An early morning at Harvard Yard

 I managed to drag the entire family out at 7am to check out Harvard Yard and Square. Knowing stores were most likely closed, the university would surely be open for a walk-around. As we admired the remarkable brick buildings, hubby and I reminisced our own university days.  As well, we started planting the seed in the minds of our girls that this is where we hoped they would study someday. Well that would give us an excuse to come back to Boston often, right? We would hit two birds with one stone and I am such a stickler for efficiency!

We took our own walking tour (as tours did not start until 10am) and admired the halls and libraries inside the campus. Most of the buildings, if not all, had their own interesting history or trivia. For me, the grandest structure is the Widener library. This library contains about a third of 16 million books in the university, the largest library system in the world. Any book lover would be in euphoria!

Widener library

We also posed alongside the John Harvard statue, aka “The Statue of Three Lies.” Apparently, while the statue reads, “John Harvard, Founder 1638,” John Harvard was not the founder, it was founded in 1636, and the image is not of John Harvard. I am inclined to think that the statue was placed there to challenge the mind to see beyond the obvious. Or it may very well be just a joke--we hope to find out when we go back for my kids’ freshman orientation day—hahaha!

John Harvard's statue

As predicted, most stores were still closed at Harvard Square, but we managed to check out a couple of early bird shops. We ended our stroll near the Lowell House, one of the undergraduate houses at the university. Its tower, which houses the Russian bells (rung on specific times and during special house events), can be seen from our hotel room across the Charles River.

Lowell House

view from our hotel room

And while Harvard is known to be a center for academics, we saw first-hand that the students are also into extra-curricular activities. Every morning on the Charles River, one will see rowers paddling their way along. We probably would have had a better chance of finding our way around the river by kayaking than by walking around in the streets of Cambridge. Does one need a “Hahvahd” education to navigate the city?

Boston on Dwellable