Charles River Esplanade

Our original plan for our Boston trip was to return home on May 16^th, catching an early morning train. Unfortunately, Amtrak had other plans, which involved a bus from Wells to Freeport. Since I am not the best traveler, I nixed that option. This meant that we were not leaving Boston until 5 pm and needed to find something to do until at least 3 or 4 o’clock.

After studying our options, we finally agreed to walk along the Charles River Esplanade. It was only a few blocks from the hotel, so after storing our luggage at the hotel we headed towards the river. Fortunately, I had printed out a map of the Esplanade which depicted the entrance points that would take us over a very busy highway via a pedestrian bridge.

Once we crossed the Fairfield footbridge, we created a loop that would eventually bring us back to our starting point. We began our stroll, by turning left towards Massachusetts Avenue. Here we passed a few playgrounds, lots of benches and a memorial. When we reached the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, we turned around.

I had noticed from the map that there were a few bridges that attached to a nearby island. Our plan was to cross over to that island and cross back over when we reached the end, finishing up the loop on the main land side. As we neared our starting point, we found one of those bridges. First, we had to study it, since the crossings throughout the park were stunning.

The grounds on the island side were well maintained with green lawns, water views and benches on either side of the walkway. There were also geese, lots of geese! The path was clean however, and we only needed to watch our step when we went off trail. There were a few gardens on this side as well. Here we found bluebells, Stars of Bethlehem, Columbine and Bleeding Hearts. We also found a very interesting light purple flower with a yellow center that looked like it was spray painted. We later discovered that it was a Painted Tulip.

As we approached the end of the island, we passed the Arthur Fiedler statue and bandstand. Behind the bandstand was a large shed for storing boats and a dock nearby. Two of the boats moored off this dock were covered with cormorants, sunning themselves. Beside the shed, someone had dropped some food, and as a result the geese had spread the word that there was food to be had. Pretty soon, we noticed some rabbits come out from beneath the building. Then all of a sudden there was at least a dozen rabbits.

We were near the end of the island now and crossed back over to the mainland. Back in town, we found a place for lunch, before picking up some sandwiches for our train ride home. On the train, we discovered that there were 150 school children on board. This meant that the train was quite full. To be fair, the Amtrak staff seated the children in the last two cars which made the 3-hour ride to Freeport bearable. Once in Freeport, it was another hour and a half drive home. It was so good to be home.

Strolling Around Back Bay

On May 14^th, the third day of our Boston trip, we decided to stay in town and explore the Back Bay area. I knew there were several churches with stained glass windows, and at least one with Tiffany windows, so this was my goal. I also wanted to check out the Boston Public Library, which was right across the street from our hotel.

We are typically early rises, so when we arrived at Trinity Church it was still closed to visitors. The notice on the door informed us that they opened at 10, so we walked around the building where we found a cute little garden between the two buildings of the church. As we circled the building, we discovered a beautiful reflection of the church in the windows of a modern building. It was an interesting study of old and new.

Since the library had opened at 9, we re-ordered our itinerary and headed there next. The marble entrance and artwork surrounding that staircase was impressive. From there, we peeked in at the large Reading Room. As we walked through the Abbey Room, we stopped to study the paintings depicting the Sir Galahad story. A long staircase led us to the Sargent Gallery. After admiring all the artwork, we made our way to the Boylston Building, passing through a lovely courtyard first. We explored several sections here, before grabbing a snack at the Newsfeed Cafe.

When we were ready to move on, we walked back to Trinity Church, followed by a stop at the Old South Church. We strolled around the churches studying the windows created by different artist. It turned out that the Tiffany windows were in another church that was closed on the day of our visit, but there was enough to see in the ones we visited. As music lovers, we were also impressed by the organs and the number of pipes in both churches. Both organs had over 7000 pipes. I imagined that they must produce some magnificent music.

We took a brief respite, enjoying another snack at a coffee shop before making our way to the Public Gardens. I just could not get enough of gardens during this trip. There were quite a few people strolling around the pond. We studied an island in the middle of the pond and the islands of tulips throughout the park.

We continued our journey through the Boston Commons, but were more impressed by the gardens, so we made our way back there. When we re-entered the garden, we found the Make Way for Ducklings statue where some little ones were enjoying the row of ducks. We eventually made our way back to the pond where we rested on a bench in front of a rather large Redwood tree.

It had been another productive day but now it was time for an early dinner and some rest.

Olmsted Park

Our final destination for the day was the Olmsted Park. When we had mentioned this garden to our Boston friend, she was not quite sure what we were talking about since the entire Emerald Necklace was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. After researching the park system, we discovered that this park was originally called Leverett. The name was changed to Olmsted Park in 1900 in honor of its creator. Within this park, there were 3 ponds; a small kettle pond called Ward’s Pond, another small pond called Willow Pond, and the larger Leverett Pond.

After leaving Jamaica Pond, we crossed another street before walking beside a wall that separated us from the park. There was no entrance at this corner, but as we strolled near the wall, we could see a place where there was a clearly defined path coming up from the park and ending at this wall. Perhaps, many people took this shortcut down to the trails below, but we continued to the next corner where we found access to the park.

