May 17-Boston

Sunset from our balcony as we sailed toward Boston was colorful.

Last evening we dined at the special restaurant Prime 7. We had a wonderful meal, terrific red wine, and yummy chocolate dessert. We even saw a whale from the window. Someone at the next table saw it and the whole restaurant came to a halt while we watched it swim and give off big spouts of water from its blowhole.

Boston is New England’s largest city and Bostonians proudly say this is the cradle of American independence. Local heroes include Samuel and John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock and many others who lived at the crossroads of history.

We sailed in through the 34 Island Boston Harbor State Park. Seventeen of these islands are reachable by ferry and feature basic facilities for a day of recreation. Central to the park is Fort Warren, a Civil War fort complete with a grass roof and cannons. We could see lots of folks enjoying the area in spite of the chilly air.

Old North Church was built in 1723 and is the oldest church in the city. It was the spot where the 2 lanterns glimmered from the steeple on the night of April 18, 1775. The proper name is Christ Church, but popularly called The Old North and here Paul Revere managed to signal the departure by water of the British regulars to Lexington and Concord.

Another important landmark is Faneuil Hall, erected in 1742. It was built to be a place for town meetings and also a public market. The original hall burned in 1761 and was immediately rebuilt. In 1772 Samuel Adams stood there and first suggested that Massachusetts and the other colonies should organize in the face of hardening British repression….and the rest is history.

The tree-studded, shady and redbrick expanse of Harvard Yard is the very center of Harvard University. In 1636 the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted funds to establish the colony’s first college and a year later chose the site in Cambridge. It was named for John Harvard, a young Charlestown (an area north of the center of Boston) clergyman who died in 1638 and left his library and half of his estate to the college. Harvard was the only college in the New World until 1693.

The main library at Harvard is the Widener Library named for Harry Elkins Widener a 1907 Harvard graduate, who was a book collector and victim of the Titanic disaster. His mother, Eleanor Elkins, made a $3.5 million donation to Harvard University to build a library named after him. He had a spot on a lifeboat as the Titanic was sinking but returned to his cabin to retrieve his rare books. The boats were then filled and he and his father died when the ship sank. Legend has it that Mrs. Widener stipulated that ice cream had to be served in the library breakfast, lunch and dinner and also there was to be a swimming test for students to graduate in order that the same fate wouldn’t occur to another student.

Little known fact discovered. The famous fish Scrod was an invention of The Parker House Hotel Restaurant. People always wanted to know the catch of the day and it kept changing so it was simpler to have the wait staff say it was Special Catch Right Off the Dock. This is the hotel also famous for Parker House Rolls and Boston Cream Pie. History abounds in Boston!