Thu 4 Jul - Boston, MA

Happy 4th!

That is how Americans greet each other on Independence Day.

We wanted to start the day by joining the official Independence Day events of Boston being:

• 9am - "Opening" at City Hall
• A parade up to the Granary Burying Ground
• 10am - A full reading of Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Old State Hall, from where it was first read 237 years ago.

We missed most of the free hostel breakfast as opening time is 8am weekends and public holidays and we needed to be on move by then. So tea, a "cup" of our own cornflakes with milk, some juice and we are good to go. Some drinks are available at all hours in the hostel... Love that.

This is how we walked this Independance Day morning, starting and finishing at the bottom of the map.

We find the original Cheers on Beacon Street. Well, the bar that inspired the TV series according to the spiel. As you would expect it looks pretty touristy and the menu has items like "Sam's sandwiches" and "eNorm-ous Burgers".

Who is there, knocking on the door, trying to get in this early hour...?

Not unexpectedly, the streets at this time are already full of security staff. This one caught our eye - the guys were wearing FBI jackets and their vehicles were funky "go anywhere" Polaris. They are ready for anything...

There was no one at the Granary Burying Ground, our first port of call, so we wandered towards New City Hall. Yep, we found the crowd and the start of the parade gathering pace there.

The Mayor of Boston officially opened the day's events and welcomed us - thank you Mayor.

The band was from the Ancient and Honorable Artillary Company of Massachusetts, established 1638. The third oldest military organisation in the world and oldest in northern America. Deep, traditional and proud history here.

It was a small and relaxed parade where we just wandered alongside as they walked. Many participants were in period costumes.

The guys with muskets fired them every now and then, which could make you jump if you were nearby and not expecting it. We got used to it after a while. You can see some smoke in this picture.

The British are coming, the British are coming...

Fantastic pipe band - we could not help but march along!

The parade then stopped on the street outside of Granary Burying Ground.

Some of the participants continued inside the Granary Burying Ground.

We then heard a short biography of 4 of Boston's key contributors to America's independence, all buried here.

Of course, the police presence was enormous. This copper uses a bicycle to police the area and the crowds.

And if you don't behave, the copper has something for you and your wrists...

The whole marching aspect of the day made Hans recall long forgotten days from his stint in the Swedish Army... No, not really...

The highlight of the morning was the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Old State Hall. A huge crowd had gathered and lots of cameras in action. Very popular event.

Funny thing about the balcony is that there did not seem to be a door to get out there, just a window. Hence, all the dignitaries had to step out through the open window...quite undignified...

After listening to the reading of the full declaration and singing a bit, we felt that we've done enough to "officially" commemorate the day so we stopped at Dunkin' Donut for a drink while listening to British pop like Tainted Love by Soft Cell and Let's make a lot of money (?) by Pet Shop Boys. In a different era, the proprietors there may have been hanged for aligning with the enemy...

We then considered our patriotic morning completed and wandered back to 40 Berkley Hostel for a break, timed to coincide with the free 4th July BBQ in the outside area at noon.

Here is Di loading up her (small) plate.

Hans was enjoying his free lunch - free lunch is a rarity these days that it had to be enjoyed slowly and peacefully.

The 2 young guys at our table had escaped from Delaware for a few days, more on them later.

Di drinking a Polar Cola.

The BBQ was great fun. Not only the free food, but we chatted to 2 groups of punters...

• The first 2 guys from Delaware, I mean Delaware..., they had driven up this morning (after getting up at 2am) to see a Red Sox baseball game, their sole purpose for coming to Boston, but they may catch up with some local friends as well.
• The other group of 3 were a true international mix. One bloke was from Albuquerque in New Mexico and had just married his girl from Montreal, Quebec and the two of them travelled with an English bloke from Salisbury. The couple had been, what felt like to us, everywhere including a 7 months stint of working holiday in Melbourne. He had also done the same in NZ. The odd one out (UK bloke) was now going to leave the couple and travel to Toronto to find a job there.

Yes, we have travelled a bit but nothing like the experience of these guys (including a goat herding stint in Tuscany, chestnut picking in France and running a hostel in NZ!). They did admit their jobs were somewhat plain, nothing you could call a career. They're young, they have time for that...later... maybe...

After lunch, more downtime in the lobby just to escape the heat. Air con rules on a day like today (32 degrees and shown as "feels like 35"). Again.