This section of the Olmsted Park, near Ward’s Pond, was more rustic than the cultivated areas of the Arboretum and Jamaica Pond, which we found quite charming. I stopped to admire the stream that was flowing from a tunnel underneath the street down towards the pond. I experimented with different shots before we continued our journey.

As we walked around this body of water, we found a swan sitting on a nest. I managed to get a picture without disturbing her. A little further up the path, there was a small sandy area beside the water, where we watched someone drawing a picture of the swan’s partner swimming a little offshore. After a short time, we continued following the path around the pond.

When we neared the entrance, another trail appeared to our right that switched back above the one we were on. We followed this byway, hoping it would lead us towards Willow Pond. We were beginning to feel weary from our full day of walking, so we perched on a rectangular stone and looked across the bridge in front of us. Across the bridge, it looked like the park became a more formal garden once more. Under the bridge was a small body of water, I assumed was Willow Pond.

The rest on the bridge did not revive us enough. We were now on, what I would call, the death march. We just wanted to get back to the hotel and rest. As we walked quickly past the manicured grass, we barely noticed the large Leverett Pond. Well, we knew it was there, but did not pause to study it. At the next intersection, we consulted our map in order to figure out the location of the nearest station or bus stop. We had to walk a tiny bit more to reach a bus stop where we picked up a tram back to town.

Despite overdoing it, It had been a wonderful day.

Jamaica Pond

Once we exited Arnold Arboretum, we had to make our way over to Jamaica Pond. Our directions indicated that we had to turn left out of the gardens towards the corner. There we found a very busy traffic circle, so we had to go a little further until we reached a crosswalk. After safely crossing the street, we walked about half a mile before we reached Jamaica Pond.

According to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy website, the path around the pond was about 1.5 miles. Our goal was to walk halfway around the pond before crossing the street to the Olmsted Park, but first, it was time for lunch. Not far into the preserve, we parked ourselves on a bench with views of the water and proceeded to enjoy our picnic lunch.

There were plenty of people enjoying a stroll on such a perfect day, so it was clear that this park was well loved and used by many. Out on the water below us, I watched someone fishing before turning my attention to the walkers, runners and others enjoying a day in the park. We soaked in the peaceful atmosphere for a time before forcing ourselves to move on.

We strolled along a paved path, taking plenty of opportunities to study the rabbits, squirrels and ducks scurrying or waddling around. On the pond itself, we saw sailboats and kayaks waiting to be taken out. On one of the boats further out in the lake, I spied two cormorants ruling over all they could see. As we got closer to the boathouse, I found a small, cultivated garden of Giant Onion and Wintercress. I tried to do something artistic with the brick wall, blue sky and masts in the background but ended up settling on an ordinary photo of the flowers as a reminder of our trip.

We walked a little further on until we reached a path that would take us to the street. From there we would cross the street and explore the Olmsted Park.

Arnold Arboretum

For our second day in Boston, May 13^th, I had planned a full day of walking. This was the day I was going to see those lilacs blooming. We would take the Orange line out to the Forest Hills stop, then walk to Arnold Arboretum and explore the various areas of the park. Then, we would walk to Jamaica Pond where we would enjoy our lunch, since picnics were not allowed at the arboretum. In the afternoon, we would meander around the pond before heading to Olmsted Park. At the top of Olmsted, we would catch a Green line back to Copley Square. It sounded ambitious, but I felt we could do this. After picking up sandwiches at DeLuca’s Market we made our way to the Back Bay Station.

Once we reached our stop, we paused at a very busy intersection to figure out where we had to go to get to the Arboretum. After a short walk from the train station up Arbor Way we were in the gardens. Our first stop was to study the map so I could locate the lilac walk and then we were on our way. We did take a brief break to study a pond directly across from the path to the lilacs.

There was a fork on this byway, with one heading in an uphill direction. This was the one I took, thinking it was the best option. Then I saw all the lilac bushes on the trail below us. Of course we had to backtrack, but not before I had reached an open area with trees in the distance where I paused to study an old log on the ground.

Now that we were going in the right direction, we were surrounded by lilacs. There were many different colors and varieties, both white and purple. I was so happy to be surrounded by all this beauty. As we neared the end of the Lilac path, I found a cluster of Foam flowers hiding underneath one of the bushes.

Now here was where things got interesting. The printed map of the Arboretum from the Emerald Necklace website did not provide any trail names, so if you were relying on this for directions, you would have no idea where you were. There was the occasional board with a large map of the grounds on it, that included trail and road names, but even that wasn’t enough. For example, I could see azaleas from where we stood and a path going past them, but there was no indication of such a route on the map. There was a forked road in front of us which indicated a direction to a Bonsai Collection but it was not clear which fork we needed to take.

We decided to head to the Bonsai Collection and took the right fork. We never did find that part of the garden. In my experience, this was typical of arboretums. I don’t think I have ever visited one without getting lost. In any case, we did find a more manicured and formal garden. Shortly after that we reached the main entrance. We did not stop at the visitor’s center for directions to the Bonsai Garden. It was getting close to lunch time, and we needed to find Jamaica Pond.