So here we are — our last full day. What to do …?? Well, first of all, COFFEE!

We went to the same place as yesterday, The Thinking Cup. Heh … oh, now I get it! Took me a while. This time we both opted for lox and bagels with out typical coffees, espresso macchiato for Dan and cappuccino for me. All was quite yummy. Because it had started to sprinkle nearly everyone was eating inside, so the noise was a bit much for my ears — especially one woman sitting very nearby. She had the type of voice that just penetrates, if you know what I mean. (If you don’t maybe you should call me and I’ll demonstrate. Or not.)

We decided we’d head toward two museums, so we walked that direction. We didn’t realize we would be walking by Berklee College of Music until we were at the corner and I spotted it. (And yes, I definitely didn’t do a lot of research before heading to Boston!)

The walk was pleasant. I had no idea what direction we were talking (it was cloudy so I couldn’t see where the sun was), but our map guided us. Mostly.

First up was the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, at a sort of okay price of $20 per senior. What a hodgepodge of things she collected. It truly ran the gamut. And her “palace” also ran the gamut, as a combo of Moorish and sort of what looked like craftsman perhaps, among other things. It rather fit her crazy collection, to be honest.

Partway through we had our lunches at museum prices. So it goes! We are supporting the arts, I suppose.

Then upstairs we went. Floors two and three with a lot more hodge-podge.

And it’s always good to get advice when in the bathroom, yes?

When we got out of the museum we had to use our umbrellas for the first time. But hooray … I could then say I’d used everything I’d brought aside from one pair of socks and a pair of tights. Not bad!

We made our way (a less than five minute walk) to the MFABoston (Museum of Fine Arts Boston in case you don’t want to puzzle over what I typed first). By the time we arrived it was already 3:30 and it closed at 5:00. I have a suggestion for museums: lower your price if someone can only be there for an hour and a half! Not only is that not a thing, but they don’t have senior prices. So $27 per person it was. (And they are going up to $30 soon).

I did enjoy the museum. First up was a search for the photography exhibit. Hmm. Where was it?! Oh. It’s just a small, five photo or so, thing in a room one might pass through to get elsewhere. And it wasn’t all that exciting.

Then off to their special exhibit to check that out. Rachel Ruysch painted incredible works of flowers and bugs. (A sign outside the room warned people that there may be disturbing things due to the small animal specimens — various insects pinned in collection boxes and various small critters in jars. Those don’t bother me, but they also don’t really matter to me.) I’d seen some of her work before — I believe it was in Berlin. The exhibit of paintings (by not only the star of the show but her teacher and her younger sister) were great, but after seeing a number of them I’d seen enough and didn’t think I needed to see even more. It’s very difficult to get decent photographs due to the lighting. Oh well.

So we headed upstairs to see a variety works. We wandered and enjoyed a lot of wonderful work (Monet, Van Gogh, Millet, and many more but I’m lazy and don’t want to keep typing names!) until someone came by to tell us it was time to be leaving.

It was still sprinkling outside (thankfully it hadn’t been sprinkling inside … that would be a problem!) and Dan decided to grab a Lyft. But we didn’t grab it quickly enough: it appeared that most people had opted for the same thing and we were the last to get a car, which took 25 minutes to arrive. (Actually, he was assigned one car and shortly after that one must have canceled, he was assigned another and ditto there, so we were getting car #3.) All for a one mile drive to our hotel, except in a car it’s more than a mile of course.

Traffic in Boston isn’t great. I don’t think I’d ever want to drive here. Our driver said it’s always this way. So no thanks!

We went back to our hotel and first went to the “kitchen” to see if they had utensils since we have some chocolate cake in the fridge. And yes, they did! Then I got myself a cup of coffee because, well, it’s free at the hotel and I have a difficult time resisting free things. It was decent for hotel coffee, so I brought it up to our room where I typed much of this blog entry and we relaxed for a while.

Dinner. Ahhhh, dinner! We puzzle over this nearly every day. We say we are going to do simpler things so frequently. We’ll keep it cheaper. But, well, it was our last night, and we wanted seafood but we didn’t want to go very far. The place the hotel had recommended was more than we wanted to spend and didn’t have any openings until 8:30. I found a place (Banks Seafood and Steak) that looked less expensive and had a 7:00 opening. Plus it was only a six minute walk. Sort of. We took the Apple Maps directions and they were a bit silly and six turned in to about twelve. But we arrived, eventually got seated, and looked at the menus. Truth is, it was about as expensive as the hotel recommended spot. But I justified it all by saying it was our last night and very likely our last visit (first and last, really) to Boston. So there you go. The meal was absolutely delicious and the service was excellent. (I’m always happy when the servers don’t say, “take your fork and knife” if they are removing the appetizer plate, but instead clear it all and bring clean utensils. Call me crazy, but I prefer good service like that. (Hm. I guess I should do that at home, eh?!)

We spent a good long time at the restaurant, and then walked back to our hotel, umbrellas opened due to the sprinkles we felt. The walk back was shorter — our route was much smarter than Apple’s!

And here we are. The final night. We checked in for our flight earlier today, and tomorrow will most likely be a “get coffee, get back to the hotel and pack” sort of day.

I really like Boston. It’s was impressed by the friendly people, the cleanliness of the city, and the history is just so amazing. It makes history more real when one is in the places where things actually happened! I could write more — especially about the mess our country is in now do to the person who is ruling over us, but I’ll try to keep my mouth shut (and my typing fingers still). For now.