It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been to Boston, and I think this might be my first aimless day wandering around it. There’s an inherent charm here that I’m trying to determine whether it’s local, or if I’m just putting traveler’s gloss on what I’m seeing.

Certainly, the Public Gardens need no gloss. It’s beastly hot here today (i.e., what I’d be getting if I stayed in Washington), but the Gardens have plenty of shade and a steady breeze. The feel here reminds me of Hyde Park in London; it’s a bit more bedecked with benches and human amenities than is the British custom, but it has the same sense of calm. Washington has her fair share of parks, but the closest thing we have to a place like this is the Tidal Basin, which unfortunately is not in my part of town. And the Basin somehow doesn’t have the human scale that I’m seeing here.