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Aug. 7th, 2014 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dchenesI spent large parts of today tromping around downtown Boston and environs with my 80-year-old Fairly Godmother. (Only "fairly" because I haven't been baptized.) She came up on the train and we went ambling around in Back Bay, including stops at Trinity Church and Burdick's, at which I introduced her to the concept of chocolate mice. This was followed by a duck tour driven by William Shakespeare's multiple-times-great-nephew (so he said) in silly velvet hat, doublet, leggings and high-top Converse, followed by lunch at the Fugu truck right next to Trinity Church. During lunch the sky opened up for the first time, so we finished lunch in the porch (cloister?) of the church, and then ambled off toward downtown.
I suggested a swan boat ride, so we did that. On the way back to the dock, there were a whole mess of people on the bridge holding signs that said "Eva, will you marry me?" in English and something in Chinese (although I can recognize Chinese, I can't read it, so it could have said anything). Eva and her gentleman friend were sitting behind us, and she burst into tears, and he did the whole down-on-one-knee bit right there on the boat. I didn't hear her say yes, but apparently she did, because she ended up wearing a ring-pop-size plastic diamond. Yay!
After the swan boats, we went and sat on a bench for a while, because the Public Garden is a lovely place to do that. Eventually the sky started looking threatening again, and we decamped from the bench and made it as far as the garage elevator on the Common before it poured. Fortunately it didn't pour for long, and we ambled through the Common and around Chinatown and down to Post Office Square. I had never been in that park when the fountain was on, so we sat around there for a while too, and watched two little kids having fun with water and parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle keeping the kids from getting entirely soaked (being picked up and having hands and/or feet dipped in the water was fine with the kids) and taking pictures.
After that we ambled back through Downtown Crossing, stopped for coffee and managed not to get rained on the third time, and then went to South Station so she could wait for the train going home. I then stuck my head in the farmers market down there and bought tomatoes, and then ambled back up to Park Street and came home by way of Washington Square. Thank goodness the Red Sox are either off or elsewhere today.
It was an excellent day, and I'm glad we got to do it.
I suggested a swan boat ride, so we did that. On the way back to the dock, there were a whole mess of people on the bridge holding signs that said "Eva, will you marry me?" in English and something in Chinese (although I can recognize Chinese, I can't read it, so it could have said anything). Eva and her gentleman friend were sitting behind us, and she burst into tears, and he did the whole down-on-one-knee bit right there on the boat. I didn't hear her say yes, but apparently she did, because she ended up wearing a ring-pop-size plastic diamond. Yay!
After the swan boats, we went and sat on a bench for a while, because the Public Garden is a lovely place to do that. Eventually the sky started looking threatening again, and we decamped from the bench and made it as far as the garage elevator on the Common before it poured. Fortunately it didn't pour for long, and we ambled through the Common and around Chinatown and down to Post Office Square. I had never been in that park when the fountain was on, so we sat around there for a while too, and watched two little kids having fun with water and parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle keeping the kids from getting entirely soaked (being picked up and having hands and/or feet dipped in the water was fine with the kids) and taking pictures.
After that we ambled back through Downtown Crossing, stopped for coffee and managed not to get rained on the third time, and then went to South Station so she could wait for the train going home. I then stuck my head in the farmers market down there and bought tomatoes, and then ambled back up to Park Street and came home by way of Washington Square. Thank goodness the Red Sox are either off or elsewhere today.
It was an excellent day, and I'm glad we got to do it.
