Day 40: 80 Photos in Boston -- Part 3.

Phase 15: The return to the Common.

We thought we were returning to the common life. We really did. But then I noticed that when L had asked me for the clue list in the Beantown Pub, she had marked each remaining clue (over 20, still) with the location (e.g. “BC” for Boston Common, “F” for Fenway, etc.) – and suddenly I realized, she wanted to finish this at least as much as I did.  A slight glance at her and I saw she was raring to go.  We had already decided we might head back to the Common to get a couple of shots we wished we’d gotten when we started out, but that we hadn’t quite decoded yet. So we ventured back to the common… and onto the second “big” Phase-with-a-capital-P of the day. For we were really just beginning (though without a crucial team member – making it even more epically difficult!).

#47: Two Princes having a Semi-Charmed Life.  This is another clue that marked a break-through moment for us.  Near the time I figured out that “cold” meant really, really “cold”, M and I also had a brain-storming session about what “Two Princes” could me – and we realized that Frog Princes almost have a charmed life. We also realized that M had, just for fun, taken a picture of me posing there – but only with one. So the rest of the crew (at this point, just “Jamel-toes”) returned to the princes, and took the shot.

#13: Gangway for goslings. So catchy, and somehow so close to “Make way for ducklings”, that we could only assume they were analogous!

#65: This ugly duckboat grew up. I cannot remember which team member made this break-through, but someone (perhaps L?) recognized that ugly ducklings might grow up to be swans—and reside on very different boats than their duck compatriots. Also, going back to the Public Garden made me realize how very, very beautiful it is (even if swan boats seem super cliché).

Phase 16: From Boston proper to the west!

So far, all of our ventures had been very close to the tiny radius comprising Boston’s downtown. No clues, in fact, had much to do with the slightly sprawling Back Bay which I am much more familiar with, and Fenway had just seemed so, so far.  But I’m glad we made the venture. And our first “destination” was on Mass Ave.

#5: A really long kick line. Though we failed at finding a kickline at the Boston Opera House, we happened upon an organic version (albeit a 3-person-long version) on the way to our next destination, coming out of the Public Garden. Three ladies swinging their toes in line.

#43: A hidden village in the middle of the city. I was lost on this one, and it definitely took some smartphone action to figure it out. Apparently Bay Village, in the epicenter (ish) of Boston, has a population of barely over 1,000.  So, there we hiked!

#28: Reflect upon this church. This was obvious to us – and we were happy to get to the beautiful Christian Science Center’s reflection pool. None of us really knew the beauty that awaited us!  You have to walk behind a building or two to find it, but it’s glorious, and there is also a great view of the Prudential and a certain building with a crown. We took the scenic route through some parks in the South End (an area I know because E. dog-sits there several weeks a year), and everyone was the happier for it.

#36: An artsy photo (no Instagrams/filters!). Originally we had planned to use this shot for #28, but L rightly remarked that it was definitely the artsiest we had (with a close second from a beautiful shot that J took in the common). A reflection of a reflection – where it’s unclear what is real and what is an image of something else, the city behind both us and behind the reflection pool.

#52: A building with a crown. There were so many opportunities to photograph this building on the way back from the South End, but this one (next to the Pru, in front of the reflecting pool) really struck me.

Phase 16: On to Fenway.

Perhaps one of the first locations to come to mind when thinking of Boston, we made it to Fenway pretty late in the game, with several clues on our list in our minds to check off. We wasted no time in getting to Bleacher Bar, where we’d planned to have dinner, but it was a bit too packed.  Not to worry, these scavengers had no problem finding food at the nearby Mexican place down the road.

#21: Holding up theCitgo sign. Perhaps not the best job, but we captured this time the first time we had anywhere near a decent angle to do so. Props to L for holding up something that heavy, and to S for finding the right angle.

#26: At Fenway (bonus points for being in the stadium, super bonus points for being on the field). L’s idea was to be at Bleacher Bar, where a mere mesh net separates the bar from the field. Perhaps we get bonus points because she found a little hole at the bottom of the net and got her fingers to touch Fenway dirt!

#16: Most Bostonian person. We toyed with the idea of faux Sam Adams, but today’s Most Bostonian person clearly needed to be a Red Sox fan in Bleacher Bar near Fenway watching the away Red Sox game. Clearly.

