next stop wonderland

Today felt like a vacation day. I went to the beach, I wandered around the city, I went to a museum....
Today reminded me how lucky I am to live here, there is so much so easily accessible, I just need to get out there and take advantage. And reminded me how incredibly fulfilling it is to get out there and do things on my own, it builds this great confidence.

Revere Beach has an annual sand sculpture contest and the subway goes right to the beach so I decided to head out to check out the beginning of the contest. The last train stop is Wonderland. Who can resist a trip to Wonderland? So I took the train to the end.

 

I left the train station, crossed the parking lot and the street and was greeted by the water, beautiful warm water, sparkling sand, lots of interesting shells and the smaller sand dollars I've ever seen. 

Revere Beach has a rich history, the oldest public beach in the US that was once the home of an amusement park, dancing, and of course the races where greyhound racing took place from 1935 - 2009. It's a long beach that is well kept up as it gets raked daily.
And it's always nice to be near the water when it's hot, able to at least get your feet wet - maybe next time I'll bring a swimsuit and towel. The beach got more crowded as I made me way down to the sand sculptures.

  

It was really neat to be able to see people's sketchbooks with their designs and get to see these images start to emerge from the sand. 

Then I headed back in to the city and got off the train at the aquarium.

I made a stop at the tank outside to say hello to the harbor seals. 

and wandered along the Greenway which has been the most incredible addition to the city. What a huge difference it makes to have moved the highway underground and created this beautiful open space. I found a part of the greenway that was recently finished with this labyrinth meditation walk with a fountain in the middle. This may now be my favorite part of the greenway, this beautiful space to do walking meditation in the middle of the city. These labyrinths are traditionally to clear the mind, give insight, and bring yourself back into alignment which is an incredible tool to have in the middle of the rush of the city. 

Then I took myself out to an actual sit down lunch, which I haven't done in years. I happened upon a new restaurant I had read about, Granary Tavern.  There was an empty outdoor table so I checked it out. Sounds like they're still working on solidifying their menu but was good and was right across the street from the Greenway so I had a view of people playing the a fountain which was fun.

I wandered around Fort Point Channel a bit, I always find myself drawn to the exterior of the Intercontinental hotel and I saw the new Boston Tea Party Museum... 

Fort Point also always seems to have great art installations and this was no exception, a tight rope walker suspended over the Channel on a wire attached to two bridges. I believe if it was windy the tightrope walker would spin around the tightrope. 

I ended my wandering at the ICA (Institute for Contemporary Art). Thursday evenings it is free to see the exhibits. I am usually babysitting Thursdays but not this week so I wanted to take advantage and discovered that they also do free music and have a bar set up on the waterfront side of the museum which was great. 

I waited with a drink, enjoying the view and the music until my husband arrived to walk through the museum with me.

My favorite part of the Josiah McElheny exhibit were the chandeliers inspired by the cosmos. 

It was a great, empowering, vacation day that ended beautifully getting to enjoy a Thursday night with my husband. And a good reminder to keep exploring this city and this area that has so much to offer.