Dear friends and family,
I’m writing to tell you if I die today or this weekend in this heatwave it was a pleasure knowing you all. It’s supposed to get to 98 today, but feel like 110 with humidity and even worse tomorrow. I know I had a hard time with the winter here, but I think the summers are even worse. A rainy, and moderate summer in the NW doesn’t sound so bad right now. I’ll try not to die, but I can’t make any promises. Heat…. Death….
Love,
Anna
Thank the heavens, Kathy and I decided sleeping in on Saturday was necessary and boy did I need it! Between the time differences, week of being sleep deprived, and all of the traveling it was starting to catch up with me, just a little though!
Once we were up and moving we headed right out into the city to start our exploring. Our first destination was the Boston Public Library to grab some breakfast in their map room and check out what the library had to offer. It turns out, history, art, and serenity is exactly what the library had to offer. It was the perfect way to start off the day!
The Boston library also had lions like the New York Public Library! I’m not sure what the lions symbolize (which I should look up) either way I liked them!
From the library we headed off the Newberry Street, which could possibly be the cutest street I’ve ever been on. It kind of related me to a nicer, larger version of Portland’s Nw 23rd Avenue. Lots of ritzy shops and cute restaurants.
Another thing we spent a lot of time doing in Boston was checking out all of the old churches! Personally, I love old churches and so does Kathy so we definitely tried to peak our heads into as many that were open as we could. We got some great history lessons on the churches that were staffed as well. We covered a lot of ground during the day in Boston starting at the Library, to Newberry Street, on to Beacon Hill (possibly the cutest residential area I’ve been to), Boston Public Garden, Boston Commons, South Market, and other places in between. we got passes for one of the tour trolleys that took you all over the city. It was great too because we had a tour guide, but were able to get off at any of the stops and explore and then hop onto another trolley at a different stop. It made getting around very convenient, but we also learned a lot each time we hopped on. There is so much history in Boston is was incredible! I also left the city feeling like I needed a refresher American history class!
After walking around the city all day Kathy and I headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before we headed out for our night activity on our Ghosts and Graveyards trolly tour. Normally I’m not big on scary things, but I agreed to check this out with Kathy. The same trolley company that we used during the day hosts these tours at night on trolleys decorated scary with tour guides in character that show you around the city in the dark and tell you stories of murders, legends, and give you tours of some of the more famous cemeteries. It ended up being a really fun time and I learned some eerie things. For examples the cemetery at Copp’s Hill has thousands more people buried there than their are gravestones for because they would dig graves on top of others. Not only that, but the gravestones were not put into rows until hundreds of years after many were buried so the markers might not actually mark where the deceased bodies lie in peace. If you want to learn more you’ll have to take the tour! Along with old churches fascinating me, as do old cemeteries. I must say Boston had some of the best I have visited. Because of the era the gravestones were made they were unlike anything I’ve seen before. Frankly, the graves looked as the fake ones they make out of plastic on Halloween. It was crazy!
Our tour wrapped up with checking out Paul Revere’s gravestone at another cemetery and then in the Boston Commons, where public executions used to take place (gross..). We ended the day full of new sights, information, and full memory cards on our cameras! Day two was next and Faithy and Aunt Beth were going to be onboard to adventure.
From Seattle I was off on a red-eye flight back to the city. Red-eye flights can be great because you dont lose “play” time during wake hours and get to spend extra time with those you care about before having to leave. The one thing you don’t think about much when booking a red-eye is the work day you have to work once you make it back a few hours before work. Or, at least I didn’t. Sleep wasn’t much of a priority for me on my trip back though, I’ll be honest. I landed in New York a little after 6:45 and by the time I made it back to my apartment it was pushing 7:30. I had the option to lay down for half an hour before work, but decided not to and just push through the day at work. Push is an understatement of what I had to do to get me through the day. I guess I also didn’t factor sitting in between two men on the flight, 2 screaming kids in front of me, and a snoring man behind me on my flight into the amount of rest I could have potentially gotten before getting off the plane. I survived though and that’s all that matters!
Once I made it back to my apartment there was not much time to spend relaxing because I had another trip to pack for! Boston! I fit in a quick visit with Chris, my roommate, and Scooter that evening before heading to Boston on a bus right after work on Friday. Kathy had been on business on the east coast for the last week and I was meeting up with her in the city for the weekend, before Faithy and their Aunt Beth joined us in the city as well. After an hour and a half delay on my bus I was on the road and headed for another destination, and another two states to add to my week long journey!
I made it into Boston a little after 11:00 and was greeted by Kathy before we whisked into a cab, made a quick visit to the hotel, and headed out for a late dinner and catch-up session after a week of traveling for us both! We ate at this fantastic place around the corner from our hotel that had divine burgers! After dinner it was off to bed for us!