After a shower around 4pm, we are on the road again, attempting to attend the Boston Pops without backpacks this time.

Before Boston Pops, we went via the site of the Marathon bombings as we now had researched where it happened, on Boylston Street on either side of Exeter Street.

There is not much to show as a memorial except this Boston Strong lamppost cover. This is where the 1st bomb went off, at the finishing line opposite Boston Public Library.

The 2nd bomb went off just a little bit further west on Boylston Street and again, only the blue cloth on the lamppost reveals that something took place here...

We move on towards Charles River and the Boston Pops area. Several streets are totally closed off and others are very empty.

Then suddenly we found the crowds just around the corner - going through entry procedures to get into the Charles River area and Esplanade.

We were pretty sure this time we had nothing prohibited - we carry our wallets and not much else except water. Ahhh - nope - water in a bottle where the seal had already been broken is not allowed. Scull down and dump the bottle are our only choice. And of course water is $3 (not $1) per bottle inside.

The list of prohibited items is long as you can see...

Metal detectors are run over us - front and back and we are "tagged" with bright wristbands.

The festivities are really divided into 2 distinct areas, with seperate entrances and never shall the two meet. We first wander into the fireworks area (orange wristbands for "all clear") which is along Charles River.

Confirmation of that we are where we are...

Of course, not much is happening in the fireworks area at this early hour. People are having picnics (no alcohol allowed and not possible to purchase anywhere. It is a family event...) and that's about it. So, we leave the orange zone and queue again for clearance into the red zone, where the concert will take place.

Here are the cannons used for the 1812 Overture. The cannons are still marked with "US Army" as they are decommissioned from there and will also be handled by US Army personnel when the time comes to fire them later during the night.

Location shot with the bowl behind us and us pre ID4 decorations...

...and now we have been decorated for the occasion.

The "hats" were handed out freely and were made of foam. Looking good...

It was sort of like a summer concert in the Domain in Sydney - a party atmosphere but without the alcohol. We found a good spot on grass. Hans is checking out tonight's program.

At 7.30pm, the program starts. MCs are 2 newsreaders from the TV station that is broadcasting the event live.

A note on the program flow... Early on, we heard that the Boston Pops is commercial free thanks to some financial services company. However, there were regular breaks all through the time that we were there, when nothing happened. So, it was a real start / stop event which we found a bit unprofessional. They should have maintained some audience interaction throughout the breaks in our view...

The Boston Pops concert was supported by a whole orchestra (of course) and a choir.

The music had a very distinct theme of patriotism. The performers all had a connection with Boston and the themes of the songs were sometimes unashamedly Americana. Perhaps not so unexpected giving the tragic events in April. Boston Strong seemed to be a very powerful theme.

We move around the half circle around the bowl to see the performances from different angles.

The fireworks didn't start until long after dark and after 8pm it looked to be a few hours away... Here we are looking across to the orange zone from the red zone.

We left the red zone (the bowl) thinking that we would get back to the orange zone (fireworks), but by now a second wave of people were arriving in droves and queue for a third time, to be scanned a third time made us decide that we had enough of 4ID.

 

We leave in search for a drink and a bite and find it in an Irish bar on Boylston Street, curiously enough pretty much across the street from where the second explosion went off during the marathon.

 

Here is Hans continuing the 4th of July celebrations...

As we leave the bar for home, we can hear music further along Boylston Street. These buskers rock. They were very very good. They played Michael Jackson's "Smooth criminal" when we first arrived and then proceeded to take requests from the punters. That's a new one for buskers. Talk about self confidence.

 

We enjoyed the performance for a while, made our donations and proceeded towards home.

 

As we are almost back at 40 Berkley hostel, we see a bunch of people looking up into the sky at the overpass. Of course, the noise revealed what it was and from that spot and between some buildings, you could see the top of the fireworks. We stopped and enjoyed for a short while.

Back at 40 Berkley, we loiter in the lobby for a while to cool down.

Today was an even hotter day than yesterday and no reprieve is forecast. Even over night, the temperature will not drop below 25 degrees Celsius.

Being uncomfortable and having difficulties sleeping for a couple of days due to heat would be something that all travelers would encounter, part of the experience. Not so much a good night for us as an "oh well" night.

 

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