US Trip: Boston - the final stop

Stef had offered his place for me to stay at and to pick me up at the airport, but on the day before he texted me saying he couldn't get off work early.  Zack would show up at the airport instead.  It sure felt like déjà vu when I saw Zack.  In the same car.  But this time around, it was a different airport.  On a different coast altogether.

We went straight to Zack's place in JP (short for Jamaica Plains) from the airport to leave my stuff.  Other than me getting some souvenirs from HRC and Fenway and us waiting for Stef and Cynthia, we couldn't think of anything else.

So once we had lunch in a nearby cafe, we took the T to Hard Rock.  To get to Fenway Park, we passed by Boston Commons and Newbury Street shopping district.  We then continued on to Stef's place in Allston.

Fenway Park

Googlemap indicated we covered a distance of 5 miles.  Zack was feeling guilty for making me walk that much in SF and now in Boston.  (That night as the conversations wore on, he learned that I had participated in a few marathons.  Of course, when I went to SF in 2008, I just started toying with the idea of running and was still training for my first ever 10K in 2 months' time :D)  It's not that I didn't want to tell Zack.  It just never came up.  To be fair, I did tell him I really didn't mind walking.  It wasn't like in Malaysia where you'd sweat buckets after 5 minutes out.

Stef's timing was so perfect that we bumped into him when we were about to get some smoothies near his place.  The rest of the evening was mostly catching up over a wonderful dinner prepared by Cynthia.  Man, it amazed me how Stef and Zack could still remember almost everything all the way to freshman year (Unit 14!), down to the last detail.

On the next day, after Stef and Cynthia left for work, I was all by myself for a little sightseeing in the city.  Totally fine by me.  I didn't bother to call up Zack because he already went the extra mile to bring me around yesterday.

Every time I came to pay Sila a visit when we were college, we almost stuck to the same routine.  Lunch or dinner at Penang restaurant in Chinatown, catch a movie at Alewife and rent more movies.  There were a few outliers once in a while, like there was one time we went close to the end of a Green line to get dinner at an Indonesian restaurant.  It was so far out that the trip back coast us 2 dollars (a single T ride then was only 85cents) and by the time we got back, we were already hungry.  It didn't help that it was cold and we were stuck in the T near Fenway on the way back :D

Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to wander off like that.  Basically, what I was trying to say, I was familiar with the city.  Most of the times, though, we stayed on the Cambridge side.

City Hall (A) - TD Garden (B) - USS Constitution (C) - Bunker Hill Monument (D) - Harvard Sq - MIT station - Fenway

I walked around downtown for a bit without any clear directions.  The USS Constitution was mentioned in last night's conversation, so I decided to take up on Cynthia's suggestion.  The City Hall and the TD Garden were a couple of stops that I made along the way.

Commemorating the fallen firefighters

The John Hancock building peeking through the foliage

Like the sign says ;)

City Hall, where the city last celebrated the Bruins, 2011's Stanley Cup champions

Bobby Orr's statue outside of TD Garden

There was a long queue to get on board the ship, so I decided to skip it and headed to the Bunker Hill Monument.  I was already in the vicinity, so I might as well made the effort.  The monument may look like a teeny-version of the Washington Monument, standing at 221 feet (67m) tall.  The 294 steps to reach the top still gave a good workout especially after you already did some walking to get here.  There was a guy, who gave his 3yo daughter a piggy back ride up, turned to his relative (I think) and said, "You have to take her down.  I brought her up here."  :D

I was on the right track

The USS Constitution

The Massachussets Gate at the Bunker Hill Monument

I was here on June 15th 2012.  So the battle took place 2 days short of 237 years ago.  Woah!

Finally!

Long way down

Some random person :D

The Zakim Bridge. (Sorry, the picture is not so clear because of the window)

The airport is on the left

Not knowing where to have lunch in the North End neighborhood, I decided to go to Harvard Square.  There ought to be a reasonable place for lunch there.  Since I rode the T, I didn't have to worry about "pahk-ing my cah in Hahvahd Yahd".  (I just had to insert that :D)

I actually stopped at the MIT T station because I was informed of some interesting architecture at MIT, namely the Simmons Hall and Stata Center.  I should have done some research before hand, so I didn't know their exact locations.  Little did I know, they are just close by.  Oh man.  So we should be content with pictures from the internet.

Simmons Hall aka the Sponge (courtesy of galinsky.com and stateuniversity.com)

Stata Center (courtesy of cityprofile.com and sommer.jp)

On the way to Stef's place, I made a quick stop at Fenway to get a Red Sox cap for own.  In my haste of looking for things for the others yesterday,  I totally forgot about me.  I really liked to get their jerseys but one was well over 100 bucks!  Yikes!

Part of the Boston skyline

MIT campus

I was there at the monument!

Back at Fenway Park

The famous CITGO sign

That evening, we joined Cynthia's cousins and friends for candlepin bowling and pizza dinner.  Well, we were kind of late, so they already started playing.  The place was packed to the brim so it would have taken us some time to get a lane for ourselves.  So no candlepin bowling for us.  Nonetheless, pizzas and the company were great.

We got back and lounged in the living room in front of the tv.  Guess how we ended the night?  With a viewing of an episode of 'Locked Up Abroad', Stef's favorite show :D

Candlepin bowling.