Arrival in Boston

July 18, 2009 -- Boston MA
My Flight left Duluth at 6:30 Central Time and with a brief stop over in Detroit, got into Boston’s Logan Airport at about noon Eastern time. By 1:30 CJL and I were checked into the room and ready to explore a bit. Since this was the only day I expect any substantial free time, we took a cab to the Museum of Fine Arts. Just as were were about to go in the door, a guy came up to us and gave us free tickets for admission. There was some sort of event there today and he either had some extras or didn’t need his. Whatever the reason, it saved us $17 each for admission. Since the place closes at 5:00, I was glad we didn’t have to pay the admission price.

Once inside we learned that the Japanese Arms and Armor exhibit is no longer on display due to some major construction underway. That seemed disappointing at first, but we discovered that the far eastern art they still have on display is more than enough to fill a few hours. There were at least a couple of pieces that I recognized from my recently purchased used textbook on the history of eastern art. That was cool. Some very cool, very old stone sculptures from that part of the world, a smallish sword display that focused mainly on tsuba (hand guards), a recreated room from a Buddhist temple with some very large statues, and much more. There was lots more, (including an exhibit on the architecture and furniture of Greene and Greene) but we didn’t, have the time to see it all before the place closed up for the day.
From the Museum we walked to an Irish pub (the Lir). CJL had Sam Adams Summer brew and the shepherds pie. I had a couple Smithwicks and the Cork fish and chips. The beer and food was very welcome by this point (you may have caught that we skipped lunch in favor of maximizing our time at the museum). The fish and chips were okay but on the plus side there was plenty of food to make up for missing lunch.
After that it was about a 1.1 mile walk back to the hotel according to CJL’s Blackberry/GPS unit. There I discovered it is almost $11 per day for internet access from the room. Ouch!