A Fresh Look at SoWa Open Market

I went to the SoWa Open Market on a whim, informed of its existence by my housemate Yuri who has a natural affinity for fresh produce and people who make pesto. Located on 460 Harrison Ave, this market is open every Sunday from 10 AM to 4 PM until October. You should go for its boastful product selection as well as the crowd, a great smattering of diverse Bostonians who are dogging their totes close, babying their dogs, or toting around their babies.

Yuri and I went from salivating at the Yummy Mummy Brownies stall to sniffing (and ultimately purchasing) homemade lavender honey. We found that each shop owner, whether he’s selling fresh, college-budget corn or something more yuppie than quinoa, was happy to talk to us, often beaming about his craft.

“Want to try something spicy?” one seller asked me.

I stammered, about to be undone by Yuri’s spice tolerance. “Y-yes.”

“Okay, good. My husband loves to dip everything in this chili I made, but me? No, it’s too spicy. I can only have a little. Here, try some.”

The market is bisected into a section selling mostly produce and an area offering mostly crafts and food bordered by other stores like a vintage furniture shop, a letterpress studio, and an art gallery. In the first part did we discover Pestos With Panache by Lauren being served and sold by her very supportive parents who informed me that no, they are not her official taste testers. They happily answered our questions, carefully spooning us Bangin’ Blueberry or Fabulous Fig & Gorgonzola saying, “Here, you have to try this; you’ll love it” in between answering the crowd’s questions with: “Yes, Lauren has hundreds of pesto recipes online” and “Put this on anything—pasta, chicken, vanilla ice cream…”

I encountered friendliness and tastiness as well at Samira’s Homemade, a stall manned by an Egyptian family that exuberantly agreed to talk with me in Arabic. Through my limited collegiate language studies, I was able to deduce that they had given a talk at my university prior to my enrollment, had good advice for my study abroad plans, and make excellent hummus in a variety of flavors on the daily.

Clichés like, “There’s something for everyone!” or “The best of both worlds!” or even “When in Rome!” don’t exactly sum up the SoWa Open Market. It’s better alluded to by my experience with one of its food trucks, Bon Me, which sells Vietnamese sandwiches with Korean barbeque chicken on French baguettes. See, the SoWa Open Market has culture of all sorts: friendly people selling what they care about, and food and clothing that bring you a little closer to other cultures while at the same time reminding you of home. Wherever that may be.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was written up by one of our star interns, David Schwartz. If you are interested in the SOWA Open Market, be sure to also check out our review of the Greenway Open Market, open Saturdays through September 17. 

Tips for Going to 2011 New England Patriots Training Camp

Patriots Training Camp, photograph by Christopher Klein

Call it a Punxsutawney Phil moment. A sure sign that a barren season is finally behind us and better days have arrived. As I was driving around my neighborhood yesterday, I saw a 70-year-old woman shuffling away from her mailbox. She was wearing a gray T-shirt with some lettering on the front and back. As I drove closer I saw that the front said “I Hate Peyton Manning.” The back: “Eli Sucks Too”.

The new football season is here! The new football season is here!

At times, it looked like the NFL lockout could jeopardize part or all of the season, but with the new deal now signed and sealed, the players are back on the gridiron. The New England Patriots will open their public training camp on Thursday, and fans will notice some changes this year due to the new agreement between the players and the owners:

Don’t expect to see much hitting during the first few days of camp. Players have hopefully kept in shape during the off-season, but they will still take a little longer than normal to get back into the swing of things. The Patriots have announced that “initial practices will likely be scaled back a bit while the players continue to work toward playing shape.” So if you’re going to make one trip down to Foxborough, plan to do it towards the end of training camp.

Expect to see more walk-throughs and drills this year. One of the changes under the new agreement is that there are no more two-a-day sessions in full pads. The Patriots have usually held training camp sessions in both the morning and afternoon. Full-pad practices are usually more interesting to watch. Particularly on hot days, it might be a better bet to see padded practices in the morning sessions. (The Patriots have already announced that the first two days of camp will be unpadded.)

Training camp rosters are bigger. Under the new agreement, training camp rosters expand from 80 players to 90, so there’s even more reason to get a roster sheet.

