a wide place

We let ourselves sleep in until 7:30 for our last day in the city, and then took the T to a breakfast spot Jessica picked. Rain was forecast for Sunday, but we only felt a slight drizzle.

I couldn’t help sneaking a picture in the train for my kids. Judah and Amie rode the subway in New York City, but Gabe and Noah haven’t experienced public transportation yet. I know they’ll love it.

Don’t you wish you lived on a street called Wigglesworth? It sounds like a Beatrix Potter character.

We passed so many historic churches; if we’d more time I’d have liked to learn the story of each.

Milkweed.

Milkweed Cafe, an upscale diner, is in a quiet neighborhood of Boston, and the food was delicious: I ordered the avocado bacon mushroom scramble with sourdough toast.

Next we set out to walk the few blocks to the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum for our 10:30 ticket reservation.

Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum.

I didn’t know anything about Isabella Stewart Gardener until I read the book Rembrandt is in the Wind, which devotes a chapter to her story. She was a fascinating and extraordinarily wealthy woman who built an art museum in the late 1800’s to share her vast collection of treasures with the world.

The museum, in which she lived with her husband, is designed in the style of the Italian Renaissance, and the building alone is breath-taking.

Covered stone walkways open to a center courtyard with lush trees and flowers.

It’s obvious that every single aspect of the museum, from its design to decor, to the art and artifacts on display, was chosen with utmost care. On our tour we learned that everything is preserved exactly as Gardener originally placed it. We took the audio tour (and read the transcripts on our phones because it was easiest) and I love how many times the docent said “Notice how such and such works of art are placed and how they speak to each other.” Truly, Gardener herself was an artist.

Many people who’ve heard of this museum know it because in 1990, thirteen works of art were stolen and never recovered (there is a Netflix documentary about it which I have yet to watch). It was terribly sad to see the empty frames in the Dutch Room, especially for me the large gilded frames where works by Rembrandt once graced the walls.

Even with this loss, we saw paintings and sketches by Fra Angelico and Botticelli, Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael, Sargent and Whistler, Manet and Degas.

As someone who enjoys both history and art, I’ve been thankful to visit a good number of museums, and I have to say this one may be my favorite. It was just so personal compared to the Louvre or the Uffizi or the Met. I appreciated that its smallness makes it less overwhelming. I love Gardener’s dream of using her wealth to create a place of treasures “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever,” and I love that she actually lived and hosted friends there.

We spent two hours prowling the museum and could easily have spent two more. I hope to return one day.

The Boston Public Library.

Next we walked to the Boston Public Library, which was back in “our” part of the city. By then the drizzle had cleared, and although the skies were gray, the rain held off until the evening, which was a gift for these two tourists.

Earlier this year, our book club read a murder mystery called The Woman in the Library, in which a murder takes place in the Reading Room of the Boston Public Library. I did not personally care for the book, though many in the group did (I like us because we are not afraid to disagree, strongly and at times loudly), and we had a rousing discussion. It was deliciously creepy to visit the Reading Room and imagine dastardly deeds committed here.

But now on to the real reason Jessica and I came: not murder, but tea!

Infinitely better.

I didn’t know this, but you can make a reservation for high tea at the library in the Courtyard Tea Room. Thank you, Jessica, for knowing this and suggesting we experience a high tea here together.

Prepare yourself for many pictures of our tea party.

Each menu comes in a vintage book. The menu is fixed, which I much prefer because how could I ever choose? The only choice we had to make was whether we’d like a glass of champagne with our tea. Why, yes, we would.

Jessica chose a pot of Earl Gray and I chose my favorite English Breakfast tea. We began with a pumpkin scone served with clotted cream and carmelized apple butter. If you’re wondering why you see a copy of the Puffin Classic Anne of Green Gables on our table, wonder no more:

It contained our sugar cubes!

Our table was right in front of the bookcases. And I appreciate that the Courtyard Tea Room color-codes their books like I do.

Isn’t this display magnificent? Truly it does not do the food justice. It was all incredible. The lowest plate was for sandwiches and savory tarts. Then a seafood plate. And on top were our sweets.

It doesn’t look like that much food but I assure you, we could barely finish it all. We also each drank a pot of tea, and of course, our champagne, deliciously cold and refreshing.

This is the babiest lobster roll you’ve ever beheld, topped with caviar (my first taste).

And here, the desserts. My favorite was the Peruvian shortbread biscuit and Jessica’s, the spiced pear cheesecake tart.

Finally, it was time to be on our way. What we wanted was a nap; what we needed was a good long walk in the brisk Boston air to wake us up.

The Freedom Trail provides just that!

The Freedom Trail.

It’s a literal brick path that winds through the heart of Boston, showing all the most important historic sights from America’s road to independence.

Jessica has been here before, but I just gulped it all in. So much so that I didn’t do the best job of following the actual path and kept wandering off into crowds. There was just so much to see. This is where Paul Revere is buried and where he lived. This is where the Boston Tea Party was planned and where Phyllis Wheatley was baptized. These are some of the places in which we became a country.

We also took time to stroll through the Fanueil Hall Marketplace — very touristy, but I needed to find my souvenir sweatshirt. Then we ended our walk in the North End, which is full of sumptuous looking Italian restaurants. Although I have to say we were still far too full to contemplate food.

I snapped this pic for Amie, because I knew she’d want to paint it. She’s already been hard at work water-coloring several of the photos I took, like this from our day in Concord:

It was raining in earnest by this point, so we took a Lyft back to Beacon Hill, for one more stop in the bookshop.

See why it’s so hard to resist? I love the vase of paper flowers and the squirrel logo (yes, I did grab that tote bag for my daughter).

We were tired of walking and needed a break, so Jessica googled “cozy bars in Beacon Hill,” and found us a magical spot.

We sat in the basement bar for a drink and relaxed and people watched until the rain cleared. We also made our dinner reservation (can you tell food and drink were never far from our minds? But that’s how I like to sight-see. Lots of walking followed by eating and drinking. And repeat).

It was dark by the time we reached our neighborhood for dinner at a cute cafe called Sonsie, where we split several Asian small plates.

We took one last nighttime walk back to our hotel, ready to fall into bed and finish Little Women. We had a 4:30 wake-up call for our Monday morning flight!

As you can see, we had the most wonderful weekend. I’m so thankful for a friend who wanted to go adventuring with me and I’m thankful for new memories.

I miss you already, Boston!