Boston is quiet. After spending months in New York surrounded by millions of people packed on streets that never stop moving and in shops that always stay open, any place that operates during normal hours seems abnormally slow.
I picked a street to follow not far from the South Terminal, where our bus let us off. I didn’t run into a single person for at least two blocks. I thought the city was closed for Labor Day weekend and I wasn’t informed. Finally, in the distance, I heard what I thought sounded like quacking, and seconds later a tour bus shaped like a row boat rolled down the street. I was no longer alone.
Eventually I wandered to the Quincy Market and I soon discovered that’s where Boston keeps all the tourists. It was packed! But more importantly, they served clam chowder. It was the hottest day of the year today. Hell yes I ordered soup for lunch. It tasted like vacation.
The history of Boston is so vivid and so specific. Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Nathaniel Hawthorne are the favored history heroes of the city. They had homes there, stirred uprisings there. Boston Tea Party? Revolutionary War? Yeah, they did that (except for Hawthorne of course. He just wrote a book about red letters). Boston is pure historical paradise.
I got to run into my lovely friend on this trip as well, which just added to the greatness of this whole day. We ate lobster rolls and white fish at the Green Dragon Tavern where some of our Bostonian heroes (see above) planned out there whole revolution against the British. We sat by the window, probably in the same place where Adams sat. He seems like he would have liked sitting by the window while talking about war.
I left Boston renewed and ready. I brought my big camera along on the journey and took a few portraits of my friend, which I will share soon. Until then, here are some iPhone pictures of the aforementioned locations. Wicked cool, Boston.
