My sister recently started her masters degree in education policy at Harvard, and my girlfriend and I made a 5-day trip out to visit her. It’s beautiful in the fall.

Here are a few of the photos I shot:

On the first day there, we followed the Freedom Trail for a bit. We stopped by the graves of Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock. This is us in front of the Old State House.

We caught the ferry to Salem on Sunday. It has an excellent view of the Boston waterfront.

A fall Boston sunset.

A few things I learned about Boston

• Boston doesn’t have neighborhoods; it has squares. Harvard Square, Central Square, Porter Square, Inman Square, Davis Square, Washington Square, Copley Square, Kendall Square, Kenmore Square, etc etc. The old Boston adage is, “I never leave the square.”
• On January 25, 1919, the Great Molasses Flood happened. A massive storage tank of molasses ruptured and flooded the streets of the North End, killing 21 people and injuring 150. For decades afterwards, Bostonians claimed to be able to sometimes smell molasses on hot summer days.
• Boston is famous for its large concentration of Irish Americans, but it also has a substantial population of Italian immigrants. In fact, Italians represent the second largest ancestry group in Boston, after the Irish. Initially, most settled in the North End. The North End has been gentrified to a large extent, but still retains some of its character in Italian restaurants and cultural events. Source: Wikipedia.
• Boston Light is the second oldest working lighthouse in the country, and the only one to be actively staffed by the U.S. Coast Guard (i.e. that it has an actual human lighthouse keeper). It’s located on Little Brewster Island just off the coast of Boston.