The pond was really beautiful complete with fallen leaves everywhere and we did the brief walk all the way around the pond. I had picked up a brochure on Henry David Thoreau (who of course wrote, "On Walden Pond") and his time there at the pond in his two years of "living deliberately and simplistically." The more I learned about him, the less credible I found him to be when he discussed his views and perspectives on nature and the ways of the wilderness. The man lived a mile from town where he often spent evenings at the pub or hosting people in his one room cabin. He also lived a half hours walk from his parents house which his mother walked regularly to bring him meals. It's quite silly, and based on all the evidence, in spite of how beautiful his writing can be at times, I do not find Thoreau to be an authority on living simplistically or on the ways of nature. O.k. there's my rant, I think I covered everything Thoreauly... hahaha!
After Walden Pond we went to Sleepy Hollow cemetery, not the one with Ichabod Crane, but the one in Concord, MA. The cemetery was very large but really beautiful, built on these hills at the edge of town. On one of these hills which they call "ridges" was author's ridge. Here we saw the graves of Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women," Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Below is a picture of Hawthorne's grave in his family's plot. It really is a beautiful area. There were a lot of other prominent people buried there, but we were kind of in a hurry. There was one family, the Hoar family who were once part of the "royal" family of Concord, including one unfortunate gentleman who's name was George Frisbie Hoar. After our cemetery excursion, we drove through the Minuteman Historical Park where the battle of Lexington and Concord occurred during the revolution.
After we got back to Somerville, which is where Kate lives and is one of the Boston suburbs, her and I drove into Boston where we went to Mike's pastry shop, apparently a famous pastry shop. On the way we passed through Fanueil Hall Marketplace and they already had their tree up. It was SO exciting because I love Christmas, especially the commercialization and decoration of it. The tree was gorgeous, as you can see below!
The walk into the north end to little Italy was beautiful and offered some phenomenal views of the Boston skyline. It was really pretty. Unfortunately that day in Boston had a high of 38 degrees, so at this point it was pretty cold. We finally got into Mike's and there was surprisingly no line and here, I purchased my first canolli. It was a pistachio-cream one, as modeled in the below photograph. It was really good, but also really rich. I could only eat half of it in one sitting.
The next day, I took the T (their subway system) into Boston and decided to head back to Little Italy, as I didn't get to see very much of it the last time I was there. I stopped into one of the Italian restaurants and had real Italian food complete with Italian wine of course. It was a really great meal, after which, I headed to the Old North Church. The last time I was in Boston, I got to do the whole freedom trail which shows you all the historical sites. I didn't however go into many of the places because that was summer and the lines were so long. There was no one in line for the church this time and for the most part I was alone inside. It was really interesting to see their pews in particular as they were little cubicles separating each family from the rest. It was strange, but apparently the old meeting house is the same way. 
Onwards, I pointed myself towards the Boston Harbah and walked along it quite a ways. My map said that there was a marker showing where the Boston Tea Party had occurred. Unfortunately I never found it, although the harbor itself was very pretty. Since the landscape of the harbor has changed so much, and where the tea party happened was really where there is now land, I got myself a little lost looking for the marker. (Don't worry, I found myself again quite quickly).
Finally as the sun was setting, I mosied back to Fanuiel Hall to wait for Kate to get off work. Here I sat and watched the Christmas tree as well as wandered through shops and enjoyed listening to the holiday music. I wanted to be somewhere that there were a lot of people when it was dark and not in a part of town I didn't know at all, so I of course pointed myself in the direction of the area that was most heavily decorated for Christmas.
The below picture is another picture of Fanueil Hall. The whole place was really pretty and festive. There was one shop called Boston Christmas, that was two floors and probably six rooms in size, all full of Christmas ornaments. Every ornament you could imagine, they had. They were organized well too. You had the food ornaments, the pop-culture ornaments, the destination ornaments, the santa-in-different-outfits ornaments, the Irish themed ornaments, and that maybe covers one wall in one room. It was fun, but I don't know what people do with all the ornaments.
Around six, I met Kate around the corner at an Irish pub named Mr. Dooley's for a couple pints of Guinness and some true New England clam chowder. It was a really good finish to another great trip to Boston, and thanks so much to my cousin for being a good hostess. I definitely recommend Boston at at least Summer, Fall and Winter, we shall see about Spring on another visit!
Finally as the sun was setting, I mosied back to Fanuiel Hall to wait for Kate to get off work. Here I sat and watched the Christmas tree as well as wandered through shops and enjoyed listening to the holiday music. I wanted to be somewhere that there were a lot of people when it was dark and not in a part of town I didn't know at all, so I of course pointed myself in the direction of the area that was most heavily decorated for Christmas.
The below picture is another picture of Fanueil Hall. The whole place was really pretty and festive. There was one shop called Boston Christmas, that was two floors and probably six rooms in size, all full of Christmas ornaments. Every ornament you could imagine, they had. They were organized well too. You had the food ornaments, the pop-culture ornaments, the destination ornaments, the santa-in-different-outfits ornaments, the Irish themed ornaments, and that maybe covers one wall in one room. It was fun, but I don't know what people do with all the ornaments.
Around six, I met Kate around the corner at an Irish pub named Mr. Dooley's for a couple pints of Guinness and some true New England clam chowder. It was a really good finish to another great trip to Boston, and thanks so much to my cousin for being a good hostess. I definitely recommend Boston at at least Summer, Fall and Winter, we shall see about Spring on another visit!
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