An Afternoon in Boston

 Last Wednesday, July 1st, Alec's plane was due to land in Logan airport in Boston at 5 pm. But we knew from experience that traveling from our corner of Ct into Boston is no fun anywhere near rush hour traffic time so my husband took the day off from work and we headed into the city early. When we made this plan our weather had been perfect in the low 80's with nice breezes and plenty of sun. But we were in a heatwave last week and temps were predicted to hover near 98 in the city that day so I dressed in my wide leg linen pants and a flowy top that has some cutouts down the back. Notice the scrunchy on my wrist; my hair went into a pony tail just about as soon as we got in the car.  

We left our house around 10 and arrived in Boston just after 11. I think by the time we had parked at the airport and made our way into the E terminal it was probably 11:30. We used the restrooms and then found the arrivals area so we knew where to go at the end of the day. We walked out the exit of arrivals at gate E to pick up the free MBTA transit bus. We took the blue line bus that brought us right to the blue line of the T. The T is Boston's version of the subway. We've used it frequently enough that we feel fairly confident getting around on it. 

It was noon by the time we hit the T and we decided some lunch was in order. I knew that 2 stops towards city center was the Aquarium stop which brings us near to Quincy Market, the waterfront, the Aquarium, etc-- an area we knew pretty well. In fact we knew we wanted to eat at Legal Seafood across from the Aquarium so that's where we headed. 

I got the Caesar salad with grilled salmon

 While eating lunch we looked up various things to do the rest of the day. With an extra 500,00+ people having flown into the city for the world cup and 250th anniversary of America many things were already sold out for the rest of the day. We hadn't wanted to buy tickets ahead of time since most things had timed entry and we didn't know our time table until the night before. The aquarium across the street still had tons and tons of tickets left so we decided to head there next even though we had been there a few times before (and it's not the most impressive of aquariums). 

We sat in the shade and bought timed entry tickets for 1:40 and had a less than a 10 minute wait.  

the aquarium 

 

Once inside we explored every nook and cranny. We saw the sea lion show, watched them feed the penguins, saw the tank divers, and just meandered around in the dark and the air conditioning. 
 

 

After the aquarium we decided to brave the heat and walk 12 minutes to North End Creamery where they make small batch ice cream. It was so creamy and so good and I really enjoyed seeing the cute North End restaurants and buildings. I can see why soo many food tours take place in the North End. Even on this hot day it smelled incredible.  

I got espresso Oreo; it was almost like gelato and melted quite quickly in the heat

For all the extra crowds and people in the city... it really didn't feel very crowded anywhere we went. By the time we walked back to the Aquarium T stop it really was time for us to head back to the airport so we reversed our earlier steps. Taking the blue line T to the airport station, getting back on the T bus to take us to the E terminal. Then we checked the board to see that Alec's flight was on time to land at 4:45 and we had exactly 10 minutes to wait... for him to land not for him to deplane, go through customs, etc. 

His plane ended up having to wait on the tarmac for an open gate so it was nearly 6:15 by the time we spotted him. By this time he had been awake for nearly 24 hours. He was in such good spirits though we didn't hear much about his trip until the next morning as he was quiet most of the ride home (which the delay helped us avoid all commuter rush-hour traffic on the way home too), ate some dinner, had a shower and went to bed. 

I'll start recapping/sharing about his trip on Wednesday. 
 

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