Boston in the Fall

Melissa and I flew to Boston Thursday night so she could attend an informational session about the graduate program she is interested in at Harvard. We got in around 4 pm that night and were able to take the subway downtown and walk around Boston Commons a bit. It is a beautiful city. Lots of old buildings--it kind of has the feel of a European city.
We then asked someone in the park where we could find some good food and were sent down Charles Street. Melissa really wanted clam chowder, but the place we picked to eat was out of it. In spite of this set back, we did enjoyed a good meal and then headed back to our hotel.

The next morning it was raining, just like the weatherman had predicted. It wasn't too bad at first. We headed to Harvard and I walked around a bit while Melissa was in her meeting. Cambridge is a beautiful little city.By the time Melissa was finished, the rain had picked up.We went over to the main part of the campus and walked around the "yard" and the rain started getting heavier and wind started to pick up. We ducked into a building to try to figure out what we wanted to do. Originally we had planned to walk the entire Freedom trail and hit all the historical spots in Boston, but it was pretty clear that the rain was going to ruin that. So we decided to try to hit only our top sites instead.

I really wanted to see the old North Church and Melissa wanted to see where the Boston Massacre took place. So we looked took the subway over to the old city hall, which is right by the massacre site. By the time we got there it was pouring and so windy it kept turning my umbrella inside out. There is a station right next to the old city hall as well as a visitors information center. So we walked around and saw the outside of the city hall, and then ducked into the visitors center. There we dried off a little, Melissa posed these some cute photos, and we decided that we were just going to have to come back another time to see the sites.

One thing we were not going to miss out on was some Boston clam chowder. So we walked down the street to the Union Oyster House, a place that Jan Gamache had recommended when she heard we were going to Boston. It is the oldest restaurant in America and is really cool. And the food was outstanding! We enjoyed salad, clam chowder and Boston Creme Pie. Delicious!

When we were done eating, we walked back tot he train station and caught the train back to our hotel. We had checked out before we left for Harvard, so we retrieved our luggage from the desk clerk and changed out of our sopping wet clothes. Even our purses were drenched (mine took two days to dry out).

After changing, we hung out in the hotel lobby until it was time to go to the airport. We tried to catch an earlier flight than we had originally planned on, but apparently everyone wanted to leave early because the extra seats disappeared and we weren't able to get on. In addition to this set back, our original flight was delayed. So we had horrible weather and more time in Boston to see the inside of our hotel and the airport as we sat around waiting to go home. But were we going to let this get us down? No way! Instead we had another round of clam chowder at the airport. But I would rather have traded that extra bowl for some clear skies and being able to see some of the sites in Boston!

Oh well, if Melissa ends up going to Harvard we'll have an excuse to go back. She really liked what she heard in her meeting and plans to apply. Hopefully we'll be back in Boston later this fall--and we'll be able to pick up where we left off before the rains began.