You Heard it Here First

Tonight Jeri and Phil took us to see the out of town run of Finding Neverland, the new musical by James Graham (book) and Gary Barlow & Eliot Kennedy (music and lyrics), with choreography by Mia Michaels.  It is based on the movie of the same name starring Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie.  The musical is amazing.  Best musical I've seen in years.  My prediction is that when it gets to Broadway (assuming they don't try to screw it up), it will sweep the Tonys, whatever year that happens to be. This is only our first day in Boston, but already I know that this will be the highlight of our trip.

Looking back over today, I am SO glad we changed our original plan, which had been to drive to Rockport to meet Mary, who reads this journal and who invited us to come for a visit.  We were going to meet Mary today and June, from the Swap Bot discussion group on Monday. 

But I mistakenly thought our tickets for Finding Neverland were for tomorrow and when we considered driving to someplace we have never been and then trying to find our way back in Friday traffic for a 7:30 curtain, we decided we would sadly cancel our visit with June and go to see Mary on Monday instead.  Having now seen traffic between Jeri & Phil's and Cambridge, where the play was held, I am so glad we made that change of plans.

Also, I must give credit where credit is due. Gilbert outdid himself in finding parking places tonight.  It is very, very crowded around Harvard and I challenged Gilbert to find us a space.  My god the poor man has been taking care of my parking since 1986.  No rest for the dead!  Jeri dropped us off and went looking for a place to park and came back reporting that her experience had been nothing short of miraculous.  She had, in fact, been able to "paaak the caah in the Haavad Yaad."  Thank you, Gilbert.

But long before all that happened, there was "our day."  We woke up around 8, just in time to see Jeri and Phil off to their respective jobs.  Walt took Lester out for a walk and we were going to go downtown, but first, I just wanted to "lie down for a bit."  "A bit" turned into a 2 hour nap. 

By the time we left, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was a gorgeous day.  It wasn't even cold, though I brought a scarf/shawl with me in case I needed to wrap in something.

We took the bus and then the "T" into downtown Boston.  I haven't been on public transportation (especially not in a big city) in a long time, and I was endlessly fascinated by the diversity in age, ethnicity, dress, etc.  And it's hard to remember when 3/4 of the people you meet on the street or on public transportation are not plugged into some kind of device.  Heck, I'm not that plugged in even at home where I have a desktop to get me as plugged in as I want to be.

We got off at State Street and joined the throngs headed for the center of tourist activity.  First, I had to take a picture of the Old State House, which opens every episode of Rizzoli and Isles.

I passed a beggar guy sitting on the street and commented that I liked his sign.  He asked me about my cane and about then Walt came along and we left, but later I decided I wanted to take a picture of him and his sign, so gave him $1 and he was happy to pose for me.

At least he's honest!

We got down to Fanueil Hall, which has served as a market and meeting place since 1742.  There in front of it is a stately statue of Samuel Adams.

I wondered what ol' Sam would think if he knew that the crowd behind his statue was watching a couple of break dancers entertaining the crowd.

We didn't exactly go into Fanueil, but headed for Quincy Market, kind of Boston's answer to the spice market in Istanbul, behind it.

Over on the left there, you can buy tickets for what I think has to be the dumbest tourist activity in Boston.

(Notice that the bags of "tea" are solidly wrapped with rope, so I am assuming that after you have dumped the tea in the haaba (harbor), they haul it back on board the ship so the next load of tourists can dump it all over again)

On our way to Quincy Market, we found bigfoot, whose footprints we had been following for some time.

We walked halfway through Quincy Market, but our ultimate destination was somewhere to get some of that famous Boston Clam Chowder.

We found there are lots of options in the Market, but Walt was looking for his favorite restaurant, which he discovered had gone out of business.

But he did discover the Union Oyster House, established in 1826, which purports to be the oldest restaurant in America.  Naturally we had to go there. They told us first that it was a 40 minute wait so we went to get a beer while waiting and asked if there was a place to sit while we waited.  She said it would be a 20 minute wait and then told the woman behind us that it would be a 30 min. wait.  In actuality, I think we waited under 10 minutes and Walt had just gotten the beers at the bar when our name was called.

Here I am enjoying a Sam Adams (it seemed only right).  You can tell from my hair that it is hot and I am sweating!

Walt had oysters, I had crab cakes and we both had the "chowda," which was delicious.  This was kind of a more spendy place and Walt decided it was worth it just to listen to the waitress's thick Boston accent.

The restaurant was right across the street from the Holocaust Memorial, so we went there, though we didn't go through it this time since we had gone through it before and we were both starting to fade.

After we walked up to see the "Old Corner Bookstore," which opened in 1711.  It is now a Chipotle with a plaque saying that it used to be the Old Corner Bookstore.

It was across the street from a memorial to the famine in Ireland in the early 1800s and the immigrants who settled in Boston hoping to find a better life here.  It's a nice little memorial with a sign asking people to respect the memorial and not to feed the birds there.  Nobody told the birds, though.

By now Walt and I both felt the need for a nap so we headed back to the T, then the bus, and then home.  I said I needed to lie down for just a bit.  So did Walt.  Two hours later, we woke up...and then the play.

What a wonderful, wonderful day.  I've had such a great time.  I could go home and feel I'd had the best time ever...but there are still more days to come.