9-26-2025 Boston, MA

 Boston, MA, you gasp?!  What the Hell…?!  Let me explain.  I have a bucket list, same like many others.  About 40 years ago or more, a McDonnell Douglas friend Hal Beemer recommended that we go to see the fall colors in the east.  They call it, “leaf-peeping.”  I call it, “looking at red leaves.”  All that said, I mentally put it on my bucket list.  Another adventure to check off!  So here we are, decades later, traveling across the country to look at red leaves.

 

But first, there was the airport.  We were easily early for our departure.  Then came the announcement:  Very bad weather in Boston, our departure time is delayed by an hour.  Fair enough.  If the pilot doesn’t want to fly, neither do I!  Then came another announcement.  Very, very bad weather…. Another hour delay.  This went on and on.  Delta began to suggest that if we wanted to change our flight plans, they would reimburse our charges.  Why would we change our flight plans?  If one plane isn't flying into BOS, are any of the others?  And who would fly on it?!  Furthermore, where were our bags?!  So we sat.  Then Mother Nature bought our dinner courtesy of Delta Airlines.  No fair to Delta but PR is what it is.  Obviously, all other planes destined for BOS were delayed as well and so it was mayhem when we finally arrived after a 4 ½ hour delay and a 5 ½ hour flight.  At 1AM, the rental car desks were a sea of tired, crabby people and screaming babies.  At 3:30 AM, we finally lay our heads down at our B & B, a little cross-eyed and whooped.

A typical home in the
neighborhood.  One question:
Who cleans it?!

Our B & B, Chateau sur Mer

 

Nevertheless, time to rise and shine and get on with the show!  Beantown was established in 1630 by the pilgrims;  a bunch of rugged, stubborn individuals ferociously protective of their freedoms.  The Crown still owned and controlled the colony as long as it stayed out of the colonists’ hair.  But in 1773, an armada of 40 tons of tea sailed into the Boston harbor with a $2M tax (in today’s dollars) payable to the Crown attached.  The Sons of Liberty, headed up by a hothead named Sam Adams, said enough is enough.  No taxation without representation!  They stormed down to the shore and threw the whole shiteree into the deep blue in a move that is now known as the Boston Tea Party.  Good Ol’ Sam Adams was good for more than just a good lager!  This event was a pivotal event that led to the dissolution of the colony’s ties to England.  The revolutionary war was imminent.

Three ships like this replica, The
Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver,
sailed into this harbor hauling a
total of 40 tons of tea.

Our hero, Sam Adams, at the
entrance to the Tea Party
Museum

Cargo ships like this one
sailed into Boston Harbor
on a regular basis.

 

Religion was a big deal back in the 1600s.  The Puritans were too strict for some women who weren’t allowed to even pray aloud in church.  Mary Dyer had had enough.  She moved away and became a Quaker.  Then, in a brash move, she moved back to Boston.  The Puritan people banished her and she left but came back.  This happened 3 times.  The final time she came back, they warned her that if she didn’t leave, she’d be hanged in the big central park.  She hanged.  This all happened before freedom of religion became fashionable.

Dinner at The Wharf
If you go hungry in Boston,
it's on you!  There are
a million restaurants!

Bronze of Mary Dyer
on the grounds of the
MA capitol bldg, also
called the State House.

Lunch on the cobblestone streets.

 

The New State House in Boston had a big concrete dome.  Paul Revere, a coppersmith, thought it should be copper plated.  After that, it was decided to cover the copper with gold leaf.  But when WWII happened, the gold leaf was painted gray for camouflage.  How they got all that gray paint off of the gold leaf is beyond me but the dome is now back to its gleaming gold beauty.

-To be continued-

There are miles and miles
of tunnels under Boston.

The MA State House