It's a grand place, we decided after walking about 8 miles round parts of it today. The old redbrick paved streets in Beacon; the grass, the lake, and the trees in the Common and Gardens, the mixture of old and modern in the city centre ... and that you can get a good coffee without having to stoop to Starbucks. (Though indeed the temptation is there about every 3 blocks.)Realising that weather might not hold, I got the will-power together to start the day with a 3-mile run along the River Basin. I got a boost when I got down to the lobby and found a table set out to help runners with slices or orange, bottles of water, little guides to the local routes, and flannels to mop down afterwards. It's clearly a big pastime, with small or large gardens most of the way along the river -- I must have seen about 100 other runners during that time. Sadly I passed very few of them! After an excellent breakfast in the hotel, we then walked to the Prudential Center via some old churches. One was the New Old Boston Church (really), which we were excited to find had a weekly Jazz Service - but unfortunately not a night we're around. We had lunch at Souper Salad, and then sat enjoying the weekly organ recital at Trinity Church on Copley Square. The Pru shops themselves weren't of great interest: too pricey. (The exchange rate isn't making things cheap, unfortunately.)Diner landed up being in the hotel's restaurant. The waiter appeared to be a real foodie, and we weren't able to match his enthusiasm for the specials on offer, but we just took this as entertaining not intimidating. More importantly we had a great time with Brian and Liz, with the party breaking up several hours later than their babysitter was apparently expecting.