Ruben and I love to travel, but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hadn’t taken a vacation since 2019. This year, however, we decided it was time to get out of town and go somewhere, so we decided to visit Boston again. I’d been there twice in the nineties, once to give a presentation at a conference at Harvard, and another time to visit a friend. Most recently, Ruben and I spent a week there in 2018, and we both really liked it, so we decided to go back. This time we stayed for 10 whole days, and had a great time immersing ourselves in learning more about the history of Boston and its role in the colonial period in US history. It’s never really interested me much before, but this time I decided it was time to pay closer attention to such things. I’m glad I did. Boston has a fascinating history and is a city rich with architectural treasures and historic monuments.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2022
NOTE: CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO SEE A LARGER VERSION OF IT.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2022
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2022
Even though we had already visited many of the monuments along the Freedom Trail, such as Faneuil Hall, we decided we would walk the whole thing after we finally we made our way to the Visitor’s Center. From there we tried our best to follow the red brick path that took us to each monument along the trail. It was a 2.5 mail trek. We had no idea it would be such a strenuous journey. It kicked our butts. We even missed visiting the Bunker HIll Monument because we were so tired.
Below are a hodgepodge of photos we took while walking the freedom trail. They are in no particular order. We did see all the buildings and monuments shown above, except the Bunker Hill Monument, but I didn’t photograph every single one, and I also photographed other stuff along the way.
Ever since childhood, I’ve had an intense fascination with sailing ships and stories about pirates. The above photo of the USS Constitution doesn’t really capture it in all its glory, so I’ve added a few images of the ship at sea. I just love these.
Once we got to our room, we crashed and didn’t go anywhere else. We wound up ordering dinner via room service. It was way too expensive, but we had no energy left. We were done for the day.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022
The following day, we were still very tired and worn out from having walked the Freedom Trail, but we did manage to get out for a little while. This time around, we ventured into Little Italy for lunch and to look at some of the churches. Unfortunately, the one church I really wanted to visit was closed. We had a delicious lunch at a place called Limoncello and walked around some before heading back to our room. It was a short day, unlike the day before.
We went back to our room and called it a day a bit earlier than we had planned. Again, the trek through Boston along the Freedom Trail wore us out. We also wanted to be well rested for our trip to Salem the following day.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2022
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2022
We decided to visit Cambridge again. Below are some photos we took. Harvard yard was full of people, and it literally felt like it was raining leaves. The wind was blowing them all over the place. The leaves were gorgeous, floating in the air like feathers.
We had lunch at a place called Bartleys. It was pretty good. I had clam chowder.
Covid has messed stuff up for everyone, and the holidays, especially in 2020 and 2021, were a really rough period for people. We lost my buddy Richard in 2020 and Ruben’s dad in 2021. A lot of other friends and family also passed away these past few years. When Christmas came around last month, however, things were looking better, and I was determined to make this holiday season a more enjoyable experience for me and Ruben. And indeed, it turned out to be a much more pleasant holiday than the last few have been.
Thanksgiving turned out well. Ruben and I took his mom with us to have dinner at his brother Robert’s house. The occasion put us in the mood to start decorating the house for the Christmas season. I got the outside lights up the first weekend in December and Ruben started working on setting up the tree at that point too. It felt good to have this stuff done and out of the way. We kept the both the tree and the outside lights up through early January.
Ruben and I spent Christmas eve at home together. He made us a big stuffed baked chicken. It was delicious. The following day, we drove to my sister Irene’s house to pick up a dozen tamales and some gifts (socks etc.) she had for us. We then drove over to my other sister Becky’s house and dropped off some tamales for her. From there we went to Ruben’s mom’s house. We shared the tamales with her and Ruben’s brother Jerry and his partner Petra. Here’s a photo of Ruben’s mom with her two sons, and Petra. It’s been two years since Mr. Jimenez passed away, and we all miss him terribly, especially during the holidays. Mrs. Jimenez is 91, but active and as sharp as can be.
This year, I decided to send Christmas cards to my friends and family. I hadn’t done it in years, but just felt like it this year. Below are a sampling of cards Ruben and I received this year.
Ruben and I bought our families kringles again this year. They seem to really enjoy them. We didn’t buy each other anything. We stopped doing that a while back. We figure that we can buy anything we want for ourselves any time of the year, so why bother with the crowds and the congested roads at Christmastime? He gets lots of gifts from his customers at work. This year, I bought myself a brand new turntable. I consider it my Christmas present to myself.