Monday, October 21, 2019: Boston; Churches, Freedom Trail, Oysters

We started the day with Maria making an appointment for getting her hair washed and dried for 9:30 am. We had about 30 minutes to walk the 15 minute walk to the shop. On the way we stopped and got a fruit juice. Maria had suggested, in an effort to maintain our girlish figures, we fast today before our scheduled restaurant reservation this evening.

While Maria was in the hair shop, I scouted out several churches in the immediate area. The first was the First Baptist Church, established in 1665.

Next was the Church of the Covenant of 1865 which contained Tiffany stained glass windows and central light feature.

My third church was Trinity Church of 1877. It was an impressive building, but it was closed on Monday's.

Copley Square

Finally, the Old South Church in Boston.

Once Maria was finished at the hair shop, we started our walk for the day, heading toward Boston Commons.

Maria was hoping that the boats on the lake would still be running. They weren't. But, it was a beautiful day with a lot of photo opportunities.

 

 

Massachusetts State House

We decided to get a coffee (and use the restroom) so we sought out the Starbucks on the Commons. Along the way, I caught a photo of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul "A House of Prayer for All People", which was Closed...No Admittance!

Then we were off on the Freedom Trail. First stop was the Granary Burying Ground, Boston's third oldest cemetery founded in 1660. Current residences include Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and members of Ben Franklin's family.

King's Chapel (1686) and associated cemetery. The cemetery seemed small for having 600 headstones and over 1,000 inhabitants.

Old City Hall, now inhabited by Ruth's Chris Steak House

The Old South Meeting House was impressive. We sat in on a presentation by one of the docent's about the 1770 Boston Massacre.

The spot of the Boston Massacre looking back at the Meeting House

Faneuil Hall

We had planned to get through the entire Freedom Trail today. It was about 1:30 pm when we were walking along street of endless seafood restaurants. The temptation was too much so we ducked into a good looking tavern for some oysters. It turned out this was in itself historic, being America's oldest restaurant.

We ended up consuming three dozen local oysters and a couple (or three) Moscow Mules. The oysters were outstanding. The varieties were: Duxbury, Cotuit and Wellfleet. All great, Duxbury being our least favorite.

They had old fashion glasses and I picked up a souvenir.

Back on the trail.

We got to Paul Revere's house which he occupied between 1770 and 1800. No pics allowed inside. Paul was married twice. His first wife died after seven years of marriage during delivery of her eighth child. Paul remarried and had another eight children with his second wife.

We decided to pick the trail back up at this point tomorrow. We were in the same area as where we had dinner last night.

We ducked into an Italian restaurant for a quick snack and potty break. We both ordered an appetizer, Maria had a large bowl of mussels and clams, while I had some scallops. We also had a cannoli for desert. It was all so good and the staff was very nice, even though it was obvious we weren't going to stay of dinner. We still have reservations for French at 7:30 pm.

We needed to get back to the house and prepare for dinner. Maria said it was a "nice" place, so I wanted to wear my sports coat. Maria called an Uber and we drove a long time. I finally made note that we seemed to be driving a long way before Maria told me we were going to stop at the Dispensary to pick up a joint she had previously ordered. Legal in Massachusetts.

Police were everywhere and pictures were not allowed inside, so I took some "undercover" shots.

We got back to the flat around 6:30 pm and we quickly got dressed for dinner. Before leaving the flat, we broke out the joint and both had two or three inhales. This was my first in over 40 years. I should not have taken the third (or even the second) drag. Within 10 minutes, I was not sensible. 

The Uber arrived to take us to the restaurant. It was about a 20 minute drive, but it seemed much longer. Just before we arrived, I suggested to Maria that we should cancel our reservation and go back to the flat. I was TOTALLY wasted. She agreed and we turned around.

We got home and watched a bit of TV. Maria started to talk food and I remembered I had microwave popcorn. We had a bag of that and I went to bed, not able to start the day's blog. Maria admitted the next day that she ended up ordering sushi later before retiring.