Trip in Town

OK, so my title "Trip in Town" is because that's the way you talk about going to Boston when you're from there. "I'm going to Town." etc... And since I'm from out that way and spent a good 10+ years working in Town I learned to talk like that. "The City" is New York, "Town" or "In Town" is Boston. (by the way... I "borrowed" this photo.)


So, the country mice (that's us), left Hatfield at about 9:30, made a couple of stops Downtown (that's Northampton for us), and got on the road at about 9:50. We got to Simmons at about 12 noon and, naturally, couldn't find parking! I had to retrieve my 3 photos that were hanging in the tech lab since January. Trevor found a sort-of place to park while I went into the building to get the photos. Once we were done there we drove over to Jamaica Plain, or JP as the locals call it, and went to Arnold Arboretum and had a lovely picnic lunch. The Arboretum is an amazing oasis of 265 beautiful acres of trees, shrubs, and manicured lawns in the city of Boston. It's owned by the city of Boston but is leased to Harvard University for 1,000 years. I think that arrangement might have started 100 years ago so Harvard may only have 900 years left on their lease.
We spent about 2 hours ambling around and only saw 1/4 of the place, at the most! What we saw was fabulous and we're already planning a return trip.

This is one of several cork trees at the Arboretum. The cork from this tree is not kind that's used for wine bottles or whatever else people use cork for (can't think of anything... one track mind...) The most famous cork tree was cut down about 12 years ago. Too many people sat on one of its branches and the branch broke. I think I may be guilty of once sitting on that branch!

This is one of several HUGE Poplar trees. We ate lunch beneath this tree. While Trevor napped I snapped a few photos.

This is the tallest tree in the Arboretum, a silver maple. That's Trevor way on the left. According to the brochure, it survived the hurricane of 1938. It's one of the 600 trees at the Arboretum that is over 100 years old.

A dawn redwood that is native to Japan. It's pretty cool. Trevor likes it. Trevor hasn't met a tree he doesn't like. If he has, I don't know about it.

Sapphire berries. Very pretty. Also on the tour of trees and shrubs over 100 years old.