Here are some more tips for fans going to New England Patriots Training Camp:

Where: Patriots training camp is held on the practice fields next to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

Schedule: The tentative schedule calls for two-a-day practices for the opening days of training camp with practices from 9:30 to 11:30 AM and 3:30 to 5:30 PM on July 28 and July 29. The schedule is always tentative based on the desires of the coaching staff and oftentimes the weather. Practice times will be announced on the Patriots web site and you can double-check it by calling the team’s hot line at 508-549-0001.

Parking: The practice is free to attend, and the parking is free as well. (Yes, I said it, “Free.”) Parking is along the west side of the stadium, and it’s a short walk over to the fields. From US 1, enter the parking lots at P8 from the south and P6 from the north. Lots open an hour before each practice.

Seating: There are bleachers along the side of one practice field on which to sit. Another popular spot is on the hillside that lies behind the end zones of the practice fields and in front of the stadium. Wherever you sit, you’re pretty close to the action. If you have a camera with a good zoom lens, you should get some good shots.

Food and Drink: There are concession stands that sell food and drinks. Be prepared to pay normal stadium prices for food and beverages, however, if you buy it there. Adjoining Patriot Place has plenty of restaurants and bars where you can get a meal, too. (For a good, cheap meal, I highly recommend Five Guys Burgers at Patriot Place.)

For the Kids: Along the west side of the stadium during Training Camp is the Patriots Experience, filled with interactive games that allow young fans to test their kicking, passing, and tackling skills on a variety of obstacle courses, football tosses, and other similar challenges. It’s a popular draw for families. (All fans participating in Patriots Experience must sign a waiver form, available at training camp. It’s usually online as well at the Patriots web site.) Note that the hours for the Patriots Experience are not the same as the practice schedule; so check the web site. (In general, the hours are usually 11-4.) Kids will also enjoy all the interactive exhibits at the Hall at Patriot Place. Even if you don’t have kids, a visit to this museum dedicated to the Patriots franchise is an absolute must for Pats fans.

Tom Brady signs autographs at training camp. Photo by Michael Dwyer of the Associated Press

Scoring Autographs: The players enter and leave the field near the hillside, so it’s a good spot to get autographs, and a designated group of players, which rotates from practice to practice, will often sign along the front row of the bleachers when practice is over.

With as many as 90 players on the field, plenty of new faces (particularly this year as the feeding frenzy on free agents begins), and uniforms without names on the back, it may be tough knowing who you are watching, so print out a roster from the Patriots web site before you go or pick up a complimentary roster from the Patriots Football Weekly tent.

For more tips on enhancing your experience at Patriots Training Camp–and for all the information you’d ever want to know about spectator sports around Boston–check out The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston.

Boston’s 1976 World’s Fair That Wasn’t

Swimming in Boston Harbor in wintertime. Hiking tree-lined trails under a translucent dome. Renting electric cars for a spin around Thompson Island.

It definitely seems like something out of a sci-fi book, perhaps a vision of life in Boston in 2020. But rather than some futuristic view of the Boston Harbor Islands, this was a proposed plan for developing the islands in the 1970s. Believe it or not.

Plans were drawn up in the early 1970s to stage a huge international exposition in Boston in 1976 to celebrate the American bicentennial. The planners of Expo ’76 projected that up to 60 million people would visit the 690-acre fairground, which, in addition to Thompson Island, would have been located on Columbia Point in Dorchester and a new harbor island created from a combination of landfill and floating platforms.

The plans called for construction of a 500-boat marina and a hotel on the southern end of Thompson Island as well as the conversion of the school facilities into a youth camp and demonstration farm. Visitors would have been able to rent bikes or electric cars to traverse the island.

The piece de resistance, however, was the proposal to build a huge, transparent dome, more than two football fields in diameter, that would have covered part of the islands’ natural landscape of grassy knolls, woods, and winding trails. The dome would have been climate-controlled, allowing for boating, swimming, and picnicking year-round, even in the throes of a New England winter.

Luckily, these plans never came to fruition, and the landscape of Thompson Island has been preserved. As is often the case, it’s everyday city residents who are partly to thank for the plan’s demise.

