Canada/NE - Day 39

Heading home. The uber (my first one!) picked us up for an early start at 5:30am to go to Logan Airport Boston to FLT to LAX with American Airlines. 

Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Lit up for the morning. 

Made it to LAX and we are recovering for the afternoon at the Marriott Courtyard LAX until our plane is ready this evening for our departure to Sydney.

We didn’t have much rain while we were away but we left Boston just in time because this afternoon (a few hours after we left) they had wind gusts which peaked at 90km/h with rainfall totals about 35mm. 

Canada/NE - Boston - Day 38

Harvard University Arboritum, Boston. 

Easy trip. Take the T (Boston Metro) From the Prudential station (2 mins walk from our appt) to the first orange line station. Change lines and head to the Arboritum. 

Unfortunately the orange line is being repaired today so we have to catch a bus replacement at Backbay bus station (10 mins walk). Found it and the shuttle was free!

The road near one of the entries - only for people and bicycles. 

Red Maple - Acer rubrum ‘Schlesingeri’

Common smoketree - Cotinus coggygria ‘Daydream’.

Acer x freemanii

A different Adarondack chair. 

Bonsai started in 1737. 288 years old. Hinold Cypress - Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Chabo-Hiba’ 

One of the roads.

Dawn redwood -  Metasequoia glyptostroboides.

Luke’s Lobster for dinner. 

Canada/NE - NH - Day 37

Trip into New Hampshire from Boston for some last minute leaf peeping (that’s what they call it here) along the Kancamagus Highway through the White Mountain National Forest. 

Saco River covered bridge. 1890. 

Two-span, Paddleford truss bridge.

   East branch of Pemigewasset River at Lincoln woods trail head. 

The moon above the Pemigewasset River. 

Sabbaday Brook Falls Trail. 

Sabbaday Brook Falls. 

Sabbaday Brook Falls Trail. 

Sabbaday Brook Lower Falls.

Sabbaday Brook Falls Trail. 

Swift River. 

Swift River. 

Conway Scenic Railway at Hart’s Bridge. 

Conway Scenic Railway at Hart’s Bridge. 

Willey Pond. 

Willey Pond at Dickerman’s dam on the Saco River. Wouldn’t this be lovely view if the wind hadn’t blown off all the leaves 3 days ago and again yesterday.

Fountain at the Christian Science Plaza. 

Dinner at Pho Basil Vietnamese. Very popular and deservedly so. 

Canada/NE - Boston - Day 36

Got a taxi driver from hell from the ship to the apartment today. I don’t know what it is about taxi driver but they just don’t like us…or maybe it’s me. He almost had a stand up fight with another taxi driver. The supervisor had to calm him down. 

Max 13*C here today and windy. We walked everywhere in down parkers and we weren’t hot. 24,000 steps. 

Police here in Boston wear beanies! Ronnie wouldn’t let me take a photo because he had a gun…

In Back Bay where we are staying they have converted roads into a green way for people to walk and to have garden areas and dog playgrounds. 

SW Corridor path on the way to The Boston Common. 

Trinity Church.

Trinity Church front entrance.

Trinity Church reflected in a nearby glass skyscraper. This is one of the nice things about Boston - a mixture of old and new that I think works. 

The Parkman Bandstand 1912 on Boston Common. They had cows on the common for 200 years but they were removed in 1830.

The Boston Public Garden.

Boston Public Garden. 

We went on a HUB tour of the Freedom Trail with 12 others for 2+hrs. Zoe was an ex economics history professor so she was a good guide.

The founders memorial 1760.

We started the Freedom walk from here. 

Boston is where events that emancipated the settlers from the oppressive reign of Britain occurred. But the founding fathers all had black slaves and there wasn’t much talk at the time of emancipating them. 

The British told the First Nations people the could have the land west of the Appalachian Mountain range but the Settlers wanted it all.

In 1780 Boston was free from British rule and in 1783 slavery was abolished in Massachusetts.

Boston Common skating rink - no ice until winter.

Boston State House built in 1798 the first built in the US not a symbol of British occupation. The original roof was timber shingles, then copper then in 1874 it was made of gold. 

Boston State House. 

Granary Burial Ground 1660.

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Paul Revere’s gravestone. Born in 1735 and died in 1818 at the age of 83. 

Paul Revere’s original gravestone.

 

King’s Chapel 1754. 

Memorial sculpture beside King’s Chapel called “Unbound” honouring 219 children, women and men (that can be traced) who were enslaved by past ministers and members of the King’s Chapel.

The original building that housed Boston Latin School. Founded in 1635. The first school in the US offering free education to boys only until it became co-ed in 1972. It still exists in different location and still requires Latin to be studied for 4 years. It was the City Hall after the school moved but now it is a steakhouse.

The old State house built in 1723 the lion (England) and unicorn (Scotland) on the top were signs of British colonial authority. The Boston massacre occurred in the street here in 1770. 

Paul Revere moved into this house in 1770. It was built in 1680 and miraculously survived the 1711 and 1760 fires and is the oldest timber house in Boston.

A statue of Paul Revere on a horse. In Boston Revere learnt that British troops were planning to move by sea to Cambridge and then march to Lexington and Concord.

He rode through the night warning patriots in Lexington and Concord of the impending attack. 

The signal lights in the Old North Church warned that the British were coming by sea. Ronnie was looking for the lights.

View towards Cambridge. 

This bronze sculpture “Make Way for Ducklings” in the Boston Public Gardens is a tribute to Robert McCloskey’s 1941 classic, award winning book about a mother duck and her 8 ducklings who made their way through the Boston Streets to the Public Gardens. 

Two Squirrels on Boston Common.

Two Squirrels on Boston Public Gardens.

Canada geese in the Boston Public Garden frog pond. 

Quincy Markets 1824. A variety of food and souvenir shops.

This is the apartment where we are staying. Copley House.