Beantown - Day 2

Day 2: The started out quite well because Jenn and I slept in. It was deliciously wonderful after having spent the previous night trying to sleep sitting up. We had chosen this day to visit Cambridge, where Harvard University is located.

Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History. In a word--Awesome! There were so many things to see. Some of my favorites were the gemstones (there was an aquamarine carving the size of Zippo lighter of two polar bears swimming in the ocean-incredible!), cool murals from South America and stuffed animals, along with animal bones.

I didn't like the freaky stuffed monkeys (but then I don't like monkeys stuffed or alive) and the bizarro hair anklets from the South Pacific. Eew. And I don't love this picture because it looks like I have some sort of weird sideburn, but I wanted to remember the museum.
When we were finished at the museum, we just started walking across campus to see what we could see. We passed a table with a sign that said "Free Candy." Of course I was interested, so I stopped to check it out. It was for a study some students were doing. They would give you candy if you took part in a psychology study. There was a short wait, so I waited patiently to the side. Then one of the girls grabbed me and asked if I would be interested in participating in a different study. I agreed, and she took me into a nearby building to work with a girl with a laptop. The study itself was pretty boring (ask me for details the next time you see me if you're really curious), but the upside was that I made $2!! Not bad, eh? Who's the Harvard smarty-pants now?
After my successful money-making experience, we decided to have lunch, and then check out The Coop, which is supposed to be a famous Harvard bookstore. I thought it looked like a Barnes & Noble with maroon signage instead of green.

And then the rains came. And I mean they came hard. We ducked into a Body Shop to try to wait it out, but there was not stopping in sight. So, we trudged on. Our next stop was to be the Longfellow House, once owned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. You know, the poet. You know, "Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." Beautiful house, yes? It was very pretty on the inside as well.
For a small fee we got to take a guided tour, where we learned about Henry, his family and how to stay on the carpeted path. We also learned that George Washington lived in the house for about a year, and that was part of Henry's desire to live there. Also, we learned that Henry had over 10,000 books. Wow.

This is the room where Henry wrote. He had different statues and busts of authors around the room to help inspire him. The small one on the right is Goethe. That's where Henry would stand as he edited his work.
Another cool thing about the tour was that the guide would quote some of Longfellow's poetry as she showed us around. Other people may not think that's cool, but I sure did. With the tour wrapped up, we headed back over to Harvard campus to try to find the bookstore. On our way, we found the statue of John Harvard.
Apparently I was in a hurry to take this picture, and that's why it's so blurry(?). But here's a shot of the campus.
We found the library, but couldn't go inside because we didn't have Harvard IDs. Bummer. So, we kept looking for the bookstore. We were sent to the place pictured below.
Very quaint, has Harvard in its name, but not the school's official bookstore. We were totally mystified. Nobody could point us in the right direction. Do Harvard students not have to buy textbooks or college hoodies? Odd.

We took the train back to downtown and decided to have dinner in Chinatown. Now, I don't know if we went down the wrong streets or what, but I can't say that I was impressed with Chinatown. Or maybe it's because I was comparing it to the one in San Francisco. We chose a random restaurant and had average Chinese food.

A nice walk seemed appealing after dinner, especially since the rain had stopped. We went over to the Public Garden, which is next to Boston Commons, the country's first public park. Here's one of my favorite shots from the whole trip. Jenn is doing her best to be the fountain statue.
Also located in the Public Gardens are the famed Swan Boats (more on those later) and statues commemorating the ducks from "Make Way for Ducklings," a very cute children's book, one that I had read to me as a child. I found out later that this is the only statue commemorating a duck in the whole country. Can you believe that? To celebrate finding the ducks, Jenn and I did our best waddles alongside them. Possibly more on that later.
We walked across the street to Boston Commons after our time in the Public Garden. We saw a statue on top of a hill and figured it must be important, so we climbed up to see what it was. You can see how enthralled the gals were by it.
See how fascinating it is? I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it's for now. I think it had something to do with the Civil War.
We were feeling a bit feisty and celebratory still, so Jenn did some interpretive dance, which inspired me to bust out some New Kids moves, seeing that we were in their hometown.
On our way back to the hotel through the park, we came across the Frog Pond, which is not a natural pond, but a concrete-lined one that kids can splash around in. Here I am trying my best to be pensive with one of the pensive frog statues.
All in all, a very lovely day, even with the rain.

To be continued . . .