lake. The pond is a maximum of a metre deep and freezes in Winter, that can be skated on. Of course during our stay it was the annual maintenance of the pond, where it is drained and cleaned. This is far less picturesque!

The frog pond is where the iceskating rink is during Winter. It was also currently drained and being cleaned. Maybe one day we’ll return and see them with water, rather than mud!

As we’d already had a day filled with many sculptures, we continued the trend by checking out the famous ‘Make Way for Ducklings’ bronze statues which are near the pond and Charles and Beacon streets entrance to the Garden. These statues are from the story of the same name, written by Robert McCloskey about a pair of mallard ducks who raise their brood of ducklings on an island in the lagoon in the Boston Public Garden. There are statues of the mother duck and her 8 ducklings…..

It was now around 2.30pm and Soren and definitely not getting any warmer! We decided we’d had enough sight-seeing for the day and it was our last full day in Boston, so we were planning to do a little shopping. Soren was starting to feel rather tired again, still recovering from his cold. Mikl was in a similar boat so both opted to leave us and head back to the Cambridge apartment. Zinnia, Astrid, Anto and I decided we’d brave the shops.

Boston is rather famous for the number of Dunkin Donuts outlets it has. Dunkin Donuts was founded in Massachusetts, and it’s headquarters there. You can’t walk more than 100m without seeing a store. So far we hadn’t succumbed to the donut temptation, but today donuts were in order so the shopping party fueled up on some donut-based carbs and jumped back on some trains and headed out to Sommerville, just outside of Boston, to visit the Assembly Row outlet malls.

Shopping, and Boston food and beer….

Assembly Row had plenty of outlet shops and we managed to pick up a few bits and pieces for the kids. Astrid and Zinnia were keen on spending more time at the Lego store, but that definitely was not what we needed to take back to Australia! The giant lego giraffe was pretty cute though.

A couple of hundred metres from our apartment was a local Cambridge brewery called Lamplighter. Mikl and Anto had been keen to visit but we’d not made it there yet. Given it was our last evening in Boston, we let Mikl and Soren know when we were on the way back from our shopping trek and met them there for the adult males to try the beer and the kids to try some of their local non-alcoholic sodas.

Being our last night in Boston we then decided we’d eat out and wandered into Central Square to one of the places we’d been eyeing off with delicious smelling food. We ended up with huge serves of falafels and koftas and the cafe had pinball machines which the kids found fascinating and needed dragging away from.

Despite it being a cold day we’d had a great day of exploring. I headed back off to our apartment in the dark, checking out the many lights and the kids getting distracted by having to pat local dogs out for their evening walks!

Mikl and Anto then caught the train back into Boston to catch a Boston Celtics vs Indianna Pacers basketball game at TD stadium. We’d decided it was going to be the too late of a night for the kids on the day before we were flying out, so I was on kid and packing duty while the boys got to experience the basketball.

Waterfront walks in the (cold) sunshine

Thursday the 2nd of November was our final day in Boston. Despite the fact that we had no need to be up and about early, especially before a long couple of days of travel ahead, everyone was awake by 7.30am.

After an eclectic mix of random left-overs for breakfast, and trying to find everything we’d scattered all over the apartment for the past 9 days, we were packed and ready to head off from Cambridge for the last time. We didn’t need to be at the airport until after 3pm so figured we’d used the time to do some more wandering and eating.

Our usual walk into Central Square was a little slower than other days, dragging our suitcases, but before long we were heading on the Red Line for probably the last time and over the Longfellow Bridge. We’d booked day luggage storage near South Station so we could pick it up easily on the way back to the airport. It turned out to be a tiny snack store, that obviously had great side business of minding people’s luggage as the back room was chock full of bags. Luggage deposited and we were off for some exploring time, with slightly heavier day packs than normal due to extra valuables needing to stay on us, but significantly better than hauling around all the luggage.

Our first stop was the Boston Waterfront. We’d briefly wandered past this area when heading from the train to the church on the day of the wedding, but wanted to go back for a closer look.

The Boston Tea Party museum is down here as well as plenty of expensive looking boats. The sun was shining and it looked rather picturesque although it was rather cold. Apparently it was the coldest Boston morning since April that year. The locals were declaring Winter was on the way.

As Soren had observed on his first 2 hours in the US, at the San Francisco airport, there are always a lot of American flags everywhere. We did love this giant one though. Apparently you can’t have enough flags, or big enough flags!

Downtown Irish lunches….

We left the waterfront area and had a wander Downtown and back to Quincy Market to pick up some souvenirs. Astrid had debated long and hard about what she wanted to spend her hard earned pocket money on. Luckily the Boston Tshirts, hoodies and caps that were purchased by all the kids have been well-worn over the months since we got home.

We had enjoyed the food options at Quincy Market on our last visit, but it was even busier today, and there was definitely no chance of a seat. Not keen on sitting on concrete steps again, and faced with many hours ahead on planes, we decided we’d head to one of the nearby pubs to eat in comfort.

An Irish Pub was selected and Soren had his last clam chowder and the rest of us some form of fries and burgers. We had the most amusing attempt at trying to order lemon, lime and bitters for a drink. Apparently it’s not a thing in the US and in the end lemonade was as close as we got.

Boston Common and Beacon Hill

After finishing off our last non-aeroplane food for awhile, it was back out in the cold for a bit more wandering. We had pretty much ticked off the sight-seeing but had time to kill before the airport and didn’t want to spend it sitting in a terminal on such a nice day.

We walked over to Beacon Hill so that we could explore the neighbourhood a bit more on foot. There are some quite steep little streets in this area, hence the ‘hill’ part of the name. The houses are rather pretty and there were some amazing Halloween decorations.

The kids were not keen on walking up steep hills but the lure of decorations and some bribery lollies helped. Astrid found a really cool Harrry Potter themed street, complete with platform 9 3/4 and Hedwig decorations.

Boston and Cambridge certainly had neighbourhoods with amazing Halloween decorations. We’d enjoyed our walks around the streets discovering new ones over the course of our time here.

It was back down to Boston Common, which is adjacent to Beacon Hill. The kids had a last run in the park and found yet another squirrel to chase. Soon we’d be back home with magpies and sulphur crested cockatoos instead.

We bid farewell to Boston Common, the first place we visited in Boston and now the last. We’d walked a 7.5km loop for the day but it was now time to go and collect our bags and head to the airport.

Farewelling Boston….

It was now 2.30pm and we collected our luggage from the store near South Station and jumped on the Silver Line into the airport. Everything seemed much more familiar than when we’d done this in reverse on our arrival in Boston 9 days ago.

We were at the airport by 3pm, where we removed all the layers of coats and beanies, to stow them in the luggage. We were heading home via Fiji, so the cold weather gear was not going to be needed for the next couple of days.

We then got to experience the joy of TSA security again. We had a very slow progression through security but were amused by the security personnel yelling at the panicked passengers who were all worried about missing their flights leaving in the next half an hour. They were duly informed that you need at least 2 hours to clear TSA and there is no point in trying to queue jump the people who were there in plenty of time like us.

Eventually through security, and we agreed to one last Dunkin Donuts for the kids, and were boarding our Alaskan Air flight ready for the first leg Westward to San Francisco.

As we took off from Boston, a little after 5pm, the sun was setting on a beautiful day and great 9 days in Boston.

Up Next…

The last leg of our trip, heading home via some fun and sun in Fiji!