#78: The Sacred Cod. So we looked this up. It was in the State House. The State House was closed. We took a picture. I couldn’t find the picture, and it wasn’t of a cod anyway. We had been pervaded by cod. Codzilla, crazy monkfish-labeled-as-a-cod, etc. So . . . we decided that instead of a sacred cod, we’d submit a sacred Mexican wrestly. Because WHO puts photos of Lucha Libre in the bathroom?  Well, that random Mexican place on Lansdowne (or nearby?) – that’s who.

#22: Most Red Sox paraphernalia. The guy from #16 was also a contender, but S was able to snag this shot of the Red Sox official store.

Phase 17: Smoots.

One of the best clues, in my opinion, was simply labeled, “A Smoot!” Exclamation necessary, explanation not. The so-called “Harvard Bridge” (far from Harvard, close to MIT) is labeled with “Smoots”, a length of measurement which is the actual length of a specific individual, and in which is measured the length of the bridge linking Cambridge’s Mass Ave. to Boston’s Mass Ave. Halfway across from Boston to Cantabrigia is “Halfway to Hell.”

#53: The worst statue. On the way we found this statue. It was pretty horrible

#79: A Smoot!. And there you have L, posing next to one of the many markings on the bridge (we’re on the left-hand side going from Boston to Cambridge, technically the “wrong way”).

Phase 18: Using the “T” for real.

We were tired. We were going back to the North End to rally for one of the hardest photos on the list. And we were in Fenway. The only thing for us was the (shudder) Green Line.

#66c: Photos of your team on all 5 MBTA lines – the Green Line.  This time, the whole team got on at Hynes station and we captured L on the Green Line – with her team joining her for once.

#11: Highest person-to-space ratio (e.g. a lot of people in a small space).  There were other contenders – at some point we thought about the choir M was going to see standing on the stage, the chaos that is Haymarket, etc. – but eventually we decided that the quintessential terribly-packed scene in Boston is the ever-hated Green Line.

#34: A tourist carrying both Mike's and Modern boxes. We caved and pseudo-staged it, I’m not going to lie. But we also had the experience of waiting in line at Mike’s for some pastries (which were so delicious I almost forgot that our primary goal was the box), talking in Boston accents about the Kardashians with some randos in line, and asking a Modern Pastry box holder to take pics with our Mike’s box – and being responded “Oh no, that’s the Antichrist!” The perfect response.

Phase 19: One of the first clues we figured out.

Early in the game we recognized a clever clue as pointing us to Post Office Square – a location quite near to us, as we were still in our starting point at Boston Common. However, the excitement got to us and we ventured on to bigger and better things, forgetting to stop there. But never fret! We made it back, near on 11pm.

#29: A short 4-photo panel comic. First, we stopped for some tomfoolery near Government Center. We had debated what to do for this clue – it seemed something that could be done anywhere, at any time. My initial interpretation was that we were supposed to find a comic to photograph. Other interpretations involved drawing comics (something we wanted to recruit E. for, but my phone was dead). Finally we realized we could just stage our own photo-comic – and that we finally did, once inspired by the insane statue featured at the end. Note: make sure to click through all four pics if viewing from the link here.

#17: USPS * USPS. Obviously: Post Office Square. They don’t call us MIT students for nothing.

Phase 20: The last hurrah.

One more pretty quick trip on the Green Line took us home-ward, and also toward the last few stops on our list. We thought we only had two more items to check off – turns out, it was three.

#6: Reptilian guard of the place where lightning is made. Others on my team figured out this one early on, but it was hard to get to – the closest (well, almost) clue to Cambridge.  The raptor guarding the Science Museum was also guarding some school-age kids who were having a lock-in there!

#54: The Charles River locks.  I’d originally thought a “lock” was a physical object projecting into/out of a river, but in fact it makes more sense – “locks” are small enclosed bodies of water within a larger body of water. We had our closest encounter with the po-po while trying to trespass (though there were no signs) down to get a better view/picture.

#7: You’ll know it when you see it.  And our LAST photo of the night was impromptu/serendipitous – as it absolutely should have been.  We originally took some shots of the strip clubs / porn stores in Boston in Chinatown (you know.. you get it), but we KNEW when we saw disco bikers that they were what we knew when we saw (‘em). DISCO BIKERS!

