Quick trip to Boston, MA

Pam and I headed to Boston to connect with Kirsten & Alan (Elmo) for some fun and relaxation.  We parked at Wellington Station and took the subway in to the Marriott Long Wharf.  K&A were waiting for us when we arrived around 10AM.

 

We checked in and decided to take an early afternoon “Boston Duck Tour”.   We had some time so walked by the harbor which was nice.  We walked back by way of the Rose Kennedy Greenway with many statues and art works along the way.

The Boston Duck Tour was fun.  We cruised through the Boston and over to Cambridge to enter the Charles River.  The tour guide was full of historic facts about the different buildings along the Charles.

The hotel had a very nice outdoor deck/landing just off the pool.  It had nice views of the harbor looking east toward Logan Airport.  For those of you that know me I had my camera and decided my mission would be to take some time laps photos.  Why I didn’t decide this before we left home was a mistake.  No Tripod … Because of this I would need some Tripod Creativity.

For dinner we decided Italian in the North End.  Kirsten likes Lasagna so that was a must on the menu.  We made a reservation at 6:30PM.  Several restaurants didn’t have openings until 8:30PM and even 9:30PM.  I have never been able to figure out how people can eat that late at night but that’s just me.

Returning from dinner we headed for the outdoor deck.  Looking toward the airport the planes were landing over the water.  No kidding … once I thought about what I wanted to do they shifted and started landing on a different runway. 

The rails were rounded over and the tables didn’t clear the top of the rails.  Tripod Creativity - I ended up leaning out to set my camera on top of the light fixtures hanging beyond the rails.  I was told several times not to drop my camera.  It wouldn’t survive a 4 story fall so I kept my lanyard around my wrist the whole time.

I took pictures from 1 to 15 seconds.  Increasing the exposure time increases the amount of light or brightness of the picture and shows object movement so experimenting was fun.  Here is a day picture and a night picture to compare.  The horizontal lines on the horizon of the night picture are planes descending into Logan airport.

Next we headed to Faneuil Hall and I took a couple pictures.  Tripod Creativity - used the side of a flower planter and a phone charger to point the lens to get the right angle.

There were several wedding parties and a reception at the hotel.  As I was looking down from the fourth floor to the first floor I took a couple pictures of the colorful panels near the escalators.  Also, there were orange colored ornamental lights hanging down from the high ceilings.  They were open at the bottom to project light down toward the escalators.  Still in my experimental mode I decided to take time lapse pictures (pointing my camera straight up) of those lights with different camera settings while going up and down the escalators.  Because I was moving it was tough trying to point and hold the camera straight up.  I did receive some rather perplexing looks while doing this.

Tripod Creativity - I used the hand rail of the moving escalator to try to hold the camera straight up pointing at the lights.  Note to Self … The inside hand rail of the escalator going down at the Marriott Long Wharf moves at a slower speed than the steps you are standing on?  I found that out in my experiment.  It’s something to watch out for next time you are in Boston!  hehe ...

  

Sunday morning up at 5:15AM and off to take more time lapse pictures.  Tripod Creativity - I used a table and my wallet to prop up my camera at the right angle.  At one point I set a chair in the middle of the road and set my camera on that.  Not much traffic that early in the morning.  The red streaks were from the side markers of 2 panel vans going past me when the shutter was open.

Boston is great and full of history.  I decided to think more historic so headed up the street to “The Old State House”.  This is one of the stops on Boston’s Freedom Trail.  The plaque on the building says:  “The Old State House, Boston’s oldest public building, was built in 1713 as the seat of British colonial government.  Here the Royal Governor and Massachusetts Assembly debated the Stamp Acts and the Writs of Assistance.  The Declaration of Independence was first read to the Bostonians from the east balcony on July 18, 1776.

The building served as the State House until 1798, and was also Boston’s City Hall from 1830 to 1841.”

My pictures show the east balcony where that took place.  The headlights and tail lights are from cars as they passed by me.  Tripod Creativity - My camera was resting on top of the corner garbage can lid while using my lens cover to get the right angle … really!

I headed back to catch the sun rise out of the east over the water and started to wake people after 7AM.

Once everyone was up and moving we found a place for breakfast and ended up at the Boston Common by the pond.  We enjoyed the rest of the morning, checked out around noon, and headed for home.

We had a great time and decided New York City may be next.  OH, next time tripod too …

Day trip to Boston, MA

We headed in to Boston for the day.  We parked at Alewife T station and took the Red Line to Park Street.  Had a a great time walking around.  We walked across the Boston Common to Acorn Street (oldest street in Boston).  Stopped at a couple shops on Charles Street.  We headed down Commonwealth Ave. ( a beautiful walk) toward Devonshire Street.    We then cut over to Copley Place and into the Mall.  Trinity Church was open so we went inside.  What a beautiful church, inside and out ...  

We ate a late lunch in Faneuil Hall at Hard Rock Cafe which we enjoyed last year.  Dessert was reserved for  Mike's Pastry in the North End.  We looped around to look at the Old North Church.  We wanted to go inside but they had closed early. 

Fat squirrel's that were very friendly.  It was quite obvious they have been had fed by and not the least bit scared of people.  Reach down and act like you have food and they come right up to you.  This one looks to be shaking hands with Kevin as it grabs Kevin's glove. 

Megan met up with her old flame she sees once a year ... hehe. 

As it got dark we enjoyed the Christmas lights and the tree lit up in Faneuil Hall.  We jumped on the subway at Park street and headed for home.  A great family time for us. 

To Boston we will go ...

We made a plan to go into Boston on Saturday, 12/19. Megan and Katelyn arranged their work schedules.

There was a big Nor'easter heading up the coast dumping lots of snow. It was supposed to start snowing in Boston on Saturday night. I decided to park at Malden Center just north of Boston and take the subway. I didn't want to be stuck in downtown traffic if the snow started. It was pretty cold and very windy.

I had no experience with the Charlie Card here in Boston so I must have looked like a tourist. There were 7 of us so I bought 14 tickets on the card. It worked well. We took to Orange line to the Red line and got off at Copley Square.

I used to work in Copley Square so it was like old home week for me. The John Hancock building and observatory was closed. We decided to go to the Prudential Observatory and headed that direction.

We arrived and the Prudential observatory was also closed to the public as someone rented to observatory for the day. We went to the "Top of the Hub" restaurant on the 52nd floor and looked around from there.

Next we headed to Newbury Street and walked toward the Boston Common. Stopped at Starbucks for coffee and hot chocolate.


The pond at the common was frozen and had people walking and skating on it. The ice didn't look that thick to me but people seemed to fine with it. Katelyn and Kevin walked and slid on the ice to the bridge.


We continued on our walk to Faneuil Hall. When we arrived there were street dancers performing. They picked Katelyn from the crowd along with 2 others to be part of a trick. One of the people ended up jumping over the three of them.

We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. We figured the weekend before Christmas would be packed. The blizzard warnings definitely kept people out of the city so there was no waiting.

Dessert at Mikes Pastry was amazing. Megan posed with 2 friends along the way.

We returned to Medford and headed home just before the snow. Boston received 9 inches from the blizzard.

We had a blast and will add this as an annual family event.