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Boston, Massacusetts
Resurrected, living in a lighthouse, if you leave the ships are gonna wreck
I have a December tradition where I board an Amtrak Acela (or regional) train, head to DC and shop for christmas presents. I can go to places like the National Building Museum, National Geographic Explorers Hall and the Smithsonian(s) to see unique gifts although, to be honest, I never actually buy anything. I do use that time to decide what gifts I’m getting for family and friends, so despite being a consistent failure it’s also a valued, productive holiday tradition. This year I decided to shake things up and go the other way instead, heading up to Boston for a quick weekend trip.
Even when its cold (and damn it was cold in Boston), a walk along the water is justified to see Diller + Scofidio’s terrific ICA Museum, which as a bonus had an interesting gift shop where I didn’t buy anything, once again keeping my holiday tradition alive.
I did a lot in Boston that I’m leaving out of the slideshow and instead including this, a side by side view of an advancing protest and some cops on bikes. The protestors were protesting recent police killings (a good thing to protest), while the cops seemed to be not taking it as personal as they probably should.
The December trip was my second time this year in Boston, although the first was really just a layover in a hotel at Boston Logan Airport. Near the hotel was the airport’s 9/11 memorial. Titled The Place of Remembrance, it was designed by Moskow Linn Architects and consists of an outdoor room with an open sky ceiling. The memorial looked great on a clear blue sky morning, although I question why it was placed so far away from passengers, although maybe it was a cold business decision to not remind passengers of the reason that Boston Logan Airport has a 9/11 memorial in the first place.
Keeping with a 9/11 theme, we’re back in Lower Manhattan where after 13 years, the 9/11 museum is finally open. Located in the center of the bathtub, it is mostly underground with the exception of this entry building designed by Snohetta.
The 9/11 museum goes deep underground all the way to bedrock, with a large section of the reinforced bathtub wall still visible, something that is (for me at least) a real reminder of all those years that the site was empty and still getting ready for construction. At bedrock level you can also see the original foundations, and in the area underneath WTC 1’s memorial pool, there are exhibits that bring you back to the old WTC and the day of the attack. It’s a heavy, heavy museum emotionally, and when I heard a kid chuckle, I saw everyone in the gallery turn at them with disapproving faces.
The museum and space is exceptionally well done, although it’s hard to imagine wanting to go back again and again because the subject matter is what it has to be, making it both a don’t miss and a don’t return kind of place.
Speaking of places you want to return to, we’re back up in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park in Maine. If you go back up a few pictures, you may remember me talking about an overnight stay at an airport hotel at Boston Logan. That is because I booked separate flights on separate airlines and wanted to give myself some cushion for delays. There are no direct flights to the airport just off the island at Acadia, but there are on PenAir, where it’s only an hour and 15 minutes gate to gate on a puddle jumping Saab 340 Turboprop from BOS to BHB. Normally I’ll fly into Bangor instead since there are direct flights and the rental car options are less outrageous, but this time I was meeting family who had driven there, so I didn’t have to worry about a rental car.
I am not sure how many times I have been to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park anymore, other than a lot. For over a decade I was there every single summer, so I know I’m probably looking at 15 to 20 times at this point. Maybe even over 20. In all those times, I rarely visit museums there, even on a rainy day. I broke that tradition this time though and stopped by the wonderful Abbe Museum downtown where this picture of Things Are Looking Native, Native's Looking Whiter by Nicholas Galanin is from.
If you’ve been somewhere 15 or 20 (or possibly more) times, there has to be a reason to keep coming back. For me, it is an opportunity to visit once again an almost perfect landscape, of rocks and forest and sea, of trails and paths that feel deliberately planned as if I’m walking in some gigantic Japanese garden, and, at this point, of the familiarity and memories that so many places there hold for me. I think I could hand draw animation frame by frame of driving specific roads and walking specific paths since I’ve done them so many times, yet somehow each visit always manages to reveal something I had missed or something I forgot about, along with the comfort of knowing all that time that there is literally no way to imagine that I won’t be back there again. And again. And again.
