Day 2 - Boston, Mass

We had a late arrival into Boston at about 11 a.m. Several of us had met for breakfast at the Horizon Court earlier in that morning, but it was a lazy start to the day.

Boston was cool, cloudy and threatening rain the entire time we there.  A half-dozen of us took the ship's shuttle from the port to the downtown area.

We were dropped off near Quincy Market and I split off from the group as I wanted to wander at my own pace.  Across from the market is Faneuil Hall.  The hall was opened in 1742 as a market place.  The space was soon not sufficient to meet the needs of residents and longshoremen, and Quincy Hall was opened in 1826.

I was most impressed with Faneuil Hall.  The first floor holds numerous vendors, the second floor is the Grand Hall, and the 4th floor holds a museum to military history.  I wasn't able to visit the Grand Hall as a Boston council meeting was underway, no idea what was on third floor - I assume offices, and the 4th floor was very interesting.  I took no photos but my favorite by far was the picture of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

From Faneuil Hall, I walked part of the Freedom Trail.

Old State House was built in 1713 and is the oldest surviving building in Boston (courtesy Wikipedia).  I didn't realize it was a museum or I might have entered in. 

What did strike me was the age of the building in comparison to the others surrounding it.  It is truly a testament to the original builders.

I had to backtrack once as I got off the trail, and came to this memorial to the Irish Famine Survivors.  My great-grandparents came to Canada in the 1860's shortly after the famine ended. However there are many families with the same last name in the U.S.  

The bravery of our ancestors is beyond words, to leave all they know behind to go to a place they no nothing about.  Today we can search on-line, get information from travel agencies and so forth.  In those days it was on blind faith alone.

Old City Hall is simply a gorgeous building (or maybe it is just me)  

I found, however, the critter below a little too much like a certain POTUS who will remain unnamed. 

(I sure hope the donkey doesn't mind being compared to the Orange Guy)ioooooooooooooooooooooggfv  That's what Sheldon thinks of my comment. :)

My final stop on the trail was King's Chapel (at least that's when I lost sight of the red bricks).

  It was starting to rain a bit more (hence the moisture on the lens), so I ducked inside for a look around.

Originally an Anglican church, the building was under construction from 1749 to 1754, and is currently an Unitarian church (Wikipedia).

The interior was lovely with box seating and a huge organ.

 The pews were originally rented by member families who could decorate them as they chose.  Since the 1920's the decorations have been uniform.

I'm thinking, having attended church as a child, that these box pews would have been warmer and act as a containment for small children.  Not a bad idea! 


The pipe organ was massive, though I later read it is smaller than most in European churches.The church is not large, so I can only imagine how it would sound echoing off the stone walls.

Next door to the church was a burial ground.  I had assumed it was part of the church but apparently not.  It was founded in 1630 as the first burial ground in Boston (Wikipedia).

I wandered around the stones, the oldest I was able to read was from 1704, the newest was from 2003.  Most of the stones were in poor repair and leaning, or broken the writing most often illegible.

At this point, I decided to make back to Quincy Market to grab a bite to eat and browse some of the shops.  I must have been hungry as I didn't get a photo of the exterior of the building.  This is the ceiling in the center rotunda where I ate my slice of pizza.

I made my way back to the shuttle to the ship and was on-board by 3 p.m. I spent a little time in the hot tub before heading down to the International Cafe for a cup of Chai Tea.  I ran into the five women from the morning - they had decided to do the amphibian tour.  It sounded like fun but I'm glad I did my own walk-about.  

Later I went up to deck 16/17 for a few more photos before we left Boston.

You can see how foggy and cloudy it was...  Those downtown buildings are almost obscured.

Despite the cooler temperatures and a bit of rain, it was a nice day in Boston.

The following day we were meant to be in Bar Harbor, Maine but alas that was not to be.  There was an announcement at 7 a.m. that due to 9-10 foot swells and 40 knot winds the Captain was abandoning any attempt to anchor outside Bar Harbor.  As the port is either two small, or isn't deep enough, we would have been placed on lifeboats (they hold about 100-150 people so they aren't small) to tender in.  

As a result we had a sea day, which I didn't mind but some of my fellow travellers found boring.  I always say if you're bored on a cruise ship, you're trying to hard!  I slept in a bit, had a relaxing breakfast, sat and read my book, checked the Internet, grabbed a Chai tea and read some more.  I planned on taking in a movie at about 2 in the theatre but decided to lay down for a few minutes at 1:30 and woke up just before 4 p.m.  I did another wander before showering and changing for dinner at 6 p.m.  After dinner, Conna, Valerie, and I went to the Club Fusion for music trivia.  We made a reasonable attempt but without Conna we would have been lost.  Most of the music was from the 50's and 60's.  I was only 10 years in 1969...and never a music buff.

We finally sailed out of the clouds on our way to Saint John, New Brunswick.  More on that tomorrow (or the next day as I'm suffering from a wicked cold and having trouble focusing my attention on anything for very long.  Started this post about 8:30 this morning, it's now 12:50!)