Boston

Last night I managed to stay up late enough to see the show at 9:30, a comedian named Fred Klett.  He was amusing, telling stories about growing up in a family of 10 kids.  No belly laughs, but enjoyable.  I wish the shows were earlier, but they are almost always at 9 or 9:30 pm.

Today started out very dreary - heavy rain and wind.  We had a walking tour of Harvard scheduled, so on went the raincoats, hats, and umbrellas.  The forecast was for rain all day, but what to do?  We had to go, right?  So the nice bus, with Dan as our guide, got us there pretty quickly to meet our student guide, Isaac.  He's a rising sophomore under an ROTC program and I think the tour guide gig must be to help defray costs or something.  Harvard has about 20,000 students, 98% of whom live on the campus, and almost as many graduate in four years.  I guess for what it costs in tuition/fees, you wouldn't want to spend any more time there than you have to. (According to the internet, the current cost of a year at Harvard is around $80,000)  While Harvard is spread over a very large area of Cambridge, we spent our time at Harvard Yard, which is the central area.  One fun thing we learned is that the statue of "John Harvard, Founder 1638" contains 3 lies.  John Harvard wasn't the Founder, he just bequeathed his library of books and a large sum of money, so they named it after him.  This was 2 years after the charter had been issued by the colonial government in 1636 (the real founding date).  Also, there were no images of Mr. Harvard at the time, so they used a well-connected student as the model for the statue.  

His left shoe is a shiny gold color because tradition says that if you rub that part of the statue, you will have good luck.  In these Covid times, none of us thought we needed luck that much.

Waiting for Isaac

Massachusetts House. The bottom two floors are administration and the top 2 floors house freshmen.  It was one of many buildings used to house revolutionary war militiamen.

John Harvard (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)

Memorial Hall in memory of students who died in the Civil War.  The left side is the Freshman eating hall.

The Harry Elkins Widener Library.   It was built with $3 million donated by his mother in his memory in 1913.  That would be about $100 million today.  Harry and his father went down on the Titanic a year after Harry's graduation.

About half-way through the tour, the rain stopped and the sun came out so the umbrella was repurposed to a sun shade.  Very handy.

We returned to the ship for a nice lunch on the pool deck in the shade.  Then a quiet afternoon of reading (me), dozing and a trip to the exercise center (Michael).  We chatted with Patty and Gordon over drinks at Galileo's Lounge at the aft of Deck 11.  I tried the Explorer drink tonight.  As good as the Splendor last night. I think I'll make my way through all of their Signature Drinks to find my favorite.  We had dinner at Setti Mari which is Italian cuisine most of the time, although they occasionally do a different cuisine.  We met new friends, Terry and Craig from Scottsdale at the next table and had a fun evening.  They've lived in many parts of the country and spent about 7 years in the East Bay in the early 70's.

The Explorer and a tuna appetizer

The Signature Drink Menu

I made it to the show again, Tommy and Calen, a singing duo from Halifax, Nova Scotia.  They were OK, but I was tired so I left about midway.  We have gentle swells tonight so it should be another good night.