This Thursday (July 28), the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands are putting on a program at the Thayer Public Library in Braintree exploring the World’s Fair that wasn’t. The program will include a screening of a public service film made by Save Our Shores, a grassroots organization, as well as a panel discussion with some of the film’s creators. There will be exhibits on display as well. Click here for more on the program.

Photograph by Sue Scheible, the Patriot Ledger

The plans for the 1976 World’s Fair were some of the most compelling items I came across in researching Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands. Always interesting to see an alternate history for how Boston could look today. Electric cars and swimming under a giant dome sounds pretty cool, but I’ll take the walking trails and open skies of Thompson Island just how they are.

Reader Review of Under Cape Cod Waters

Photograph by Ethan Daniels

As we gear up for an exciting week of author events with Ethan Daniels in Boston and on Cape Cod, we wanted to share a fantastic review of Under Cape Cod Waters. In our line of work, we are lucky enough to meet many talented writers, photographers, artists and feisty small business owners. One of those great connections was made recently with Kelly Knight, an artist who lives and works on Cape Cod, who wrote a beautiful review of Under Cape Cod Waters on her blog, Twill & Dot.

While reviews and coverage from big newspapers and journals are extremely important to a small publishing company like Union Park Press, we also care deeply about what all of YOU think of our books. After all, we create these books for the readers out there – those who want to discover more about the history, art, culture of Boston, Cape Cod and New England. That’s why we were particularly excited to read about how Kelly connected with Under Cape Cod Waters.

Here is an excerpt from Kelly’s post:

…While I’ve explored the Cape on land, my knowledge of it’s underwater habitat has not kept pace… until recently. Last week I picked up a copy of this book: Under Cape Cod Waters by Ethan Daniels. Daniels has a background in science and an artist’s eye for color and composition. He is an award-winning photographer who has traveled the world capturing images of life below the waves. Like myself, he is locked in a lifelong love affair with Cape Cod, but his fascination lies below the surface of Cape waters, in a world that many never have the opportunity to see. InUnder Cape Cod Waters, he has compiled a collection of images that show us some things familiar – a tangle of water lilies, swaying rockweed, blue crabs, starfish, painted turtles – but from new angles: up and through the water’s depths. He also captures images of sea life that few of us will ever observe first hand: a rare yellow sea raven; beds of orange seas anemones; finger sponges reaching towards the light; great colonies of algae, bivalves and invertebrates that have, over time, established themselves on the broken forms of forgotten shipwrecks. He shows us color – not just the deep green-blue-black of the water, not just the dull browns of sun-dried seaweed on the sand, but rich, unexpected tones: fuchsia, lime, silver, red, cobalt, orange…

We love the way Kelly describes the color present in Under Cape Cod Waters. Please visit her site and read the rest of the review. While you’re there, be sure to check out her gorgeous handwoven treasures. Thank you, Kelly!

Ethan Daniels will be speaking at the following venues:

Wednesday, July 27 at 6PM: Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
Thursday, July 28 at 7:30PM: Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, 869 Main Street, Brewster, MA
Monday, August 1 at 7:30PM: Woods Hole Public Library, 581 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA

Meet the Author of Under Cape Cod Waters, Summer 2011

Ethan Daniels, photographer and author of Under Cape Cod Waters is here on the East Coast the next few weeks with a limited number of appearances…so come submerge yourself in the world beneath the Cape’s waterlines!

Wednesday, July 27 at 6PM: Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
Thursday, July 28 at 7:30PM: Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, 869 Main Street, Brewster, MA
Monday, August 1 at 7:30PM: Woods Hole Public Library, 581 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA

Books will be available for retail at each event — at the BPL and Woods Hole Public Library by two of our favorite local indies, Trident Booksellers & Cafe and Eight Cousins Bookstore. And if you haven’t had a chance yet, be sure to stop by Trident Booksellers before August 21st to see Ethan Daniels’ Photography Exhibit.

Can’t make it to Ethan Daniels’ events? Not to worry! Under Cape Cod Waters is available in bookstores and online.

