I am fond of saying that Boston is America's most underrated city. It's pretty, complicated and narrow streets are filled with turn of the century buildings, the city is full of educational institutions, and increasingly it offers easy pedestrian access to rivers and the sea-shore. I like Boston's combination of daring modern architecture and grand old buildings. Boston hides its charms and then reveals them slowly.
I have been to Boston five or six times, depending on how you count. The first trip, in May 1988 with Jim, seems to have resulted in no photos. I visited again, with Gregg, in 1991 (and was in the city briefly again in 1992), and this first of these two visits resulted in a few photos.
I next went to Boston with Yvon in June, 2007. We landed in a cloudy and windy Boston, had no warm clothes, and bought MIT sweatshirts to get us through. The only sun we saw was just as we were checking into our hotel, and immediately after I rushed Yvon to Boston's most pleasant plaza, Copley Square, and got several great shots. Still, the sky is cloudy in most of these pics.
I invited myself along when my friend Andrew went to Boston to see Natalie Merchant in June, 2008. We spent three days there, in sun, with some very humid weather. Finally, Yvon and I had a brief, messy visit to Boston in 2017 that didn't go entirely as planned, but we saw something of the north end of the city and that was interesting.
Photo List (Total 436 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
Boston with Andrew in 2008
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Central Boston (92 photos) - Includes our walk through the Boston Common and Public Garden, past the Massachusetts State building, over to City Hall, the many towers of central Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and our last meal together in Boston at the fabulous Barking Crab.
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Back Bay (55 photos) - Shots of uur hotel in the Back Bay, of the charming Back Bay Streetscapes, of the Christian Science Center, about a million photos of the John Hancock Building, and, of course, a few snaps from the Natalie Merchant concert.
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Boston Back Bay Fens (48 photos) - Includes shots of the Fenway Victory Gardens, the Back Bay Fens (designed by Frederick Law Olmstead), a few buildings close by to the fens, and my visit with Andrew to the Boston Museum of Fine Art.
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Cambridge (48 photos) - We visited cool buildings at MIT, and then went on to Harvard.
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Transit photos (11 photos) - We visited cool buildings at MIT, and then went on to Harvard.
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Plane photos (7 photos) - A few photos from my landing in Boston, and a few more when the plane was taking off.
Boston with Yvon in 2007
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Central Boston (41 photos) - Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, State House, several photos of the endangered Boston City Hall, the Holocaust Memorial, the Federal Reserve Tower, some ongoing landscaping at street level for the Big Dig project, and various other buildings.
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North End (24 photos) - Narrow streets, graveyards, old churches, Christopher Columbus Park, and Paul Revere's House.
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Back Bay and Copley Square (21 photos) - At Copley Square, many photos of the John Hancock building, some churches, and a few photos of a walk through the back bay.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (31 photos) - Two new remarkable buildings at MIT, including Frank Gehry's Stata Centre and Simmons Hall. A few photos of central Boston from the Charles River.
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South End and waterfront (37 photos) - The brand new Institute of Contemporary Art, plus some views of a courthouse, Boston's conference centre, the Children's Museum, and Boston's waterfront.
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Transit photos (8 photos) - The Boston "T", an overbuilt bus station, and a new bridge
Boston and Provincetown with Gregg in 1991
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Boston and Provincetown (13 photos) - Some shots of the visit that Gregg and I made to Provincetown, hauling our trailer from Toronto to the Cape. Also a visit to Boston on the way home.
