Come Along Newbury Street

"The fervent heat, but so much more endurable in this pure air – the white and pink pond-blossoms, with a great heart-shaped leaves; the glassy waters of the creek, the banks, with dense busier, and the picturesque beeches and shade and turf" – Whitman, from "A July Afternoon by the Pond"







At all times in Boston the waters of the Charles and the Harbor are ever-present – the wharf at the aquarium at the northeastern shore of the Bay where the old docks still shoot out into the improved waters from recent years and alongside one such the sea seals might emerge wild and humped an unusual sight against the downtown skyline of the city. Next stop, in the wild heat, we hail a cab to the Science Museum along Nashua Park across the bridge that is Charles River Dam Road – standstill traffic so we get out to walk and reach the reach the ferry bridge that opens just as we approach and watch a construction crane make its way slowly deeper into the north end past Millers River at east Boston. It is on the return to the Back Bay along the Charles River Esplanade that we can finally see the full geography of Boston – city to our left, the rolling links of honking traffic that disappear into Berklee, Clarendon, Dartmouth, the sailboats, pink regattas, to our right, the river wide, slowly chugging to either banks and MIT and Harvard across the horizon on the other side, history swirling in the air and that has become cars, taxis, trucks, ambulances and limousines.  We finally reach the origins of Newbury Street, the great line of brownstones and retail outlets, umbrellas by courtyards hemmed in by wrought iron gates and faces happy to get out of the sun for a cool drink...and shopping.