Wet Lions at Harvard’s Allston Library Park

When Harvard’s involved with a park, you need at least four lions and three prepositions. The pretty little Library Park behind the Honan-Allston Branch Library, which opened to the public on July 7, was “was created on land given to Boston by Harvard,” (emphasis mine) according to the Harvard Gazette. And it does have lions, or at least their heads. They sit in a circle, waiting to pounce on passers-by and cover them with lion spit!  Well, actually, the lions don’t move, and they just spew water from the Quabbin Reservoir, and the fountain doesn’t operate unless someone pushes a button, but still, there are lions! In Allston!

…and for now, that’s all that Harvard has built in the area. The new Library Park was originally supposed to be part of a 500,000 square foot science complex. Skip to the last page of this PDF of Harvard’s 2006 master plan for the site and you’ll see just how big the Proposed Science Site was compared to the library. In a 2006 meeting hosted by the Harvard Allston Task Force, one resident was concerned about conflicts “between residents and graduate students.” Harvard neatly avoided that conflict by not building the science complex, thanks largely to the university’s endowment tanking during the recession. There are currently vague plans to build something different there, but it’s not clear when that something will be built.

For now, Allston has gotten a new park, and no pesky graduate students. Instead, the site has used lions. They were found (lurking?) somewhere near Western Avenue when Harvard excavated the site, an erstwhile wetland and former concrete plant. In the hierarchy of “reduce, reuse, recycle,”  I suppose the landscape architects would have been more environmentally correct to eliminate the lions altogether, and just let the water trickle on the ground–but reusing buried lion heads was part of the grand scheme to be “sustainable.”

“Sustainable” is a tricky word. It means something good; the Harvard Gazette used it four times in one article about the park. But what is sustainability, really? Here’s what Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), the park’s landscape architects, think it means:

Viewed as a pilot project in sustainability, the project will feature LED lighting, organic maintenance, increased ecological diversity, improved wildlife habitat, the reuse of salvaged fill, and the collection of surface runoff for groundwater recharge through rain gardens.

How did MVVA do? I visited on a weekday afternoon, so I couldn’t see the lighting, and no one was doing maintenance, so I couldn’t see if it was organic (a word almost as undefined as “sustainable”) or not. Considering that the site used to be a concrete plant, then a grass lawn, MVVA could have planted barrel cactus and ragweed and increased the ecological diversity and wildlife habitat at the park.

And that’s here’s what Harvard got for $2 million an acre; a pleasant park with a rain garden, a hill with a spiral, lawns for sitting and reading, and a lion-spit sprinkle deck. It’s pretty, (even though it seems to have lost a few of the trees that were originally planned), the spaces are diverse, there’s clearly a variety of trees and shrubs that will bloom at different times in the spring, and there were a few people from the neighborhood enjoying it on the hot, sunny day. It’s a nice addition to a very urban neighborhood. Heaven knows what it will look like when a few thousand extra people are walking through it every day, but for now, it’s lovely. So is the Library’s front garden, which has nothing to do with Harvard at all.

 

A Night at the Museum: Which is Right for You?

As it turns out, heading to a sports bar every night isn’t the only way to get involved in the Boston social scene. Broaden your horizons this summer by attending one of the many evening events hosted by area museums. With games for kids, live music, and wine tastings, you’re sure to find one that’s right for you.

Here are a few of our picks:

Photo by Lou Jones, Lonely Planet Images

21 or older? Try  Summer Fridays at the Museum of Fine Arts. Sip fun cocktails in the gorgeous Calderwood Courtyard and meet other art-lovers while you take in some culture. Skipping town on the weekends? Try Winesdays at the Museum of Fine Art, hosted the last Wednesday of each month. Learn to appreciate the taste of wine with the help of an expert at the MFA’s Bravo restaurant, featuring a different winery each month. The cost of admission includes the tasting as well as hors d’oeuvres. The next Winesday will be next week, July 27.

MFA Summer Fridays take place every Friday, rain or shine, through August. MFA Winesdays take place on the last Wednesday of each month. Cost: $25. No reservations necessary. More information here.

