Beantown - Day 4

Day 4: Another great start with Dunkin' Donuts. Breakfast of champions, I tell you. Today was the day to fit in anything we didn't get to previously. And we were lucky enough to have clear, sunny skies.

Our first stop was the JFK Presidential Library, south of Boston. It's a huge white building right on the water, next to University of Massachusetts. Our tour guide's name, interestingly enough, was Caroline. The tour was very interesting for me since I don't feel like I know a lot about that time in history. The quote below is in the large atrium you enter at the end of the tour. The design was really cool because at the end of the tour is stuff about the assassination, obviously, and then you come out into this huge, bright atrium. So pretty. I'll put pictures of that in another post. I really like the idea he shares here, in that we may never see the whole effect of all the good we do, but we should do it anyway. From there we headed over to the Prudential Building. It is one of the taller buildings in Boston, and they have an observatory you can visit to get a bird's eye view of the city. I was glad we had such good weather. Plus, doing this on the last day, we got to see most of the sites we had already visited. The tall, mirrored building is the John Hancock building.
If you know where to look in this picture, you can see the State House in the distance, along with the old North Church. If you don't, then these are just random buildings.
When we were done with the Skywalk (as it's called), we split up. I wanted to go to H&M (love it!) since we don't have one close to Salt Lake. I was not disappointed. The shop in Boston is HUGE, and I bought a cute shirt and a new purse. Then we all met up again in the Public Gardens because the other three gals wanted to take a spin on the Swan Boats. These boats have been a Boston staple since the late 1800s. I stayed behind to enjoy the shade and snap a couple of pictures.
Jenn's looking back at the camera in this one. Ellen is too, but it's kind of hard to see her because of the kid on the last bench.
We all wanted to pick up some souvenirs and gifts before we left, so that meant another trip to Quincy Market. This picture is actually from the first day, but I just love it so much that I had to include it.

Near the market is a Holocaust Memorial. It's beautifully done and very moving. I apologize for not having any pictures of it, but I didn't feel like pulling out my camera. My advice is go to Boston and see it in person.

For dinner, we decided to visit the north end again, in hopes of having some more fabulous Italian food. We sure lucked out. Apparently there was some parade/festival thing being held to celebrate St. Joseph (yeah, I have no idea who he is either). Here is part of the parade.

We walked down the street looking at the booths that were out. At the very end was a stage with a man singing. We got all excited about the free entertainment until we realized the man couldn't sing. At all. My favorite overhead comment was from a lady standing near us who walked up and said, "What the hell is this?" We all had to suppress our laughter. He was pretty bad.

We had dinner in a place recommended to us by one of my dad's friends. Excellent choice. The food was fantastic, even if the service was a little slow. We laughed at the fact that our waiter couldn't believe we didn't want nice bottle of wine with dinner. Wrong crowd, pal.

After dinner, we stopped by Mike's Pastries, which is a well-known bakery. There was a huge line, but it was well worth the wait. We all got some sort of yumminess, like an eclair or cannoli. Delightful.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack and get ready to leave first thing in the morning. As we were waiting at the T station for the train, we were discussing politics. It came up that Al Franken is running for the senate in Minnesota. Kristin, who doesn't really know who Al is, said, completely straight-faced, "Well, is he good enough?" We were practically rolling on the ground with that one. Kristin had no idea what she had said until we calmed down enough to explain it.

All in all, one of the better trips I've been on. What I loved is that there was so much to do and see. I could go back and check out all the stuff I missed on this trip. I ate tons of good food, saw lots of cool stuff, and had a blast hanging out with my friends.

Good times.

The End.