Day 4: Downtown Boston

     Today we had a break from serving at different farms/ gardens and had the opportunity to explore the city of Boston on Memorial Day. I had never been to Boston before and I was excited to see as much as I could. The first place we went when we got to the city was to the Boston Harbor to get a glance of the waterfront scenery. We lingered in a waterfront garden area and got to see some of the sailboats in dock. Then we made our way to Mike's Pastries, a well known pasty shop in Little Italy, to try a famous cannoli. From there, we walked along the Freedom Trail en route to the Boston Commons, a park in downtown Boston. 

     On the way to the park, we saw the site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's house, and the Granary Burial Grounds where Josiah Franklin, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams were buried. We eventually made it to Boston Commons and it was beautiful. To commemorate Memorial Day, a special flag configuration was set up. There were thousands of small, American flags waving and it was a remarkable sight. Before we left Boston for the day, we made a stop in Quincy Market to grab lunch and a few souvenirs to take home. Roaming around Boston was a great time. I enjoyed getting to roam around the city and see the historical and modern sites of the city.

     From this experience, I got to learn more about Boston as well as learn more about eating sustainably/healthily in a city. While we were exploring the city, I did not notice many places that specially sold healthy foods or took pride in serving sustainably grown food. It became clear that in some places, one has to go out of their way to eat sustainably grown, healthy foods and that this is not always an easy thing to do. Being in Boston taught me that it is necessary to put in a lot of effort in order to eat foods that are not only good, but good for you.

- Shannon Cooper