Day 8
We slept really well in our super king size bed again. After breakfast we made our way into Boston using the 'T'. We evidently came out of a different exit at State Street Station but eventually found our way to Faneuil Hall. This had various stalls selling souvenirs, coffee and sweets. I bought a new purse at a Leather Goods stall and thanks to Steve's willingness to barter I got it for $30 rather than $39.99! Upstairs there is a large hall which is used for ceremonial events but we decided not to go up and made our way across to Quincy Market. Wow! There had to be every type of cuisine under the sun on offer here. Never seen anything like it before. If you were so minded and had the stomach for it, it would be very easy to spend the whole day eating and drinking! Being still rather full from our breakfast we opted for a Raspberry and Mango smoothie for Steve and a Cranberry Orange cooler (cranberry juice, orange juice, lemon sorbet and soda water) for me and went to sit outside to drink them.
Spotting a Harley Davidson store, we went in to get a T-shirt for Chris. I'm not sure if he still holds ambitions to ride a Harley but he'll like the T-shirt! Moving further round the market area we came across a very young pianist and stopped a while to listen. Just 11 years old, Bradley Bartlett-Roche was very accomplished on the piano - not quite so good at singing and attempting Great Balls of Fire was probably a bit too big of a song for him at present. He has plenty of time to improve on that score though. Steve went to wander some more around the market while I stayed put to rest my feet and listen some more. After a short break Bradley returned to his piano stool, laid on his back with his head under the keyboard, crossed his arms and started playing upside-down! Most impressive! Having heard his short set three times by now we moved on to the harbour area and decided to go on the Historic Harbour Cruise rather than visit the Aquarium.
I remembered a little of the history of the Boston Tea Party from school days but it was good to be reminded of the role of the British government of the time in the events that unfolded around the massacre and the dumping of the tea into the harbour. Apparently it took 6 months for the sea and the fish stocks to recover from so much tea! Our guide kept up an excellent narration about the development of the harbour, buildings and islands that we saw on the cruise which lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. Long Wharf, where the cruise started from, used to be 2000m long but the infill to extend the harbour area means it is now about 1/4 that length. There is a clock tower near Boston harbour which is known as the four-faced liar because none of the four clocks ever tells the right time! Apparently the wind particularly affects the minute hand, so even if the hour is right, each clock will give a different time. One of the islands near the harbour is known as Spectacle island because, from the air, it looks like a pair of specs. It is the only one to have grown in height as it was used for landfill - at one time it got so bad that much of the "trash" was blowing into the harbour. Now it has been landscaped and looks very attractive and green with a stone wall surround.
After returning to the harbour, we wandered back to Quincy Market to find somewhere to eat before going back to the hotel. So many places to choose from!! But we settled on the Anthem Kitchen and Bar where Steve started with some clam chowder, I had a taste and it was very tasty indeed. Afterwards, we both had an All American Burger with fries, which included bacon and cheese. Also very tasty but once again too much to finish, for me at least.
On the way to the station we stopped to watch some street dancers who were doing some pretty amazing moves requiring great strength and agility. They also lined up five people from the audience and, after much banter to get the crowd going and persuade us to part with a few dollars, two of the guys did an acrobatic leap over the five volunteers. Suitably impressed we made our way back to the hotel. It didn't seem like we had done that much today, but it had been fairly hot (in the high 80s) and we were both rather tired.
Tomorrow we travel to Niagara on the Lake for the third and final part of our holiday.
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