CAP ANNUAL FIELD TRIP! TO BOSTON!

Reasons I like my major:  yearly field trip to awesome places.  This year?  Boston, Massachusetts (which might be the most difficult state to spell).

Ok, Boston in and of itself it super cool.  It's one of the oldest cities in our country, tons of historical things have happened there, and it's surprisingly pretty and easy to walk around.  Even when it rains for four days straight.  Which it did.  :/

Boston was also exciting for me in particular because I have several friends who live in the Boston area and who I don't get to see very often.  I was able to meet up with two good friends I met while I was in Egypt a few summers ago.  I was thrilled beyond belief I got to see them.  :)

And so without further ado, enjoy the photographic evidence of my journey!



I like the white print on the window.  Classy.



I also *love* copper.  Especially when --everything-- else was brick.



We found many small doors.



Oops!  Someone got a ticket!



I even like this vinyl siding just because it's different than the brick.  Tackiness aside, the brick was boring.



Pizza box!  No idea why it was on the car though.



This is an entrance to one of the coolest parking garages ever.



See?  It even has shops on the ground floor to make it even more brilliant.



We passed this train station several times in our wanderings....



*This* is much more my preferred city.  I love the canyon appearance.  It's so grand, but also somehow intimate.



Gateway to Chinatown.  We met the people who helped design this.



This water feature is just inside the gateway in Chinatown.  I'm pretty sure it's symbolic of something, but I can't remember what.



I love the red poles that form cages around the bamboo screens.



We also take time to meet with firms while we're on field trip.  This landscape architect took time to tell us about his firm and some of his projects.  I really liked the style this firm had--very clean and simple.



Landscape architects also design cemeteries.... which isn't depressing at all.  This photo was taken in the first LA-design cemetery in the U.S.



Still in the cemetery.  This person wanted to be remembered with a giant sphinx.  I just hope he or she was Egyptian.



The first of several photos I took of Sasaki's parking lot.  I could have stayed in their parking lot for hours.



There were so many details.



I love how they used paving to mark the spaces.



The ginkgoes add so much character to this space.  And I love the color against the gray.



Such a stylish entrance.



Again, fabulous paving patterns.



And you have to love the sleek benches.



They even pulled some of the landscape elements into the building.



Near the Christian Science Center.



The Christian Science Center



4-acre reflecting pool near the Christian Science Center



Get it?  Get it?  We're the tortoise and the hare!  (I was having trouble using my foot to scratch my ear like the statue.)



Bioswales hold runoff water to give it a chance to sink into the ground.  This bioswale is beautiful and on MIT's campus.



Looking at myself in a Frank Gehry building on MIT's campus.  By the way, I liked MIT much more than I liked Harvard. Just saying.



My friend with her new walking, plastic nose.



Someone from the Travel Channel was filming at Salem while we were there.  Ten points to whoever can tell me his name!



I have a relative who was hanged during the Salem Witch Trials.  This is his memorial marker near the cemetery.



Apparently all the "witches" were put into a mass grave that has since been lost.  So now each victim has one of these stone memorials instead of a tombstone.



The ship is technically less of a pirate ship and more of a merchant ship, but being a pirate was way more fun than being a merchant.  :)