first day in New England

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My first chapter of New England adventure started in Boston, Massachusetts. The city I had heard about for a long time but never had a chance to experience it myself. Well, I can't complain this time. I had 3 full days in Boston and I had to make the most out of this opportunity. Why 3 days? because Doug had a conference here. So now you can probably guess that I was exploring Boston alone but that's okay. Solo or duo, I was ready.

First off I had to say that we were lucky. Our hotel was right in the middle of Boston making it so convenient to get to places. It was chosen according to the conference location. I had many choices for transportation: bus, subway, and taxi. Well, those were not what I chose. I chose to travel with Old Town Trolley Tours. It has 17 stops taking me to Boston attractions or close to them, introducing me to different neighborhoods, and giving me some history info of the places and people. With a city pass, I not only got a discount on the ticket but also got the second ticket to use next time for free. So city pass is a great saving if you plan to visit places they have in their packet.

The trolley took me from Boston side to Cambridge side where MIT and Harvard are also sharing the same neighborhood. After that we returned to Boston side starting with Beacon Hills, the most expensive neighborhood, riding through antique shop hub.

My first stop today was "New England Aquarium". It sits right on the harbor to the east. When I got closer to the entrance, my eyes were immediately drawn to something just right before the entrance, seals!. Reasonable-sized tank filled with blue water and huge-sized seals swirling to the left and to the right, diving up and down. They looked like a torpedo coming towards me, fast but calm and just when I was afraid they were going to run into the tank wall they somersaulted and disappeared from my sight in a second. I kept staring at them for a long time and then I remembered I had not entered the aquarium yet. Let's go. First sight after getting through the entrance is not less impressive than the outside, Penguins. Lots of penguins swimming, climbing, cuddling, or just standing still. There were 3 types of penguin in the exhibit: African penguin, Rockhopper penguin, and Blue penguin(not shown in my album). These guys got my feet trapped pretty long too. They were so playful and cute. The rest of the aquarium is not something I'd call impressive but okay. The maintenance and appearance of the aquarium could have been better.

My next stop was museum of science, instead of taking the trolley to the stop near the museum I chose to walk and looking back that was a wrong idea. Anyway, I got to see "Little Italy" where large Italian immigrants still congregate. There are annual celebrations and activities going on every year. It's a mixture of somewhat upscale restaurants to very casual diners to mom and pup shops selling souvenir and necessity. I also found a fairly cheap laundry service here.

When I got to the museum, my back was soaked with sweat and my feet started to give up. So I rested my feet while filling my stomach with some fresh fruits sold in the museum cafe. In front of the museum, the Duck Tours tourists lined up waiting for their turn to ride on this truck/boat machine because it has wheels and it floats on the water. I'm not a fan of this type of tour so I skipped it.

I hopped on the trolley again, this time my destination was Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown. It's a mixture of touristy stuff and local's hangout place. Shops, food courts, and restaurants are on both sides of the stoned street.

My last destination was Back Bay area. Back about a century ago it was just a stinky big swamp before the community filled it with soil to stop the polluted air. Today it's home to many upscale shops, skyscrapers, businesses, and Bostonians.

see you tomorrow!

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Photos

Fenway Park
A baseball stadium. Massachusetts's team is Red Sox.

Skyline
looking ahead you'll see a bridge in the distance. On the left side is where Cambridge, MIT, and Harvard located and on the right side is Boston.

Skyline
On my way back to Boston side which is what you see here.

Seal
A seal tank is a free display to the public. you'll see how in the next picture.

Seal Tank
Because it sits right outside at the entrance to the aquarium. so cool!

African Penguins
i think they're exercising.

African Penguin
Hellooooo

Rockhopper Penguin
standing still like this for a longgggg time.

Pretty Alley
kept nice and clean

blessed
i guess this may be a church. love the colorfulness of the signs.

Zakim/Bunker Hill Bridge
the poles you see on the back is part of the bridge. It's claimed the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

lonely planet
look carefully beyond the ad sign. it's just a stand alone building on the block. the big building behind it belongs to the next block.

Quack Quack-Gaab Gaab
Boston Duck Tours lining up in front of the museum of science. It was quite popular among tourists.

what building is this?
see the entrance to the right, yep you go through that door and you'll be in a subway station, Old State House station.

Photo 7
Love architecture in Boston, classy and elegant.

Faneuil Hall Marketplace
A post office in Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

A magic clown
he's actually a balloon guy also, making balloons into all kinds of shapes for kids.