New England Aquarium. Whacky weather and whatever else I can think of.

Sunday was fairly warm by January standards. As with a good chunk of the country, our weather has been a seesaw ride. From below zero blizzard conditions with 50 mph winds, to temperatures in the 60's two days later. Sunday wasn't bad with the temps in the low 40's though it was windy and mostly cloudy. Arlene and I hadn't seen much of each other over the last several weeks, much less do or go anywhere. Work and the holidays took up much time and energy. Well, long story, not much longer, we both had Sunday off and the weather was going to be tolerable. What can we do, where can we go that won't be far, cost all that much, all with a minimum of exerted effort. The aquarium! The train station is about a mile and a half from here with a big free parking lot. It's Sunday so there won't be many commuters. Take the train into town and get off right at the aquarium. Sounded like a plan and it was. It was ten suggested to me that we get off at a particular stop and walk the rest of the way, instead of switching trains and getting off  right in the aquarium building. It would have been a nice walk on a nicer day. It only took 10 minutes and though we were not downtown with the much larger buildings, the wind gusted through the surrounding buildings. We walked by the hideous Boston City Hall. I think the building was opened in 1969 or 70. It replaced the old one, which still stands, now an office building. It was of classic architecture. They replaced this lovely old building with this very ugly hunk of concrete. We were also in the vicinity of the Custom House which used to be right up against the harbor before all the landfill, so people arriving in the U.S. could be processed. It was Boston's first "skyscraper".  Built in 1915 with 32 floors. It's now a hotel/timeshare building.

The aquarium was pretty crowded as other people had the same idea that we had. Lots of families with little kids. There is a 4 story circular tank in the middle of the building and tanks built into the surrounding walls, penguins, sea lions, various seals. The center tank is the main attraction with a multitude of colorful fish, turtles, and so on. The tank itself is a colorful coral reef. People were glued to the viewing windows. You work your way up the floors taking in the center tank at different levels and all the other surrounding tanks.

So we did the aquarium and gave some thought to walking to the nearby Faneuil Hall (tourist trap but still a neat place) and The North End for a fabulous Italian meal. We decided that we could get a very good meal locally. The less walking around in the wind we did the better so we headed to the nearest station for the ride back. 

Of course I took pictures. I hate to tell you how much time I spent Sunday evening and Monday going through the pictures, making the video and writing this. Still I had the days off and though it took quite a while it was all very relaxing. There are enough picture for two videos. I'll post the first one on this blog and the second, which I haven't made yet, on the my next posting. 

   

Time for supper.
I'm outta here.