Phase The-Last-One: Cambridge.

We thought we were done. But then – we took the long way Atwood’s, a pub where my friends were meeting… turns out they were meeting from about 5-7 pm. Eventually this became clear, and after walking for nearly an hour, S. picked us up and brought us more inbound to Cambridge, where, S, L and I (J had already departed MIT-/home-ward) enjoyed some frost libations before the (SO SHORT) prance home.

What. A. Day.

Day 40: 80 Photos in Boston -- Part 1.

Phase 1: Get there.

Banditos misterifotos. Quick explanation: Banditos Misteriosos are a group in Boston that host free, Boston-tastic events that often involve roaming around the city exploring or hosting a fun activity in a public space.  Today was my first banditos experience, and the theme was a Boston photo-based scavenger hunt.  I had very little idea what to expect.  There were five of us, with our first initials being M (that’s me), J, M, L, and S. JLS are first-years at MIT, and M is a friend I know from choir. This is how we eventually formed our team name, “Ma-jamel-toes”. I know. So sue us.

After a quite epic-in-nature night out at Howl at the Moon, somehow I wound up with an uncharged phone and a ability to sleep easily until 10:30am – the time when we were all supposed to meet outside my apartment (except from M., who was meeting us there). L&S had rallied and woken up J, and then they woke up my roommate, who woke me up. After a 3-minute shower and some hobbling around to find a scavenger-hunt-worthy outfit, I was out the door and we were on our way. M was there early (read: on time) and already had our list of clues: 80 items!

Phase 2: Initial photo-taking frenzy near the Public Garden / Boston common.

We met Meg at the entrance to the Public Garden, and immediately began snapping the camera at anything we could find that vaguely resembled some of the clues on the list.  From my estimation, we snapped about 9 images immediately in or very near the Common:

#61: Public Toilet. Amusing how this was our first hit!  By the end of the day, this row of portable toilets near the park had disappeared...

#8: A person that looks like their pet.  Not our finest effort, but we did see many adorable pups in the park at 11am and one of them had delightfully curly hair – only slightly more delightfully curly than his owner.

#14: This red line carries thousands, but never actually moves.  Now, I know I’ve heard this line before – and of course, it was referring to the red line that connects much of historic Boston on the Freedom Trail, which begins (I think?) quite near the common / near the State House.  I like our particular rendition of it, which is why it also serves as the head picture to this post J.

#15: Period costume tour guide using modern technology.  Perhaps it is cheating to stage events, but we found a Sam Adams-esque man nearly immediately (I think he may even have been an actual tour guide) and handed him a cell phone.  As I said, this part of the journey was a blitz.

#44: A squirrel and a pigeon.  Unfortunately, my camera (which has a non-functional screen, though it does have a viewfinder!) was on a quite low resolution setting.  Great for saving space on my SD card; bad for capturing tiny animals in a wide shot of Boston Common. But I promise you, they are both there.

#39: Playing on a playground. J was, of course, the first to high-tail it to the playground near the Duck Pond in the Common (any time there is a playground around that kid is down to party).  Weird thing was there were no kids on it, at all – at this point it was nearing 11:30a.  When we were back in the Common around 6p, a gaggle of little goslings (I mean children) were out and about.

#45: Wearing a plant.  This one happened without my even realizing at first – I thought S was just wearing a plant for the hell of it.

#46: In or on water. So many opportunities for this today – but L valiantly strolled past the sign proclaiming there was to be no going in.

#69: Impersonating famous movies outside of a movie theater.  Unfortunately we only impersonated one – J and I did Rose and Jack at the helm of the Titanic. Of course.

Phase 3: The not-so-little building.

We realized that an epic day of traipsing about would probably require some cash, so we headed to the Little Building at Emerson College.

#23: An oxymoron. As it turns out, the Little Building is not so little.  Kind of an oxymoron.  More ironic.  Unlike nearly everything Alanis mentions.

#25: Arm wrestling with a stranger. The security guards at the Little Building seemed to me to be slightly suspicious of our exuberance at retrieving money from an ATM.  So to put them at ease, we decided we probably better ask them to help us with our tasks, that way they’d know we were 2legit2quit. By arm wrestling one of them.

Phase 4: The Tam.