Interested in Surrealism? Want to play with water? Head over to the Peabody Essex Museum for their Summer Evening Parties, which take place in the Asian Garden. This Thursday, the event centers around the “Man Ray/Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism” exhibit. Play Surrealist games, including human chess, hear live music from Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys, and make a little art of your own. Or go next month, when the focus shifts to “Ripple Effect: The Art of H2O,” which explores water in all its forms in various mediums. Experiment with water in the various interactive installations, including Elena Kalman’s “The Wave.”

PEM Summer Evening Parties take place 7/21 and 8/25, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Cost: $8 for members or Salem residents and $10 for nonmembers. No reservations necessary. More information here.

Want to bring the kids? Try Neighborhood Nights at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. Get free admission to the museum, sketch in the courtyard, and take part in the various children’s activities. The theme this Thursday is Egypt: go on a scavenger hunt with art and stories from Egypt. On August 4, the theme is time: hear stories about Isabella Stuart Gardner herself, open a time capsule to learn about life in Boston 100 years ago, and win prizes in a trivia game.

ISGM Neighborhood Nights take place 7/21 and 8/4, 5-8 p.m. Free admission. More information here

Or are you interested in music? Hear live music from various students and alums of Berklee College of Music at the Institute of Contemporary Art every Thursday this summer. This Thursday features Sons of Daughters, an improvisational jazz trio, including Berklee alums Devin Drobka and Aaron Darrell, who tour the East Coast often and have played with many jazz legends. Upcoming artists include Kiesza, a former member of the Canadian Navy who performs pop-folk, saxophonist Grace Kelly, and bluegrass musician Sierra Hull.

ICA Harborwalk Sounds take place every Thursday through 9/8, 6-8:30 p.m. Free admission. More information here.

Which one suits you? Do you plan on attending any events held at museums this summer? Did we miss one? Leave us a note in the comments below.

The Battle for Boston Light

Photo by Christopher Klein

Remember that old Sesame Street segment with the song “One of these things is not like the other“? (What’s up with Grover’s voice in that clip, by the way? Sounds like he had a Freaky Friday moment with Cookie Monster.) You get four choices and have to tell which one is dissimilar from the others. Well, let’s play:

Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, the Boston Harbor Islands.

If you said the Boston Harbor Islands because the other three were locations of Revolutionary War battles, then you’re, well, wrong. Although little-known to even life-long Hub residents, the islands of Boston Harbor were also stained with the blood of patriots and British forces.

This month marks the 236th anniversary of the Revolutionary clashes on Little Brewster Island. Perhaps no island was of more strategic importance than Little Brewster because it was the location of historic Boston Light, the first lighthouse in North America when it was built 1716. The lighthouse was still in British hands in July 1775 when the patriots, seeking to disrupt British control of the harbor, launched two daring raids on Little Brewster Island.

Maj. Joseph Vose of the Continental Army led a raiding party onto the Nantasket peninsula on the southern shore of Boston Harbor from which they set off in whaleboats for Little Brewster Island, where they landed on the morning of July 20, 1775. The patriots burned the wooden parts of the lighthouse, and removed three casks of oil, gunpowder, and furniture. Seeing the beacon in flames, several British barges, a cutter, and an armed schooner attacked Vose’s detachment, but only two patriots were wounded in the action.

Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library

A letter from Brigadier General William Heath to George Washington, dated July 21, 1775, recounted the actions of Vose’s detachment, both on Little Brewster Island and on other islands in Boston Harbor:

Sir

I have the Pleasure to inform your Excellency that Major Vose of my own Regiment; beside[s] securing the Barley on Nantasket; yesterday morning Landed on the Light-House Island with Six or Seven Boats, the Light House was set on Fire and the wood work Burnt, the Party brought off Three Casks of Oyl, all the furniture of the Light house, about 50 wt of Gun Powder, a Quantity of Cordage &c. (an Inventory of which will be forwarded to your Excellency;)

Some of the Brave men who effected this with their Lives in their Hands, have just now applied to me to know whether it was to be consid[ered] as Plunder, or otherwise; I was not able to detirmine this matter, but told them that I would Lay the matter before your Excellency; I would beg leave to add that these Brave men, were some of them at Grape Island, Deer Island & at Long Island when each of those Islands were Stripped of their Stock &c.

