This morning we spent a few hours at the MFA, inspecting the permanent collection of contemporary art and photography, plus the feature exhibition, 'Mega-Cities Asia'. It was great. After that we walked along the pathway beside the Fenway to Back Bay and along the main shopping strip which is Newbury Street. The rows of six story townhouses throughout this area are awesome. We stopped for lunch at Sonsie's in the cafe area, and shared a 'white' pizza with duck bacon, dried cherries, spring onion and goats cheese. I had a lemongrass gimlet, and it was divine. Cocktails are so exxie in Australia that I never have them, so I've been enjoying having the occasional one while here.
We then visited a comic superstore for J, and thereafter navigated our way through the Boston Botanic Gardens which was alive with families, wedding parties and bursting with so much joie de vivre I felt like we could have been on the film set of the film 'Enchanted', especially with all those white swan driven gondolas they have floating around on the lake. It was the perfect temperature with a soft breeze, and the whole walk home from the MFA was just lovely.
Yesterday we took a fast ferry up to Salem, as a return day trip. It only took us 15 minutes to walk to the Wharf, and an hour on the ferry flew past, as the captain gave a great narration the whole way there. The weather was a clear calm 28 degrees with big blue sky above, and it was a pleasant day out. Salem is a sweet township, and we found two open gardens, as well as the main heritage house streets (Chestnut for upmarket and Essex for mainstream living) and really enjoyed the architecture. We had a relaxing lunch up on the verandah of a great seafood restaurant by the marina. It felt like a holiday, which after-all is what this is meant to be. After that we checked out the very old cemetery, and the main downtown mall and a few shops. L & J had to find the statue of actress Elizabeth Montgomery and pose with her. We're all great fans of the original Bewitched series. J also enjoyed the work of a giant bubble blower in the downtown mall. We did lots of little things in old Salem town.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed that the witchy stuff has been commercialised every which way, and is tacky tourism orientated, but overall that stuff doesn't taint the beauty of this coastal township. If I'd spent the time doing my research into exactly which museums to go to, we would have done better on some level, but if that was the case then we would have needed more time. We did visit one 'so called' Museum, but it was far too 'lowest common denominator' for us. I felt it had a place (in the 1970s). We've noticed this a couple of times here, where first in museums which were innovative in the 70s or 80s are now tired and dated, but no-one's managed to tell the management. It's a bit sad.
We'd booked to come back on the 4pm ferry, but would have needed to come home on the 7pm ferry if we'd wanted to see all the things we really should have seen. I kind of think we needed those extra 3 hours, but the fact is we were quite tired on the way home as it was. Of the sixty people on the ferry with us, I counted ten of them sound asleep on the journey back. All that walking in the sun... I felt like sleeping too, but don't like to do that in public, so I went out on the deck and got some major wind in my hair instead. Maybe the answer is to overnight in Salem.
This evening, our gal wanted a quiet night in, so as an absolute first, we agreed to pop out for an hour or two, while she sat at home in our condo, with the door locked. We went to a nearby foodie bar called 'The Merchant' and had two bevvies each and delicious appetizers: Mussels for L and Shrimps for Moi. It's nice to grab some grown-up time on occasion. Tonight's our last night in Boston, so it did merit a couple of cocktails. We do not get to go overseas often, but when we do, we believe we go to seriously great places, and we do treasure our time away: Quality, not quantity.
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