Days 12 and 13 – July 3rd and 4th, 2019 – Boston, Massachusetts to Boston, Massachusetts: 0 miles
I get some family time in.
Missed Day 11? – Day 11 – July 2nd, 2019 – Lincolnville, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts: ~200 miles
As my sister lives in Boston, Vy and I decided to blow off our plans for the next couple of days so I could stay in town and attempt to be a good brother. I’ll spare you the family festivities, but here are a few highlights from a couple of days in Boston:
This feels like one of the fake valet signs I hate seeing in major cities, but I couldn’t help be amused by the flat back and top hat of the “valet.”
Though a bunch of people were looking at me funny, I had to pop Baby Jack on the Boston Marathon finish line for a photo.
Always have to do to a little bike spotting when walking around major cities. The Z125 would make for a fun city runabout.
Suzuki SV650 and Kawasaki Ninja 650. I’d go with the SV, how about you?
Ducati Diavel
BMW Rnine T Scrambler
We headed into Boston Common and watched one of the legendary swan boats leisurely float on by. Did you know that the design dates back to the 1870s?
A duck was also admiring the view.
Speaking of – Boston Common is famous for its ducks, thanks to the children’s book Make Way for Ducklings. Here’s a fun story of politicians at work: in 2000, some schoolkids in Canton nominated Make Way for Ducklings to be the Commonwealth’s official children’s book. They tried to get a bill passed, but representatives from Springfield (the birthplace of Dr. Seuss) blocked it, saying that it should be one of his works. They compromised by calling Dr. Seuss the official children’s author and Make Way for Ducklings the official children’s book, and nothing useful was accomplished.
Hoping to find some of these productive legislators, we visited the Massachusetts State House. This is the entrance, and I took a photo because I’m immature.
In the House of Representatives, there’s a 4’11” long wood fish nicknamed the “Sacred Cod.” It’s ‘a memorial of the importance of cod fishing to the welfare of Massachusetts.’
Where the magic happens.
How the representatives vote.
There’s a room with flags from every city and town. My hometown (Andover) is third from the left on the bottom row.
Baby Jack addresses the media.
This Honda CB500 (I think?) custom caught my eye. I especially loved the color.
I didn’t realize until after I took the photo that he’s got some sort of iPad or notebook in his lap! Looks like he needs a saddlebag or backpack.
We saw an odd map in a plaza – Vy recognized that “Free City” was part of a Ryan Reynolds movie.
Turns out it’s for Free Guy, a movie about a video game character that becomes self-aware. The plaza is shown in the first 5 seconds of this trailer, but seeing as it hasn’t been released yet (delayed due to COVID) I can’t imagine anyone else cares:
If you buy a BMW G310R, you should be obligated to spend the extra $100 on the much better looking white/red/blue Motorsports livery. But that might not be possible any more, as the G310R doesn’t show as a 2021 model on the BMW USA website. Too bad, though I guess it wasn’t selling very well as I rarely see them in the wild.
A small alley in downtown houses the “Boston Bricks”, a series of ~100 bronze brick-sized plaques that celebrate Boston.
There’s some good, like how Boston had America’s first subway system.
There’s also some bad, like how Boston is notable for aggressive drivers (and the term “Massholes.”)
Mass Ave. is one of the busiest streets in Boston, so it’s weird to see it closed to traffic. The city was blocking it off to prepare for July 4th festivities, and this lady was taking advantage of the lack of cars to get some photos of her and her dog.
The next day, we found a tiny house.
As the sign says, it’s known as the “Spite House.” No one’s 100% sure of why it was built, but per the Boston Globe: “Local legend says two brothers inherited land from their deceased father. While one brother was away serving in the military, the other built a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that he felt certain was too tiny to build on. When the soldier returned, he found his inheritance depleted and built the narrow house to spite his brother by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view, giving rise to its nickname, the ‘spite house’.” It was on the market in 2017 for $895,000.
Also small but actually in my budget was a Red Sox cupcake.
But we decided to get a more traditional Boston desert – a cannoli from Mike’s Pastry. We weren’t the only one with that idea.
A H-D bagger was waiting right outside.
Great boat name! This is supposed to be a crazier type of boat tour, with speeds up to 40 mph and a few 180s and 360s “thrown in for evil measure.” The 70-foot-long boat is made out of aluminum and is powered by two turbodiesel engines that put out 2,800 hp.
Here’s their promotional video:
Outside of the Children’s museum there’s a 40-foot-tall milk bottle that was built out of wood in 1930. It was abandoned in the 60s, but Hood bought it in 1977 and then gave it to the Children’s Museum (it was shipped via ferry.”
Not entirely sure what’s going on here, but a shirtless guy on a scooter filming a couple of bicyclists definitely got my attention.
We broke from our usual diet of lobster rolls to get some oysters.
Just kidding, we got a lobster roll, too.
As it was July 4th, we all headed over to my sister’s office in downtown for an elevated view of the fireworks.
It was a lovely end to our last day in Boston.
A Massachusetts State Policeman on the standard-issue Harley-Davidson.
Little shoutout for Vy – throughout the day, she and I had been getting messages from people recognizing her in a Best Buy commercial. I’m always excited when she gets recognized!
Tomorrow, we’d get back on the road.
On to Day 14!