Faneuil Hall, the true Cradle of Liberty

After our day at Harvard and our visit to JFK Museum, we had only one full day remaining to see the rest of a city that could easily occupy one for weeks.  I wanted to see the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, site of the largest art heist in US history in which fourteen valuable paintings, including a Vermeer and a Rembrandt valued in toto at a half billion dollars, were stolen in 1990, and have never been recovered.  The robbery was the inspiration for the novel The Goldfinch and the story has fascinated me ever since I read the book.  But there are two of us on this trip and the Gardner didn't make the cut.  Boston has several fine museums but we nixed them as well because we wanted to enjoy the beautiful weather and "experience the city."

Another possibility was Fenway Park, the oldest ball park in the US where one can visit for a taste of true Americana. We had been advised by an Uber driver to go there.  Since the Park is surrounded by unique restaurants and antique shops, we could visit the old stadium and then have yet another delicious Bostonian seafood lunch.  

But because time is so short, we decided to spend our last day at Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, the true Cradle of Liberty.  The original Hall was built in 1741 and the site served as a market and meeting place for two hundred years.  This was where town meetings were presided over by Sam Adams and other patriots to protest "taxation without representation", the Boston Massacre, the tea tax and other outrages by the British which eventually led to the American Revolution. The building is now a historic site surrounded by the very lively Faneuil Marketplace, a sprawling complex of retail shops, cafes and restaurants; and Quincy Market, an enclosed arcade of mouth-watering food shops hawking every manner of delicacy from oysters and lobsters to sushi, delicatessen, delicious looking bacon-wrapped chicken, all types of pastries, cannoli, chocolates and ice cream.  There are ethnic stalls of various Middle Eastern specialties and at least one Mexican place interspersed among the seafood joints and Boston landmarks.  In the center of the arcade, a large seating area sits under a beautiful dome where you can take your chosen food to eat while passersby play the "Play Me I'm Yours" brightly painted piano.  We didn't eat there but we salivated at every stall.

Quincy Market 

We happened to be watching one dilettante pound these well-worn keys, and there was a young Chinese watching. When the player got up and left, I said to him, "Do you play?" He said, "Can anyone just play it?"  "Sure, go on," I told him. "But I'm not very good", he said.  I urged him to go ahead and play, which he did.  This young man should make his next stop Carnegie Hall!  He played two complex and intricate pieces with confidence and the skill of a seasoned pianist.  When he was through, I said to him "you lied to me, you said you didn't play very well."  He looked alarmed and I was so afraid that my misplaced attempt at humor had been lost in the translation, but when I laughed and told him how beautifully he played, he seemed re-assured.  In his halting English he told us he was a new student at Berklee in Boston, one of the finest music schools in the nation, and fourteen years old!  After seeing all of the Asian kids touring Harvard yesterday and speculating on their futures, I am wondering how many American14-years olds there are at Berklee. Traveling is all about the people you meet.

And then, serendipitously, we had lunch and then another unique experience.  After we salivated our way through Quincy Market and wandered the outdoor shopping mecca, it was lunchtime and we opted for a restaurant where we could sit outside, have a glass of wine with our freshly caught lunch, and people watch.  

We had lunch at Durgin Park, a long-time Boston oyster bar, and this is our personality-girl waitress, Richelle, named after her Dad Richie.  She could be the Poster Girl for Boston enthusiasm.   Tom and I had tried to guess her name as she hurried about--Tom said it had to be Angie, I opted for Wanda--but Richelle definitely fits.  Today, steamers, baked oysters and another round of fried calamari, not as good as the calamari in Little Italy, but good enough.

We had walked through Fanueil Hall when we first arrived, but after lunch we walked back that way and noticed large bouquets of red, white and blue balloons, and saw all these folks watching the door with cameras at the ready and excitement building.  I asked the gent next to me what was happening and he said that 370 people had just received their American citizenship and were exiting through the front door of Faneuil Hall. The folks outside were the family and friends waiting to congratulate them.  Some unbelievable hurdles had been overcome in order to arrive at this day and the joy was evident everywhere.

I had never seen a naturalization ceremony and was thrilled to be there.  I hope the pictures below convey a little bit of the happiness these immigrants from about 80 different countries felt at becoming citizens of our great land. 

The front door of Faneuil Hall with the emerging new citizens.

I 

This man, a former Aussie, was so excited.  His partner was waiting outside and I ran over to congratulate him.  He let me see the certificate up close with his picture, all pertinent identifying factors, his former country of citizenship, and all the associated stamps and signatures admitting him as a US citizen. They were headed out for a night of well-deserved celebration.

I did ask before I took the picture of these three happy ladies.  This is better than a college graduation!

Same here.

We even had the nerve to crash a small party being held down the street at the Armenian Heritage Park replete with refreshments (cider and sweets), entertainment (the Black Sea Salsa Band), salsa demos (Dance Caliente) and...

...speeches by a couple of politicians urging the new citizens to vote.  How predictable was that.  Before we left, we chatted up a darling young Panamanian woman there with her husband, three-year old daughter, and her citizenship certificate protectively clutched in her hand. 

And thus ends another wonderful sojourn, this time not so far from home, but as wonderful as the most far-flung places we've been.  We left for the airport Friday afternoon after yet another round of oysters (Malpeque from PEI) and fish n' chips (Boston scrod) in a popular Boston restaurant, Legal Seafood (slogan: if it ain't fresh, it ain't Legal).  Did I mention that Boston is a mecca for foodies?  We SHALL return! 

Thanks for joining us!