A Day Out in Boston

Last week was Maura’s February vacation from school. She had the whole week off with little to do but watch TV and play with her friend Dominic who lives across the street. For the most part that was enough for her. Though she generally enjoys school she also enjoys her time off from it. By Friday, however, we were both ready to do something different and with cash in hand from our weekly trip to the ATM we headed to Quincy Adams Station and from there to Boston by T-train.

Other than to spend it in the city we had no very definite plans for the day and that worked out just fine. I knew I wanted to keep the cost down if I could but we started with a bit of shopping. We got off T at Arlington Station and strolled through the Back Bay. The weather was very fine for February, breezy but not cold. We walked down Newbury Street and back through the Prudential Center and Copley Place, stopping for lunch on the way. While we ate we sat in the window and watched people on the street. In the Prudential Center Maura bought a pretty rhinestone barrette from a very helpful sales clerk. It helped to tame her unbrushed hair blown wild by the wind as we crossed through the plaza at the Christian Science Center.

After shopping we went back outside at Copley Square and it was time for culture. We visited the Boston Public Library, taking in the current exhibitions which were interesting and free. Maura wasn’t as excited as I was by the Edgar Allen Poe exhibit discussing the troubled relationship he had with his birthplace but the exhibition of street photographs by Jules Aarons. Mostly taken in the North End and West End of Boston during the 1950s and 1960s they fascinated both of us.

From the library we headed up Boylston Street to the Public Garden. Walking through the Garden we stopped to take in the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture and then walked across the Common to the Massachusetts Statehouse, where we joined a free tour to learn more about the history of the building and of the Commonwealth. We joined the tour late so I never caught our tour guide’s name but he was very knowledgeable and friendly and the tour was excellent. We saw the chambers for the state House of Representatives and Senate and the public rooms of the Statehouse where Massachusetts receives visitors and honors heroes. Maura had been to the Statehouse before but it was the first time she had taken the tour and she enjoyed it as much as I did, asking questions and looking at everything there was to see.

We’d already had a full day but it wasn’t over. After the Statehouse we made our way to the building where Jennifer works and met her for dinner and an evening trip to the Science Museum. Dinner was at one of my old favorites, Durgin Park. The food is traditional New England cooking, the service is always friendly and the atmosphere hasn’t changed much since the 19th century when the place served the workers in the city’s main market. Jennifer and I had corned beef and Maura had fish. No one was disappointed.

At the Science Museum we went to the new Identity exhibition. It explores the different aspects of human identity—physical, mental and social. Most of the displays are interactive, allowing the visitors to explore their own identities as well as the question of identity in the abstract. Some of the exhibits were also research studies themselves. I was glad to participate in them while Maura played a game that explored how identity changes when we interact with others.

After an hour or so at the museum we were all worn out. I’d been on my feet too long and had done in my knees so it was painful to walk down stairs and Maura was showing the signs of being tired. We were all happy to be heading home thoroughly satisfied by our day out.