Beantown Retreat

Following the quick trip to NYC we spent four days in Boston - a place we have not been for twenty years. How is that even possible that someone who lived so long on the east coast never went to such a great city?

We stayed at the Marriott Custom House, a beautiful old building in downtown Boston, right by the harbor. There are actually peregrine falcons that live at the top of the tower which we really wanted to see but since it is not nesting season they were rarely there.


That's the Custom House, the building with the pointy tower right in the middle and the falcons' nest is in the topmost window. The guest rooms are all in the tower and have wonderful views.

One of our favorite places was North Boston which is Little Italy where there are great restaurants, naturally, and bakeries and grocery stores that sell the same stuff you can buy in Italy. We did run into a hard rain storm while there and since Dan had not brought along his cap or raincoat he ran into a store and came out with this:

Yes, I walked around with a man wearing that hat.

Some of our favorite places:



Yep, that's a "Don't Tread On Me" flag on the right!

Mike's Pastry in Little Italy. You have to love a bakery with a picture of the Virgin Mary over the counter. The chocolate chip canolis are supposedly to die for. I wouldn't know because I was traveling with Dan.


The swan lake in Boston Common. That is a little boat in the distance which is propelled by. . .

the guy in the back sitting behind the swan. I have no idea how he is able to do that but since there are several of these boats on the lake apparently it works quite well!

Close by the swan lake is a special statue done in the 80s memorializing "Make Way For Ducklings:"
Boston Public Library is an amazing place:

Look closely and you can just make out Dan getting ready to pull a Mussolini pose. Who would not want to study here?

And, of course, no trip to Boston in the summer would be complete without a visit to the Mecca of all baseball:



Oh, and some of us have better "cap-fashion sense" than others:


What a great place, beauty and seemingly endless history.


The last day we were there I sat on a bench in The Common and enjoyed this view:

I looked down and this little brass plaque was set into the cement the bench was on:

You have to love a city like this!