LOVEABLE QUIRKY PEEPS

2/3/11

BOSTON...Day 3

With good and bad news.

GOOD NEWS....
I have so many awesome things to share!

BAD NEWS...
camera bit the biggie that day, went kapoot, died a quick death...blah!

So this will the the last BOSTON post with pictures :(
But I wrote things down at the end of the day. And as I read them now, the memories are just as fresh as if I were still there. So the next 4 days of memories will be fine without the visuals...


Up early to catch the subway to South Boston. Russ said we were going to church again...the New Old South Church.

Ummm, ok.

Since it was built in the 1700's, that sounded out of whack to me. I think he said the first one built in the early 1600's had burned down, so this was the new one..

But it really didn't matter, it was so unique. No pews, like other churches. Instead, there were boxes :) Someone would sit in their own boxed area. With their name engraved on a gold plaque no less...

Here, I'll just show you...


 Russ had to demonstrate...

 Not sure if this is one man's name or two different men who shared the same box area. Not sure if women and children were allowed to attend back then.. There wasn't much room for a whole family. You can see how narrow the seats are. The one you see went the length of the boxed area; Russ could have sat right down on the other seat. It's the date that had me shaking my head. Can you imagine, 287 years ago, someone was sitting there holding the bible....wow.

After taking in all I could here, Russ said we were headed to yet another church. But not like most others. I'd heard of this religion before but didn't know much about it. Russ filled me in on how a woman, MARY BAKER EDDY had started it. He told me more but I can't remember everything :) Maybe you know about her. If you don't recognize the name, you'll probably know the religion...Christian Scientists. And I know I clicked the camera at the outside of the church. It was beautifully engraved, ummm, cement I think. But had a dome, round stained glass windows and pillars. But the picture wasn't on my camera...I think this is when it started hiccuping...  Besides, we were informed that no picture taking was allowed inside.

What Russ wanted me to experience was called the Earth Globe. AMAZING is all I can think to say. If you've ever been in it, you'll know. Basically you walk into a room and it's like you're inside a globe; a map of the world. I haven't taken the time to google this and see if there's any information on it. We should... I remember the tour lady saying it was built in the 1930's by a man who requested it never be changed. But she said they had to change the names of some countries as they changed, ie, Iraq, Iran etc. Yugoslavia was still there... You could see all the continents and both the north and south poles, the latter if you looked down under where you stood. It's too hard to describe, really. I got a sticker there with this web site....www.mbelibrary.org  Shamefully, I haven't visited it yet, but I will.

Ok, after seeing a few other things there, we walked on to the Museum of Fine Arts. WOW again! No way can a person spend even a full day there and see it all. But what we did see just left me wondering what sand my head has been buried in. I had no idea I was going to see such an assortment of history! Things from so many other countries, ancient artifacts, mind boggling eye candy :)  We spent a good chunk of the morning and early afternoon there, seeing only a small portion of it. I'll go there again someday...

We had lunch somewhere but dang if I remember where or what it was...

Walked through what Russ called the Mall (not like any I've been in) then went to ISOBEL GARDENERS house....

My eyes were almost as big as my open mouth as we walked through all four stories of this monstrosity! I couldn't imagine anyone, especially one woman (with millions) in the early part of the 20th century, having so much. And I guess the more she acquired, the more she built on to her home to display it. She had huge furniture from all over the world, gigantic fireplace mantels from so many places I can't remember. She'd had a courtyard built with tiles, pillars and a pool from some ancient roman home, along with the native palm trees. Beautiful, but I have no idea how they keep them growing, along with the rare plants. It was mind boggling to say the least. And so interesting! No camera's allowed again... Then Russ told me how when she died, she left her estate to a foundation created to keep her home as is...forever. Ya, they can't move anything! She wanted it all like it was when she lived there. So I guess there's a staff that makes sure everything is dusted, vacuumed and intact. Glad they let the public see it all....

Walking all over town was so fun, especially when all of a sudden, you'd come upon...a cemetery.  A real OLD one, right in the middle of everything. And the headstones were different than any I'd seen. Not granite or smooth stone. Slate. Carved with skulls. And crossbones. Some with wings. I got a couple pictures of them...



And they all started with "Here Lies Buried The Body Of".....then tell a little about when and why they died. Interesting..........

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon and we decided to grab something to eat.  Russ suggested The Cheesecake Factory :)  so there we went. Didn't have cheesecake, but I tasted Calamari for the first, and last time, And was served mashed potato's along with my salmon...my choice. What astounded me was they were naked! Ya, no gravy!. Never in my life have I heard of serving mashed potato's without gravy. Oh what goofy New Englanders:) They were good anyway....nakedness and all:)

Then we headed to....

Boston Symphony Hall.

We still had a concert to attend..
 
I'll tell you about that on the next post...

tomorrow night.

It was sooooo cool ....

First, here's the last picture I got out of the choking camera.

It's one of the oldest..THE oldest? churches left in Boston. And where we got on the subway are the oldest subway entrances still in use. I think he said they were the first ones built...wow. What I love about this picture is the old among the new.
 And I think my favorite.

Beautiful....










See Ya Yesterday...One Tomorrow at a Time...

4 comments:

My name WAS Female, I shit you not! said...

You have taken me places I've never been to and some I've never heard of AND I LIVE 30 MILES AWAY FROM BOSTON. THX
GR8 pictures and posts.

Busy Bee Suz said...

Wow. So much purty stuff to see.
I love old churches and am very fascinated by different religions too.
The cemetery would keep me busy for hours.
I love smashed taters with NO gravey. :)

Sue said...

Vicki, here I am again with a week's worth of blog posts to catch up on. What a fascinating church and I could have spent hours in that cemetary reading the headstones. THAT is really fascinating!.

Off to check your other posts now.

Hugs

Ruth P. said...

thanks for the walk through Boston! Yes, I also learned new stuff about the place. Christian Scientists were new to me. I do know the Church of Scientology has a church there, we went by it on the walk back to my brother's house (someday I'll dig out the photos from there).
Gotta put Boston back on the list of places to visit again.
And, if you ever come to NYC, I'll drag you to the Metropolitan Museum! So far no one that visited me has escaped a visit, and everyone was duly impressed!