The Tam is really a destination in and of itself, anyhow, so it was quite excellent that we found a way to seamlessly worked it into our adventure. I was still not quite ready to daydrink, so I indulged in some orange juice.

#9: An arcade game! Bleep! Bloop! Bloop!. We captured both Big Buck Hunter and Pac Man, but the latter beat out the former.

#57: Most Bostonian image. It has the Patriots. And some old Bostonian dudes. It has a sign that says “Cash only”. It’s at the Tam. It’s pretty damn Bostonian.

Phase 5: Random walk.

This bit of the journey was definitely not at all consolidated by grid cells in my hippocampus. But it was the happiest-go-luckiest random walk in awhile, and the first of many that day.

#20: A sea monster!.  This little was, at first, our best shot at Codzilla (and honestly I think he might be better than the original).  M claims it was clearly a mistranslation. I claim it’s really just Codzilla.

#51: A photo of your camera, no mirrors allowed!. We had the best time at this Chinese supermarket. Trying on scarves was part of it – the picture-of-my-camera part was nearly inadvertent. L & I ended up buying a scarf, too J.

#74: อยากเต้นรำไหม . Most people would give up at this clue. M went: “Oh, that’s Thai. Let’s just go ask someone who reads Thai what it means.” Effing brilliant. Apparently it meant, “Would you like to dance?”

#1: Give a fellow team member a makeover. At first we had walked to the Boston Opera House to find a picture of a long kickline (presumably from A Chorus Line or something), to no avail.  However, we passed a little shop called So Good on the way, so we were all set for giving S a makeover!

#64: It is most often the casement, that names are determined by placement, when push comes to shove, there’s nothing above, then you can no longer call it a basement.  Answer: Filene’s!.

#66d: Photos of your team on all 5 MBTA lines – the Silver Line.  Happily for us we were able to nearly walk on to the Silver Line without breaking stride – oh-so-elusive, it is!

#66a: Photos of your team on all 5 MBTA lines – the Red Line. Of course, it is the line most of us take the most often, and also the line we took in to the scavenger hunt this morning. However, we were not aware at the time that we should simply photograph everything that happened to us! So L and S ventured out to grab a picture of a couple of lines leaving from Park St. while we all walked on foot to South Station.

Phase 6: The waterfront.

It was a bit of a trek to the waterfront, so some of our team members split up to start the “T” journey (one of the clues involved a team member being photographed on each of the 5 lines of the T). It was honestly the only reason we ever split up, which was great.

#24: Using a photobooth.  One shock of the day was that there actually do exist payphones in the city of Boston.  We saw perhaps no actual booths, but this seemed pretty darn close.

#41: The Little Dig. Apparently there is actually (in the French sense, too) a project going on called “The Little Dig” – named as the little sister of “The Big Dig”.  It’s unclear whether this photo actually captures that dig, but either way, it’s definitely a smaller one than The Big Dig (the preceding clue).

#77: The “lobster tours” boat.  After looking at the pictures that other teams posted, it was clear that it was hard to capture a shot of the real lobster tours boat.  We did in fact make it to the correct dock, but in going through the picture later, I couldn’t find it, so subbed this pic, which M took of boats which clearly looked as though they should be hunting for lobsters.

#18: Getting chased by a zombie.  The misteriosos planners clearly knew what they were doing, because there were zombies all over Boston today. And L definitely got chased by some near South Station.

#60: Best beard. Perhaps the planners also knew there would be some serious contenders out for best beard today, because we almost instantly ran into the one we felt was obviously the best.  He was also quite fond of getting photographed with the lovely L J.

#12: Pinkies out at the Tea Party museum.  Though we didn’t go inside most of the museums we ventured to, we did get some excellent shots of them – and an idea of the astonishing number of quirky museums in Boston!

Phase 7: Some serendipity on the trek back from the waterfront.

#2: Peter Pan burned this down. One of the most serendipitous moments of the day was randomly walking along the water and realizing that tout d’un coup, we were at James Hook and Co. Lobsters. I remarked, seemingly off-the-cuff, that oh, perhaps Peter Pan had burned this down – and remarkably, L knew that the lobster place actually had burned down – and all of our cogs turned at just the right time to include this on our list. (S & L also took the opportunity to scavenge some seafood!)