Weekend in Boston

Last weekend, I spent a wonderful, all-too-short 48-ish hours in Boston, where I hung out with my friend Courtney and her wonderful boyfriend, Aaron and watched my friend Mike exchange rings with his new bride, Erin!

We kicked off Saturday with a great breakfast and a visit to a bookstore, and then, as if things weren't already awesome enough, visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Gardner inherited a fortune from her father and used the money to begin collecting art and antiques. When her husband died, she built a four-story structure, made the first three floors into a museum to house her art collection, and moved onto the fourth floor. The building itself is heavily influenced by Venetian architecture, evident almost immediately because of the lush, lovely central garden that forms an atrium in the center of the building. I loved that greenery was never more than a glance away, and the rooms themselves were filled with thriving amaryllis blooms in red and white. I most enjoyed the paintings on the first floor, though I found the furniture on the second and third was more appealing than I'd originally have guessed I would, so much so that I almost forgot to take notice of the larger paintings hung on every wall!

The Gothic Room

One thing that was particularly great about the museum was the friendliness of the staff. They courteously monitored traffic in the smaller rooms, letting in new visitors as others exited, and were generally helpful and polite. In one of the rooms, Courtney told me that the strange wall covering was actually painted leather. I peered closer, wondering aloud whether the paint was susceptible to cracking as the leather dried out. I was only a foot or so away from the wall when a short docent poked her head around the corner. I thought she was going to scold me for leaning to close to the wall. To my surprise, she said, "Look from the side," tilting her own head at an angle and waving me forward encouragingly. A bit reluctantly, I moved close to the ancient leather and gazed along its surface. To my delight, the scales and cracks in the leather suddenly showed up in perfect relief, visible through the paint. I exclaimed, and the docent grinned at me, happy to have shared this small secret.

Caning demonstration room

The museum is famous for its art. It is also famous for hosting a series of artists who lived and worked in the building. We saw no painters there, but we did get to see an expert in caning (the process of weaving thin strips of wood to make things like chair seats) demonstrating his craft. It was pretty cool. The museum is also famous for its rather shocking past: It was the victim of one of the only successful art heists in American history! In 1990, two men dressed as Boston police officers entered the museum, claiming to be responding to a call. They got past the door guard, then claimed to have a warrant to arrest the guard at the front desk. They asked him to summon the door guard, and when both guards were inside the thieves handcuffed them, duct-taped their mouths, and locked them in the basement. The morning security guards arrived to find the two night guards tied up downstairs and a number of valuable works including several Rembrandts, a Vermeer, some Chinese art, and other pieces gone. The works have never been recovered, and, interestingly, the museum has left their frames on the walls as a reminder of the missing pieces. 

One of my favorite things about the museum was the dedication of space to reading and discussion. There were shelves of books available to anyone who wanted to grab one and leaf through it, and a comfortable room filled with couches, chairs, and more bookshelves, and decorated with two ornate wooden birdcages housing real canaries (who chirped softly, as if in deference to the readers around them) provided the place. The books were quite varied: I saw volumes on various art, of course, and history, but eventually picked up a copy of Roald Dahl's Boy to skim as I waited for Courtney and Arron to finish up in the gift shop. This is, without a doubt, my favorite museum in Boston, and I recommend it most highly.

After relaxing at Courtney and Arron's apartment for a bit, Ed and I took a cab to the Boston Children's Museum for one of the most fun and definitely the most unconventional weddings I've ever attended. 

I'm not sure that "wedding" is even the right word for it, as Mike and Erin got married in a civil service several months ago. But they still had a very brief ceremony for friends and family in which they said their vows and exchanged rings. Erin wore her great grandmother's wedding dress, but she also had an apron to put on as soon as the ceremony was over. Why? To prevent sawdust from soiling the dress, of course.

Those who don't know Mike may be confused by that, but those who do will not find it the least bit surprising that he did some Internet research and learned that it is an Italian tradition (allegedly, at least) that the bride and groom cap off the ceremony by grabbing opposite handles of a cross-cut saw and working it through a log to demonstrate their solidarity and teamwork. Mike decided this had to be a part of his nuptials, so he found a saw on Craigslist, sanded off the rust, polished and sharpened it, and tied a blue bow around one handle and a pink around the other. Both families leaped into action to hold the log in place while the bride and groom sawed, and in just a few minutes they'd bested the log.

The guests cheered, then joined the newlyweds for a delicious meal, cocktails, and fun in the museum. Ed, other friends from Vanderbilt, and I climbed around in a three-story structure, looked at fish and turtles in tanks, launched golf balls and cars from ramps, turned pedals to illuminate strings of lights, and dropped large circular covers to cause a jet of air that launched a tennis ball to startling heights. We took off our shoes to walk across the tatami mats inside a real house from Kyoto, build towers of blocks, and blew bubbles. Coming back from the restroom, I saw that Matt was putting his shirt back on after challenging Erin's brother to a race to the top of the structure. Yes, this was indeed one hell of a party.

The bottom part of the structure

"Musical Chairs" that represented different instruments all playing the same arrangement when there was pressure on the seats.

Arm cycles that made windmills turn and lights shine

After we were kicked out of the museum, we helped Mike carry gifts, leftover food, and the log pieces and saw through the streets of Boston. I imagine we were quite a spectacle. Then we found a bar to carry on in for the next few hours, and parted feeling a little wobbly and very happy. Needless to say, it was an enjoyable evening.

They're lumberjacks, and they're OK.

Most of my weekends in Boston are great, but this was was a stand-out!