random thoughts – Day 2,357 (Friday) – elephants in boston

Elephants on Comm Ave.

Today, on the final Friday of the free Friday MBTA commuter train program, I finally made it to Boston. A friend and I boarded at Wachusett Station, which is a stone’s throw from my house and only a bit further from hers. We chatted the entire 1.5 hour ride to North Station.

Our plan was to see The Great Elephant Migration, an exhibit of 100 life sized elephant sculptures on the Commonwealth Mall (Commonwealth Ave). Options for getting to the exhibit from the train station (1.2 miles) included the Green Line of the subway or walking. We walked. It was 80-plus degrees. There were a few raindrops early into the walking, but not enough to make an impact.

The exhibit is really cool. According to the exhibit sign, each elephant is a replica of a named and known wild elephant of the Nilgiri Hills of southern India. It extends for a couple blocks in the shady stretch of the park that runs up the middle of Comm Ave. There were quite a lot of people, but everyone was cordial and it wasn’t overwhelming.

Bridal party and swan boats.

After seeing the elephants, we popped over a couple streets to the Prudential Center to enjoy some air conditioning and a falafel lunch break. Then we walked over to Newbury Street before heading into The Public Garden and back towards North Station. At 4:00, the Public Garden was busy with people, swan boats on the water, geese on the grass, and two wedding parties having photos done within sight of the bench upon which we rested for a few minutes. It was a beautiful afternoon with lots of sunshine.

On the way back to North Station and in no rush, we saw a lot of stuff. We popped into a store with a store closing sale of Chinese figurines, dishes, jewelry display racks, satin embroidered cushions, and tons of other stuff we liked but didn’t want to have to carry to the train. We passed the Financial District, saw the Old State House, passed Faneuil Hall, and walked through the produce market outside Boston Public Market. It was a large market (and crowded). Every vendor had fruit packaged by the same producer/distributor, which seemed weird. I might have bought some veggies, but just like the stuff in the store closing sale, I didn’t feel like schlepping stuff to the train. 

Outside Boston Public Market.

Without scheduling our time, we still managed to arrive a North Station at 5:15, which was just in time for my friend to get an iced coffee before we boarded the 5:30 train for home. While she got coffee, I noticed a sign posted on the very high corrugated metal ceiling and nearly fell over backward trying (and failing) to get a clear photo of it. It read "Danger - do not walk on ceiling." Ok, no worries. 

At home, I turned on a movie called The Drama with Zendaya and Robert Pattison (HBO). Immediately, the scenery looked familiar. The movie was filmed in Boston and the streets of Back Bay and the Financial District leapt out, as I had just been there a few hours earlier. 

It was so much fun. Even with train fare, it will be less expensive and less stressful than getting into the city by driving and parking. I need to get to Boston more often.