Harvard, Museums, and Lobster Bakes. Boston Saturday August 15th

We had purchased the Boston Ticket pack, which meant we had prepaid for admission to several museums in addition to the Aquarium, which we had visited on the first day. I wanted to walk through the Harvard campus, and coincidentally the Harvard Natural Museum was on the list of places we could peruse. We hopped the T (experts at this point), and headed to Cambridge. You exit the T right onto Harvard square, and it was impressive. The streets were filled with students and parents attending orientation.

To get to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, you had to walk through campus, naturally. It was beautiful, and we got to hear snippets of tours being led through the grounds.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the  museum; there were many specimans, fossils, glass flower arrangements from the 1800's, and a meteorite room!

After the Harvard tour we went back towards the Charles River to visit the Science Museum. 

 

It was geared more towards kids, but it was free, and there were several really interesting exhibits, including the CritterCam by National Geographic that scientists attach to animals in the wild to observe their natural behaviours. Matt found a plane engine and a triceratops that he adored.

On our way back to the train station, we encountered a beautiful old hotel (way out of our price range). It was quite posh inside, but I was only able to snap a picture of the exterior.

After a quick nap, we left the hotel for a late dinner at Legal Sea Foods by the harbor. I received a Management Excellence award at work, and part of the prize was a dinner to be expensed! We went all out for our last night in Boston with a nice bottle of wine, crab cakes, a lobster bake, and a delicious berry tart with coffee to close the meal. It was my first whole lobster (well, the first time I'd had more than a tail, but we split a large lobster), and it was delicious. Our waitress was amazing, she had all sorts of great recommendations for wine, dessert, how to order the meal, and even gave us the name of a cool Irish bar for after dinner fun. What a great night!!