Boston Harbor Islands

This past weekend, we received a visit from James and Eleanor who were up from Philadelphia. A few weeks earlier, Ben and I had talked about going out to the Boston Harbor Islands (about 30 minutes offshore by ferry) and what better to do than drag visiting friends along for the adventure?

It was very, very hot in Boston/Quincy this past Saturday, but once we were on the ferry the weather was beautiful. Perfectly breezy and cool.

The islands were just as awesome. We went first to Georges Island, the home of Fort Warren which was actively used in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and the World Wars. It was kind of crazy, lots of dark spaces and scary, crumbling buildings, mixed with the open field in the middle of the complex. The beach on Georges Island is rocky, with lots of crabs and barnacles. We had a picnic by the water after exploring the fort and got to briefly listen to a few bands from Berkley which had come out for the day to play.

Because of the rough water and ferry delays, it took us a while to get over to Spectacle Island in the afternoon, but our ferry driver was nice enough to tell us jokes and apologize profusely for getting us all wet because of the bumpy ride.

Spectacle Island is a cool place. For a long time, it was used as a dump/landfill. When the Big Dig began in the early 1990s, the city took all of the extra dirt and dumped it on top of the trash on Spectacle Island, and resurfaced it as a park. So, the island is dozens of feet of dirt mixed with trash, with a couple of feet on top of top-soil for plants and conditioning. Regardless, it's quite pretty. They've made paths everywhere, and planted trees, and put gazebos up. We had a second picnic here under an umbrella-covered table.




The India Association of Greater Boston was hosting their Reach for the Sky event, so there were kites everywhere. Even though we weren't part of the event, we found a crashed and abandoned kite in the brush, so we adopted it and flew it around while we walked.


After missing one ferry back to Boston because it was too crowded to get on, we finally returned around 5pm to get drinks and food in Boston. After being told abruptly by our server at Kingfish Hall that if all we were having was drinks and appetizers then we'd have to move from our table (even though there were barely any tables filled at the time) to the bar, we finished and left, walking around Boston until settling on Wagamama for delicious noodles and teriyaki. Wagamama is great for groups, since it's got a huge restaurant and they seat you at long benches. Ben and I were dead exhausted after dinner, so we left to go back to Quincy.

I really can't believe I've lived her my whole life and never been out to the islands - they are totally cool! Definitely an awesome day trip!