Our Last Day in Boston!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Hello!

Well, it looks like I was able to get my posting out, and even some of the photographs!  Things were going really well, and then – pop – photographs wouldn’t load.  I will be very happy to get to another hotel tomorrow, so that hopefully I can get the rest of the photographs posted, even if it is late!

Cool, fall weather was supposed to have moved into Boston last night, but I guess it must have gotten sidetracked!  Today was another lovely day in the high 70’s with a beautiful breeze most of the day.  There were sculls all up and down the river, as well as kayaks and canoes of all sorts.  Additionally, there is a pedestrian way on both sides of the river, so there were many, many people running, jogging, biking and walking; very fun.

View across the Charles!

I had two things that we wanted to do today -- #1 was laundry, so that we can go into NYC with all clean clothes, and the second was visit Harvard’s Semitic Museum which happens to be open on Sunday afternoons from 1 – 4 p.m.  So, I found a highly recommended (per Yelp!) self-service Laundromat just a couple of miles away.  I had stuffed the clothes into R’s backpack, and gathered up the Shout and dryer sheets, etc. when Robert says: “Don’t they have a facility here?” 

My Croque Monsieur

Robert's huge flatbread!

Well, I had looked through all the hotel information and under laundry, one was directed to the bag in the closet – you know, $10.00 per shirt; $3.00 per undies, etc.  Yeah, right…I’ve played that game once before in Turkey, and it was expensive!  So I suggested that he call downstairs and ask!  And he did!  And guess what?  They actually DO have a facility here, on the 3^rd floor!  So, down we went and there just stuck in a niche off the hallway were two washers and two dryers, bottom and top.  Success!  It took a bit longer than normal to run the clothes through the cycles, but as the Semitic Museum didn’t open until 1 p.m. that wasn’t a problem at all. 

So, instead of heading out via cab to the Laundromat, we were able to do it in comfort in our hotel, as well as enjoy a nice breakfast of Whole Foods Quiche Lorraine and O.J. – it is so nice having a fridge and microwave in the room, that’s for sure! 

Harvard Square!

One view of the campus

We finally left the hotel to make the 11:30 a.m. shuttle to Harvard Square, where I thought we could have lunch before the hitting the museum.  We were dropped off right in the middle of everything Harvard, and strolled down the street looking at menus.  Finally settled on Tory Row, a nice, informal place with tables both inside and out.  I ordered their Croque Monsieur (ham and cheese grilled on nice bread with mustard, as well as a green salad); it was excellent!  Robert ordered their flat-bread with artichokes, cheese, and scallions and it came out more than covering a plate!  As he said, it could have fed multiple people, but he enjoyed it (actually, only half; couldn’t eat the whole thing – R).

Me and the museum

An old friend ... but it's a cast!!

From Tory Row we then headed across Harvard Yard (and boy, I’m sure glad I didn’t have a kah to pahk in Hahvad Yahd, for sure! Attempt at a Harvard/Boston accent – or speech impediment, as you choose).  The Harvard campus is really lovely, and it was absolutely covered with kids and parents.  You could definitely tell those new students as the ones heading back from the local Target with their arms filled with bedding and other “necessities.” 

From the Israeli section

ALL casts from other places...disappointing!

I do love my Bruin cupcake!

We found the Museum a few minutes to one, and waited outside on the steps until we heard the door click to let us in.  Well…the first floor had a display about the Israelites and their housing units back in the Neolithic era.  It was interesting in its way.  Floor two was about the Egyptians; again, okay.  It was the third floor – the Mesopotamians and Cypriots on floor three that we were there to see.  So…honestly?  It was such a total disappointment.  The big things in the room – stele, etc. – were all COPIES of things we have already seen as originals – from the Louvre, the BM and the Berlin Museum!  And the copies weren’t even very good!  Then, in some of the display cases on the walls around the room rather than have real physical artifacts, they had photographs of ancient things – but just the photographs blown up to wall size!  There were several cases that did have some “real” artifacts, but they weren’t well descripted or displayed – a true let down!  And on that note, we decided to head back to the hotel and see what was happening in the world of Sunday afternoon football!

We had a bit of time to kill before the shuttle arrived, so R treated me to a red velvet Boston Bruin-decorated cupcake at Sweet, a local cupcake shop.  Now that was enjoyable!  We then sat on the grass at the corner and watched the traffic go by and listened to someone play the guitar and sing outside.  It was truly a beautiful day, and we very much enjoyed spending a part of it at Harvard Square.  Back to the hotel and I’m thinking we will probably not need to go out tonight, as we have to finish up all of our Whole Foods purchases…and of course there is Sunday football to watch!

We are off in the morning via Amtrak to Penn Station in NYC!  We will be spending the first three nights in Long Island City, and then moving into the Helmsley Park Plaza on Thursday for four nights.  Brenda and Chris Lowder will be joining us on Thursday for Brenda’s first trip to the Big Apple!  How fun!

m

xxx