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The first order of business today was switching B&Bs. I had that last-minute B&B last night, which was perfectly OK, but small. Today I was theoretically moving into the big Rebooting the Web of Trust house.
Except while I was on the plane, Chris let me know that because of the challenging bed situation at the RWOT house, and my desire to have a private room to retain my sanity, he'd reserved another place about 3 miles out for myself and another RWOT guest.
Great, I was very appreciative of the privacy and I also thought it sounded like a nice walk at the end of each day of RWOT, so I was 100% jazzed.
But the irony was that I'd chosen my overnight B&B in part because it was around the corner from the RWOT house. It would have just involved a block of schlepping.
Instead, I got to explore the train and bus system to get out to whatever the name is of the area that our new apartment was in, near Belmont. But it was easy. One stop up the Red Line, then a walk through the Harvard Station to the bus repository, at which point I grabbed a bus that took me to within three blocks or so of my new house. There are a couple of busses that arrive between 0-3 blocks away.
The new apartment is a nice little basement apartment that smelled pleasantly like wood when I opened the door. Two bedrooms, and a common area of living room and kitchen that are likely to not be used much.
After that it was time to head into the city. This time I walked out to Alewife Station, the end of the Red Line. It's about a 25 minute walk, so there's no really fast ways from our B&B to the main parts of the city, but much of the walk is along the "Fitchburg Cutoff Bikepath", which varied from very nice to gorgeous. It's along the Mystic River, so there's a lot of nice greenery there.
Then it was the Red Line to the Orange Line to North Station, then a fun walk across "removable bridgeways" and locks, all under the "Zakim Bridge" or "Bunker Hill Bridge", which is a beautiful cable-stay bridge that is less than 15 years old.
The main point of the day was to walk the Freedom Trail which is a literal brick path that threads through the streets of Charlestown and Boston.
The highlight was early on, The Bunker Hill Memorial, which is apparently on Breed's Hill. There's a cool monument there, and you can walk up 294 steps to the top. I'm very good at climbing, but it was still challenging, and coming down even more so. (A few hundred steps away from the monument and my leg muscles seized up for a second and weren't up to full snuff again for hours.) There was also a nice museum right across the street that had a great miniatures setup and a voiceover that described the attacks on Bunker (Breed's) Hill. Very enlightening.
The Old North Church is cool because that's where Paul Revere's lanterns were supposedly hung.
Paul Revere's House was cool as a place to see what a really old house would have been like in historic times in Boston. Much nicer than I would have guessed.
The Old State House is cool because it's a gorgeous old building and also because the "State" stop on the Blue and Orange Lines is in its basement. (I learned what a couple of stops were today!)
I saw three different cemeteries, and they didn't start out very interesting and got less-so. It was kind of neat seeing such old stones in such good condition, but then I dozed off. I did stop and see the graves for John Hancock and Paul Revere at the last cemetery.
The Massachusetts State House has a big golden dome, as if Donald Trump lived there, but the only mention I heard of Donald Trump today was someone saying "F* Donald Trump, F* that guy." While taking a picture of his wife with a donkey.
I ended in Boston Common, which is a nice public area, but what I really loved is the adjacent Boston Public Garden which feels much more secluded and is much better tended. (They were both quite crowded.)
And I ended the day by walking through Chinatown to the Rose Kennedy Greenway. I walked along a bit of it, and then when I saw how much more there was decided to hop on a train and get back to Cambridge.
After dinner, I helped a bit with the setup for the design workshop tomorrow.
I finally found the name for the mostly empty area where I'm staying. It's the Cambridge Highlands. So there you go.
Got home and met my apartment mate, Heather. She apparently needs downtime after conferncing too, and so the RWOT house didn't work for her either. I think we both got lucky with the shared need for quiet.
The workshop starts tomorrow, which is the real reason for being here.
Except while I was on the plane, Chris let me know that because of the challenging bed situation at the RWOT house, and my desire to have a private room to retain my sanity, he'd reserved another place about 3 miles out for myself and another RWOT guest.
Great, I was very appreciative of the privacy and I also thought it sounded like a nice walk at the end of each day of RWOT, so I was 100% jazzed.
But the irony was that I'd chosen my overnight B&B in part because it was around the corner from the RWOT house. It would have just involved a block of schlepping.
Instead, I got to explore the train and bus system to get out to whatever the name is of the area that our new apartment was in, near Belmont. But it was easy. One stop up the Red Line, then a walk through the Harvard Station to the bus repository, at which point I grabbed a bus that took me to within three blocks or so of my new house. There are a couple of busses that arrive between 0-3 blocks away.
The new apartment is a nice little basement apartment that smelled pleasantly like wood when I opened the door. Two bedrooms, and a common area of living room and kitchen that are likely to not be used much.
After that it was time to head into the city. This time I walked out to Alewife Station, the end of the Red Line. It's about a 25 minute walk, so there's no really fast ways from our B&B to the main parts of the city, but much of the walk is along the "Fitchburg Cutoff Bikepath", which varied from very nice to gorgeous. It's along the Mystic River, so there's a lot of nice greenery there.
Then it was the Red Line to the Orange Line to North Station, then a fun walk across "removable bridgeways" and locks, all under the "Zakim Bridge" or "Bunker Hill Bridge", which is a beautiful cable-stay bridge that is less than 15 years old.
The main point of the day was to walk the Freedom Trail which is a literal brick path that threads through the streets of Charlestown and Boston.
The highlight was early on, The Bunker Hill Memorial, which is apparently on Breed's Hill. There's a cool monument there, and you can walk up 294 steps to the top. I'm very good at climbing, but it was still challenging, and coming down even more so. (A few hundred steps away from the monument and my leg muscles seized up for a second and weren't up to full snuff again for hours.) There was also a nice museum right across the street that had a great miniatures setup and a voiceover that described the attacks on Bunker (Breed's) Hill. Very enlightening.
The Old North Church is cool because that's where Paul Revere's lanterns were supposedly hung.
Paul Revere's House was cool as a place to see what a really old house would have been like in historic times in Boston. Much nicer than I would have guessed.
The Old State House is cool because it's a gorgeous old building and also because the "State" stop on the Blue and Orange Lines is in its basement. (I learned what a couple of stops were today!)
I saw three different cemeteries, and they didn't start out very interesting and got less-so. It was kind of neat seeing such old stones in such good condition, but then I dozed off. I did stop and see the graves for John Hancock and Paul Revere at the last cemetery.
The Massachusetts State House has a big golden dome, as if Donald Trump lived there, but the only mention I heard of Donald Trump today was someone saying "F* Donald Trump, F* that guy." While taking a picture of his wife with a donkey.
I ended in Boston Common, which is a nice public area, but what I really loved is the adjacent Boston Public Garden which feels much more secluded and is much better tended. (They were both quite crowded.)
And I ended the day by walking through Chinatown to the Rose Kennedy Greenway. I walked along a bit of it, and then when I saw how much more there was decided to hop on a train and get back to Cambridge.
After dinner, I helped a bit with the setup for the design workshop tomorrow.
I finally found the name for the mostly empty area where I'm staying. It's the Cambridge Highlands. So there you go.
Got home and met my apartment mate, Heather. She apparently needs downtime after conferncing too, and so the RWOT house didn't work for her either. I think we both got lucky with the shared need for quiet.
The workshop starts tomorrow, which is the real reason for being here.