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| Cambridge Street |
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| Boston's North End |
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| A Sampling of Vegetables at Haymarket Square |
On yet another hot July Saturday, David and I traveled into Boston to participate in the Team Sarcoma Walk that started at Massachusetts General Hospital. Cambridge Street was eerily silent on this hot summer morning. The walk started at MGH, headed up to Government Center, and then headed down by the
Old State House.
http://www.cityofboston.gov/freedomtrail/oldstate.aspWe were here on July 17th, a mere 234 years from when Bostonians gathered in 1776 to hear the Declaration of Independence read from the balcony. From there, we snaked through Faneuil Hall.
http://www.cityofboston.gov/freedomtrail/faneuilhall.asp This vibrant market was very crowded with street entertainers and lots of folks visiting the variety of shops and stores in the area. Now that the old "Central Artery" has come down, you can see the Boston Waterfront from this spot. Since it was so hot and humid, many children and their parents were taking advantage of the great fountain that is located in Waterfront Park. This park is officially known as Christopher Columbus Park
http://www.bostonharborwalk.com/placestogo/location.php?nid=3&sid=18 and it was a beautiful spot to stop and look at the harbor. Boston's North End was the next location on our walk. The North End is home to many a great restaurant and bakery, and again the area was full of activity by both residents and visitors. Another part of our walk was Haymarket Square.
http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/boston/orientation/haymkt.html Today, it was bustling with vendors and shoppers. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables were available for sale. We headed back to the start of our walk and called it a day.
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| Vegetable shopping in Chinatown |
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| Dragonfruit |
However, about three weeks later, I was involved in a course on East Asia and for one day, we headed into Boston to learn about the Chinese Immigrants and the Vietnamese community in Boston. While a lot of people who visit Boston focus on the Freedom Trail, I was fortunate to participate in a tour conducted by the Chinese Historical Society of New England.
http://www.chsne.org/ The docents for the tour grew up in Chinatown and to have a personal perspective really gave the tour an unique flavor. While there are certainly many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, there are also Vietnamese, Mongolian, Japanese, and Korean restaurants. Residents bought fruits and vegetables on the street and headed home. I bought a dragonfruit from a street vendor.
For our next assignment, we were to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. (this certainly was not a hardship!) We made our way back to 7 Beach Street to Xinh Xihn Restaurant. It was well after noon and the little restaurant was quite crowded. Some of my classmates were already there so my friend and I sat down. It was yet another hot steamy day in Boston, and I wanted to try out a theory that if you ate something hot in temperature on a hot day that it would cool you down. So with that in mind, I ordered a bowl of Chicken Noodle soup. It was just wonderful; however, it certainly did not make me any less hot :( So much for that hypothesis!
Visiting Suffolk County affords the visitors a wonderful blend of history and great choices of food. From Chinese immigrants to the historic government sites, Boston has it all. Public transportation is an inexpensive option to get around the city.
Next up was a stroll down to the Glacier Potholes. What you may ask is a glacier pothole? Well, a glacier pothole is formed by the action of water swirling rocks along the ground during the glacier age. These potholes were extremely unique. I guess in the past, they let people swim in these, but today, there was a large fence prohibiting anyone from going down there. Beautiful waterfalls were also present at this site adding to the natural beauty. On Deerfield Avenue, where the potholes were located was the Mole Hollow Candle Factory, a great art gallery store with lots of great items, and a yoga studio, complete with Buddha gracing the outdoor grounds. There was certainly a mystic feel to this town.
We then made our way to the Bridge of Flowers, the most interesting flower garden I have ever seen. Instead of tearing down an old bridge, instead, what started as a war memorial is now a bridge of the most beautiful flowers. It is only open to foot traffic and on this hot summer's afternoon, there were many people admiring the beautiful flowers. Looking northward up the Deerfield River was also quite scenic. After admiring the 300 plus types of flowers, we stopped at the general store to pick up some water. The town had a very friendly feel to it as we left and headed more into Buckland. We decided to "wing it" without our GPS Lucy and see where the road would lead us. Beautiful lush green rolling hills surrounded us as we entered the small town of Ashfield. I believe this area is sometimes called "Hilltowns" or "The Hidden Hills." We traveled route 112 into Route 116, where we landed in the town of Conway. Another beautiful little town, complete with a really unique library structure which I later found out was called the Marshall Field Memorial Library after Marshall Field, who grew up in Conway and later founded Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. We finally came to Route 91 and headed back north towards Route 2 East. However, we were hungry and from our guide book The Berkshire Hills and Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, we decided to stop in Turner's Falls to find a bite to eat. Turner's Falls is the home to the "Great Falls" which are one of the first waterfalls in the country that was circumvented by a transportation canal in the early 1800's. This town had a lot of interesting architecture, and I could tell that it must have been quite the place at one time. We found Shady Glen, another old-fashioned diner where you could order a variety of foods. On our way out, we saw an old picture of the owner and the late Senator Ted Kennedy. We asked the gentleman behind the counter if that was him, and he nodded proudly that it was. Heading back eastward on Route 2, we stopped at an ice cream stand and then headed over to Barton's Cove in Gill. The sun was starting to set as boaters pulled their boats out of the water. It had been a really fun time discovering all that Franklin County had to offer on this hot Saturday.
For our next assignment, we were to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. (this certainly was not a hardship!) We made our way back to 7 Beach Street to Xinh Xihn Restaurant. It was well after noon and the little restaurant was quite crowded. Some of my classmates were already there so my friend and I sat down. It was yet another hot steamy day in Boston, and I wanted to try out a theory that if you ate something hot in temperature on a hot day that it would cool you down. So with that in mind, I ordered a bowl of Chicken Noodle soup. It was just wonderful; however, it certainly did not make me any less hot :( So much for that hypothesis! 
