Coast to Coast Road Trip - Maine to JFK

On the last leg of our US adventure, we headed down the coast to Boston for a couple of days. We caught up with Mark’s brother and sister-in-law and had a chance to see a couple of sights.

We stayed in Back Bay, just down Commonwealth Avenue from Boston Common. Always lovely on a late summer afternoon. I lived in Boston as an undergrad, so it was fun to revisit some old haunts and see some familiar faces…

Here’s Ben Franklin on his way to work!

We were a little short on time, but I really wanted to see the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It did not disappoint! Fun fact, I was a Geology major at Boston University before transferring and changing majors. I love me some rocks!

This giant 1,600 pound amethyst geode dominates the mineral and precious stones collection.

Or how about this fossilized ammonite? It’s about 2 feet in diameter.

They also have an amazing collection of hand-crafted glass flowers made in the late 1800’s and used to study plant anatomy. It’s worth a stop just to see this unique collection.

The David Rockefeller bug collection is pretty cool too.

Moving a little farther up on the evolutionary ladder, here’s a homo sapien and a Plesiosaurus.

You get an interesting perspective of the whale skeletons hanging above the “Large Mammal” gallery. They have everything from full size elephants to the littlest mice.

After a while, all this taxidermy starts to get a little depressing. There are quite a few endangered and extinct species on display.

I wish we had had time to follow this up with some cannoli from Mike’s Pastry. Next time!

Before we knew it, we were in Connecticut to visit some dear friends and drop our little Mini off for storage at North American Motor Car. It’s a fancy place to keep our car while we’re in Europe, but we know it will be safe. They have a few slightly nicer cars on display.

By the second of October, we made it all the way across the country to JFK and our flight to France. Toulouse, here we come…