I have the Honor to be your Excellency’s most obedient & very Humble Servt

W. Heath

The British quickly deployed Loyalist workers, protected by a guard of marines, to repair Boston Light. “With this Party,” Vice Admiral Samuel Graves wrote, “the Engineers were of opinion the Light House might well be defended, until Succours arrived, against 1000 men, and the Admiral expected to have the Building soon repaired and a Light shewn as before.”

And it appears the British did proceed quickly in their repair of the light. In a letter to John Adams, James Warren reported that by the night of July 29 the British efforts to rebuild the beacon were “in such forwardness as Actually to shew a Light.”

However, the other assessment by Graves as to the ease of defending Boston Light would soon be put to the test. Stay tuned to this blog to hear what happened next…

Cape Cod League Baseball: An Introduction

I experienced a New England rite of passage this past weekend: catching a Cape Cod League baseball game.  I popped into a game earlier this spring, watching about ten chilly minutes of a Harwich Mariners vs the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox game. After just a few moments on the wet and cold bleachers, I finally begged my way out of that pinnacle baseball moment and back into the warm car.

This past Friday night featured sunny skies and temperatures in the comfortable 70s. The Chatham Anglers were scheduled to play the Harwich Mariners at home, the intimate Veteran’s Field in Chatham.  It was perfect conditions for a baseball game and there was no way out of this one.

The game was everything that my baseball-loving, Cape Cod-worshipping husband had promised.  The game itself was interesting, the crowd was engaged, and the concession stand was all that I had hoped for (great hot dogs). I was particularly fascinated by the scouts positioned behind the backstop, scribbling notes and taking photos of prospects. The little leaguers flagging fly balls were pretty entertaining as well.

Pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed myself, I returned to work and turned to Christopher Klein’s The Die Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston, knowing that he would fill in some of the gaps of my Cape Cod League knowledge.

Sure enough, Chris Klein had all sorts of good facts for me.

Did you know:

• That at any given game, fans are likely to see six future major leaguers?
• That one out of seven major league players are alumni of the Cape Cod League?
• That two big Red Sox greats—Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek—played in this invitation-only amateur league?
• That players are required to play with wooden bats (as opposed to aluminum like they do in college) so that they hit as they do in the Majors?
• That the players live with area families and hold summer jobs at local businesses?

If you’re a “baseball purist” who is put off by “superstar egos and out-of-control player salaries,” as Chris states in his book, then the Cape league just might be your version of baseball heaven.

For more information, including stats and schedules, check the Cape Cod League Website.

Want to know more about the Cape Cod League and all things related to baseball in the greater Boston area? Pick up The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston by Christopher Klein, available in bookstores and online.

 

The Summer of the Boston Harbor Islands

This has truly been the summer of the Boston Harbor Islands. While the Boston Harbor Islands Alliance has been working hard for years to increase programming and improve accessibility to the islands, it seems like everything is falling into place for the National Park area this season.

Between the opening of the stunning Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion this spring to a highly successful free ferry day last month, it seems like Bostonians are finally beginning to discover the incredible natural resource this city has just a few minutes off-shore.

All of this is helped by a bit of press, of course. In recent days and weeks, the Boston Harbor Islands have been featured in several great articles.

Coastal Jewels by Emily Sweeney from the Boston Globe July 14, 2011

Treasured Islands by Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, July 17, 2011

A Harbor Islands slideshow by Jeremy C. Fox of the Boston Globe.

Time for a little Island Livin’ by Kate House from the Melrose Patch, July 13, 2011

Top 10 Urban Escapes in National Geographic, May 2011

And of course, we couldn’t leave out coverage about our own Christopher Klein, author of Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands in the New York Times Travel Section column, In Transit, and  in the Boston Globe South.

This summer, arm yourself with the indispensible guide to the islands, Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands and head over to the Greenway and Boston Harbor. Visit the new pavilion, check out the book store (which sells two of our books, Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands and Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces by Meg Muckenhoupt, pictured below) and get yourself on a ferry. You won’t want to miss the summer of the Boston Harbor Islands!