Aug 14 - Boston, MA in the Sunshine
We awoke this morning to sunny/cloudy skies. Time
to go "do" Boston. The plan was to drive to the subway
station farthest out (Alewife) and take the train in.
After checking with the staff at the park, we headed
off to Concord, MA.
Concord, MA. "This sure looks like a commuter rail
station to me, but I'll ask the gas jockey next door".
Yup I was right, we are at a commuter rail station.
We have to drive closer in.
So back out on the highway, driving ever closer to Boston, we finally see the overhead sign – Alewife Station. Great. We take the exit and are then confronted with a very large above-ground parking garage. Uh, oh! Alfie is too high for parking garages, above-ground or otherwise. Well, the people at the park said there was street-side parking so we drive around and find a spot. Then Jen spots the "Tow-Away" sign(s). Okay, this won't do. We go back to a restaurant we'd noticed with outside parking. Turns out there's a church next door. I asked at the church about outside parking – really nothing.
At this point we're back in Alfie and I program Maud (GPS) for downtown Boston. Turns out we are just about 8 miles from downtown. Screw it, let's go, so off we go.
It turns out Boston has lots of parking. There are three large underground garages and street parking. The latter was all taken. Boston PD had a large area around the Boston Commons cordoned off and many meters had No Parking signs draped over them.
We drove around for a while in the hopes of nabbing a spot, but to no avail. I suggested to Jen we needed to get out of downtown. Just a couple of minutes later we drive by an above ground lot in behind the street-side building. Turns out there's a grocery store and free parking if you spend $5 or more.
Jen managed to find some of her Hemp milk at the store – a bonus! Now we have 1½ hrs free parking. If we stay longer than 4 hours, the parking fee is, wait for it, $48 US!!
With Jen in her chair and me by her side, we head off for Faneuil Hall, a building on the Freedom Trail. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention. It is sunny. It is 38C (100+F). Here's some of the highlights.
We did our brief tour and were back at Alfie and out of the parking lots with a couple of minutes to spare. YES!
On the way out of Boston, we drove beside the Saint Charles River. Pictures don't do it justice, especially at speed, but it was very pretty.
As we walked back to Alfie, we saw this memorial to the Holocaust. The glass panels in each of the towers are inscribed with numbers – the numbers assigned to the victims of the Holocaust. Very moving.
We headed back to the campground, turned on the a/c, and relaxed for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow we're going to do something local.
See you then.
