As I mentioned before, Terry is a heavy user of WhatsApp, and so has struck up friendships with many people across the country and around the world. One such friend is Wynter, a woman who lives in Boston. We spent this day visiting with Wynter and her boyfriend Johnny:
My apologies to Wynter for my deficiencies as a photographer - she's really much better looking than this picture makes her look.
We began the day by meeting them at Wynter's house:
No, not the whole building. It's a church that's been converted into condos. Wynter has a unit on the lower level.
After a stop at Starbucks, we drove around the neighborhood for a while. We passed through an area of Victorian style houses, and another area of brownstones - I felt like we went from San Francisco to New York. We ended up at Castle Island, which isn't really an island, but apparently was one until 1928, when it was joined to the mainland. The "island" is the location of Fort Independence (w), a military installation, no longer in service, which once provided harbor defense for Boston.
As we walked around the perimeter of the fort, I took this panoramic view of the harbor:
Eventually, we came to the fort's main gate:
...and then looked inside, where I took this panoramic shot:
As you can see on this map, the fort is actually a five-sided structure - sort of an early version of the Pentagon:
We then walked out on the causeway around Pleasure Bay, as far as Head Island, and then walked back to the car. From the parking lot, I could see cargo ships piled high with containers:
Our next stop was the Massachusetts State House (w) :
...which is right across from Boston Common (w), a large public park:
Johnny knows someone who works at the State House (Johnny seems to know just about everyone in Boston), and tried to arrange for a personal guided tour. It turned out that his friend wasn't working that day, but he did manage to get us a preferred parking spot.
We entered the State House through the Hooker entrance. That's not what you think it is. It's called that because of the statue of General Joseph Hooker (w), a Civil War General:
In lieu of the personal tour, we took the public tour. Unfortunately, the guide wasn't very good. The tour started in Doric Hall, so named for its Doric columns:
...where we saw this portrait of Lincoln:
...and this bust of John Hancock:
At one point, we saw this impressive stained glass ceiling, incorporating the Massachusetts State Seal at its center:
Also of interest was this Hall of Flags, containing one flag for every city and town in Massachusetts:
The Senate chamber was under renovation at the time, so we didn't get to see it. But we did see the House of Representatives:
And tucked away in a corner was this sculpture, which fascinated me. Two disembodied hands, caught in the process of molding a lump of clay into a human figure. The sculpture is titled "Creation":
That evening, we went for dinner to an Irish pub in Dorchester, a suburb in South Boston. After dinner, a group of friends joined Johnny and Wynter for an Irish jam session. Wynter plays fiddle and concertina, and Johnny plays guitar and sings. Others played assorted banjos, fiddles, drums and other percussion. There was also a woman who played an electric piano, which really didn't fit the atmosphere, especially since she didn't always play the right chords. Despite that, a rollicking good time was had by all. At one point, I joined in the fun, standing up and singing the old Irish ballad "The Mountains of Mourne" (w) - all five verses!
One man had an unusual percussion instrument. He had a long thin wooden board, which he sat on, so that it stuck out in front of him. In one hand, he held a long stick, at the end of which was a wooden figure of a man, with jointed legs, which rested on the board. With his other hand, he tapped on the board, causing it to jump up and down, which in turn caused the wooden man to "dance."
