We are back from our long weekend in Boston visiting our son, Tucker, and his fiancee Liz. The weather was cold and rainy but we still enjoyed all our adventures. I took my brown warm winter coat which Tucker had advised and Rick wore his new raincoat. It rained all day Friday. We wondered around with out an umbrella.
We stayed at a Doubletree hotel very close to the Harvard campus where Tucker lives. We had a view of the Charles river and saw teams sculling all weekend. We were amazed at the number of boats since we never see this sport being practiced in Cville although they do practice on the reservoir. They were on the river about six in the morning until late at night. The best part of the hotel (besides the living room) was the shuttle service they provided to the city of Boston. We just had to tell the concierge we were going to take it; and when we were ready to return to the hotel call and tell them we were at the meeting place. It was free. The hotel was sandwiched in right beside a busy highway so it was dangerous when we walked any place. We walked over and back to Tucker's house several times we had to be very cautious since we had to cross several intersections. We were very careful. I guess this is part of living in a big city.
Our plane arrived in Boston at nine. We taxied to the hotel. We talked to the concierge who told us about the shuttle service. I wanted to walk around Beacon Hill which I had never done before, also see more of the downtown. We left the hotel about ten thirty. We were dropped off close to the state house and Beacon Hill. We just walked on the fringes of the Hill but did go inside the state house and saw the dome and also went into the house and senate chambers. In the house chambers a small group of members were just finishing the prayer and then we said the pledge of Allegiance with them. You could tell nothing was going to happen for a long time so we left. We walked more throughout the hall and found the senate chamber which was much smaller and we learned from a press person this room was under the original dome. The members there were also standing around waiting for something to happen. Rick was in touch with Tuck on his cell phone. He told us to be in front of 100 Summer Street at noon. We walked more and found a museum/art/library which we wondered into. We looked at the pictures some artist had taken of modern Boston and what was going on there. We saw they were going to have a recital at noon but we were too busy to come back. That was disappointing. We walked through the cemetery of Old North Church which houses the graves sights of Sam Adams and John Hancock and many more of the famous patriots. I was excited to see this. The tombstones were very old and black. The writing on them was worn thin so it was very difficult to read. Several school groups were walking around. The whole weekend we saw tourists, maybe we noticed them since we were tourists. We did not specifically walk the Freedom Trail but saw many of the sights that are part of this famous trail.
We found Winter Street which led through a mall to Summer Street. We knew Tucker would be in a sky scraper since he is on the thirteenth floor. We found 100; we were there early so we just wondered around the neighborhood and took in the sights and sounds of Boston. We saw several stands selling fruit and vegetables. Next Episode: Lunch with Tucker