[This is still the same day, same bus tour.  Having visited the historical Boston hinterlands, we returned to the city.  And ran across yet another institution of higher learning – Boston University, home of the Terriers.  BU has 31,000 students – meaning it’s pretty darn big!]

[If you look directly over the cab on our right, you will see the lights of Fenway Park, noted for being really old.]

[And again, home of the Red Sox.]

[Downtown Boston, home of the baked bean.]

[We’re heading into The Big Dig, a major public works project that had issues.  You may want to do an internet search for it.]

[In The Big Dig – I hope nothing falls on us!]

[Heading for the “historic and popular Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market” area.  Oh boy, must be lunch time!]

[The supervisor scouts for scrod as we  head toward the Custom House Tower (now a hotel).]

[I smell food!]

[Quincy Market, and access to every type and manner of food!  We need one of these in Alex! 🙂 ]

[We ran across a tourist who’s pointing at something he obviously deems important.]

[He is!]

[Faneuil Hall]

[Quincy Market]

[Carla!]

[NORM!]

[Sated, we return to our limo.]

[Goodbye market area.]

[Heading for the North End waterfront.]

[Old North Church, from whence allegedly came the signal, “one if by land, two if by sea.”  I don’t know what the signal was for “if by air”?  Anyway, just a photographic reminder of the difficulty of shooting through glass into the sun.]

[I believe the sign is self-explanatory.  If not, send a self-addressed postcard to Merkel Press, P.O. Box 1776, Boston.]

[This my 3rd lifetime sighting of the U.S.S. Constitution, a/k/a, Old Ironsides.  My first was in the mid-50’s, my 2nd was in the mid-70’s – so my next should be in the mid-2050’s?]

[This is a military facility.  To get this far, we had to pass through a security check point.  As usual, I set off all manner of bells and whistles going through the scanner.  It’s a knack.  So, they whisked my away to an underground cavern where they interrogated me on various subject matters such as who was my 1st-grade teacher and did I have a school boy crush on her.  Couldn’t remember either, which apparently was the correct answer for someone in my age group.]

[Rigging]

[Rigging II, a/k/a, why I never had the yen to “go to sea.”]

[Ship’s cannon . . .]

[Aimed at downtown Boston.  Are Bostonians aware of this?]

[I’m sure the sign told something about fire power.]

[Great place to work?  I wonder if Jimmy John’s delivered?]

[Back on deck with a nice view of the city.]

[I forgot to count the number of cannons.  Not a vessel to trifle with.]

[Confluence of the Charles River and Boston Inner Harbor.  I don’t know what “confluence” means.  I just wanted to use it in a sentence.  (Those last sentences sound vaguely familiar?)]

[Old Glory whips in the gale force winds we experienced the first couple days.]

[Old Ironsides is technically still an “active” military vessel.  To maintain that status, once a year it is sailed (towed?) 1/2 mile out to sea and back.  Thus, it receives defense funding for its ongoing maintenance.]

[Coming out of the Charlestown Navy Yard, the Bunker Hill Monument.]

[The Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, designed to mirror the Bunker Hill Monument, as they are in sight of one another.]

[And the nearby Boston Garden, home of the Celtics and Bruins.]

[Our bus driver, a/k/a, tour guide, used this facility as an example of a public works project done right, as opposed to The Big Dig.  He asked us to guess when this parking garage was built – it looked brand new.  He said it was built in the 1950’s and the concrete still stands out as much better quality than the near-new Big Dig.]

[Heading into downtown . . . I believe this is a known institution of finance, also known as money.  This may also be the area of quite spendy new condominiums.]

[Like everything in Boston, this is “the oldest” pub in continuous service in the United States – or so I recall.]

[Union Oyster House, a/k/a, the oldest oyster house in the country.]

[City Hall Street, as so noted on the street sign.]

[Congress Street, a stop light, and a statue of legendary, if somewhat recent, Boston mayor Kevin White.]

[Ye Olde State House]

[Yup, same building as above.  And in the street in front and to the left is the site of the infamous Boston Massacre.  And the question is how many people were killed in the Boston Massacre.  The answer: Five.]

[The Giant Tea Kettle (what better name?).  In 1873, was the “sign” of the Oriental Tea Company.  The kettles capacity is 227 gallons, 2 quarts, 1 pint, and 3 gills (whatever that is?).]

[Our friend from Chicago again, although I suspect I was trying to capture the building in the background . . . or the person carrying groceries.]

[This may have been the country’s first women’s law school?]

[I believe Samuel Adams’ grave, but that’s just a guess.]

[My guess would be a church?]

[Boston Common]

[The State House]

[The theatre district, the above theatre is part of Emerson College.  Our driver double-parked at the end of this block and ran into a convenience store for a bottle of water.  I thought you would find that interesting.]

[Or this may have been the first women’s law school.  Then what was the other one?]

[A skating rink (obviously) in Boston Common.]

[The first memorial (obviously) to black soldiers in the Civil War – the 54th Massachusetts regiment.]

[The State House]

[JFK once lived here – 122 Bowdoin Street.]

[On Beacon Hill]

[Let’s go shopping!]

[Newbury Street, the Bostonian equivalent to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.]

[The supervisor could spend weeks . . . months shopping here!  😉 ]

[Fenway Park, Boston’s oldest building!  😉 ]

[Famous Red Sox, as noted below.]

[Me and the boys.]

[The supervisor, me, and the boys.  😉 ]

[Our tour guide, Francis, and the boys.  He has driven a bus for the Red Sox, and oy, the stories he told! 🙂 ]

[Apparently a pretty good hitter.]

[The Splendid Splinter and friend.]

[The boys, again, lest you forgot.]

[Behind the Green Monster.]

[Goodbye to Fenway.]

[My first attempt to capture Bobby Orr.  We were racing to North Station to catch a train to Salem – I must have tried to shoot it on the run.  Anyway, Boston Garden is at North Station.]

[I did better on my 2nd try!  🙂 ]

[And here’s what statue depicts!  Orr’s goal that won the Stanley Cup v. the St. Louis Blues in 1970.  This, and the remaining three photos, were all borrowed from the world wide web.]

[And for now we bid adieu to Boston and Samuel Adams.]

I loved the Boston trip.. brings back memories I did not recall..must be the age as our trip took place 30 years ago and things look better now then when I was there with my box Brownie camera..perhaps its the new digital tech cameras, or perhaps it was your tour guide  with his water stop.  ~ Jim