Four Days in Boston on a Budget | First Whale Watch
I took a day off for my birthday and spent four days in Boston.
Day one
Six hours on the bus from New York. I arrived starving in the evening. Chinatown was right there, so I ate Chinese food and walked around.
Day two
In the morning, the Public Garden — like a park at home, shade, boats on the lake, pretty. Under the trees some brown lumps on the ground. I said they were ducks. A friend said roots. Close up, they were ducks, asleep.
Then Boston Common. From the little hill a spread of grass, the skyline at the end. We finally found the start of the Freedom Trail. A man in period dress walked up and shouted “Tour start,” and I jumped.
The Freedom Trail is a red brick line past old buildings. Some need tickets, so we stayed outside; that was fine. Jugglers at Quincy Market. At noon we walked to the North End for Italian food.
Afternoon: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts. Average, I thought.
At dusk, Revere Beach — a bit dirty, seaweed and shells. Then the backward clock. I stared and still could not see why it was backward. It ran clockwise. Strange.
Day three
Harvard in the morning. A line of people waiting to rub John Harvard’s foot was a bit much, but red brick, grass, blue sky — handsome. The art museum was all right.
Then MIT. The buildings have a weird postmodern beauty. The Great Dome feels like Columbia’s. Across it, the Charles; we walked the river.
Boston Public Library: I was surprised how many Chinese books they hold. If you are not in a hurry you could sit all day. The old building’s gold hall is lovely. Trinity Church and Old South Church are next door.
Day four
Whale watching in the morning. More than an hour out. At first it was dull. Then I wandered to the bow, and standing there was wonderful — the whole body going up and down with the swell. We saw six humpbacks, close along the hull, tails slapping, the boat heaving as if it might go over.
Afternoon, the tea room by the Boston Tea Party museum. No ticket. From the second floor you watch people throw tea chests off a ship. Funny. Then the harbor, which photographs better than I expected. A bonus.
There is not that much to “do.” After a long time in New York, it is another city’s life, that is all.