Day 307: Beautiful, healing Boston

On Day 106 of this year — the day after the Boston Marathon bombings  — I wrote a post called “Beautiful, wounded Boston.”

In that post, I included this photo, which I had taken at the Public Gardens, two days before the Marathon:

Yesterday, I returned to the Public Gardens, with thousands of people, to watch the Red Sox parade.

For much of my life, I’ve associated April with living and November with dying.

Not this year. This year, it’s been about all of it, every month.

Here is a photo essay, about yesterday:

My Day At the Boston Red Sox  Parade

by Ann

Minutes after I finished yesterday’s blog post, which helped me gather the courage to JUST DO IT! and go to the parade on my own, I rushed out of the house, to wait at the nearest bus stop, to start the journey into Boston. Two people at the bus stop told me they had originally planned to take the commuter rail, but they received word that the commuter rail was packed and running very late.

Why did I choose the bus, yesterday morning, over the commuter rail?

It’s familiar. I’ve never used the commuter rail. However, my fear of the new (which I’ve written about several times, this year), made me look like a friggin’ genius yesterday:

This was the way the bus looked, at the beginning of the journey. And while Red Sox revelers did hop on, it never got crowded.

Distracted by many things,  I didn’t take photos for the next hour.  The next time I remembered to capture an image was when I was walking down Charles Street, which separates  the Public Gardens from The Boston Common.

If you like maps and would like to feel located at this point in my essay, here’s the map, from yesterday’s post, of the parade route:

While Charles Street isn’t marked in that map, you can see the white line between the green of the Public Garden and the Common.  I had gotten off the “T” (our name for the subway) at the Charles/MGH stop, and was walking that white line toward Boylston.

For those of you who don’t like maps, we’re moving on!

So, as I walked down Charles Street, between the Public Garden and Boston Common, I passed by several fire trucks, accompanied by ….

…  Boston Fire Fighters!  I stopped to ask these gentlemen (and others, who did not pose), if I could take a photo of them. These four, named Dennis, Danny, Danny, and Nick, said, “Sure!” without any hesitation.  When I told them it was for my blog, they said, “What kind of blog is it?”  Because I was in such a good mood, I immediately said, laughing, “It’s a blog about handsome guys!”  They liked that (although much ribbing of each other ensued immediately).  They also liked the actual name of my blog (although additional ribbing ensued about that, too).

As you can see, I was anxious to get to the parade route, because I didn’t get a very good shot of these wonderful Boston firefighters. I still love the photo, though.

I hurried up Charles Street, pausing for a moment to turn around and take this view of it:

Yes, it was another beautiful day, and unseasonably warm.

Just a few minutes later, I was in a great position, to see the parade. Here are a few shots of what I saw, waiting for the parade to come down Boylston Street:

I wanted to be at this location, so I could see up Boylston Street, the location of the Marathon Finish Line, and see the Red Sox after they had finished their journey down this street.

Here’s what I saw, as we all waited for them, on this beautiful autumn day:

What I didn’t know, at the time, was that the Red Sox parade had stopped, on Boylston Street.

This is the way CNN reported it:

Boston Red Sox parade reclaims marathon finish line

Boston outfielder Jonny Gomes on Saturday sets the World Series trophy wrapped in a ‘Boston Strong 617’ jersey onto the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

See here, for the full article about this, from CNN.

Yesterday, though, all I knew was that the Red Sox were coming down Boylston Street, in Duck Boats. Here’s where I first spotted them:

I don’t know if you can see them, way off in the distance. I was also tipped off they were approaching, by audio clues from the crowd, including,

“THERE THEY ARE!!”

Because I’m pretty short, I don’t have a great vantage point, to show you the parade approaching and passing by, but I will do my best:

I knew I wouldn’t get great photos of the Red Sox on their Duck Boats, but I couldn’t resist trying. (See here, for example, for some great shots of the parade.)

Here are some more photos I like, which I took during the parade:

And I have to include this one, because it shows a giant red shoe!!

Anyway, after the parade passed by, I walked around The Public Gardens for a bit, and took some more photos:

As they say in “The Wizard of Oz,” there’s no place like home.

Thanks to CNN, The Huffington Post, the Boston Red Sox, all those who were celebrating yesterday, and to you — of course! — for visiting today.