Boston strong

It's Matt's birthday today so after breakfast we headed out for another day of sightseeing in the sunshine. We took a cab to the 'Cheers' pub which the 80's TV show was based on and then afterwards walked to the marina to get a nice view of the Charles River. We then crossed back over the motorway into town and walked through some really pretty tree lined residential streets. After a couple of blocks we were in town and arrived at the Boston Marathon Bombing memorial. It was one month on today since the bombings happened so there were a number of TV crews filming the site. The memorial was covered in all sorts of items that people had left but I found the line of trainers the most moving.

Our next stop was The Boston Public Library which was established in 1848 and was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The library contains 8.9 million books and is the second-largest public library in the United States. It is a beautiful and huge building with stunning reading rooms.

After a quick look around the Prudential Centre we stopped at a bar called Whiskey's for lunch. It was much harder to continue on after lunch as we were both so full due to the portion size. We walked back through the city and passed the sites where the bombs had gone off. Seeing the location really bought it home as is was just opposite the library and in a really busy shopping street. Boston is a beautiful. clean and friendly place and the support is everywhere you look to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. The memorial is a short walk away from the site which has allowed the shops to continue to trade without to much disruption from people paying their respects. Every shop has a 'Boston Strong' sign in the window and how to contribute to the Boston One Fund.

We walked back through Boston Common and then through China Town before heading back towards the hotel. We decided to pop into the New England Aquarium on the harbour. It is a small aquarium but we still saw a range of exhibits and some new species including the lump fish which I have to say its not the most attractive fish I've seen! I liked the stingray touch tank as they felt so strange and also seeing the seahorse which are always my favourite.

We had dinner at the Sea Grille and I had one of the best meals I've had in a long time. I had the pan seared jumbo sea scallops with white and green asparagus and sweet corn cream and it was to die for! I really did savour every mouthful and it was a lovely way to finish Matt's birthday.


Boston Marathon Bombing Memorial, Copley Square, Boston