Something fishy in East Boston

We did not set out to explore Harbor Arts' Shipyard Gallery in East Boston today. We just wanted some Australian meat pies.

Sampling one of these treats was one of the few things on the kidlet's summer to-do list. This morning, we picked up one of her friends, hied ourselves to Forest Hills and got on the Orange Line - on which we promptly discovered that Cuppa Coffee near North Station is closed on Saturdays. Ah, but fortunately, there's a KO Meat Pies in South Boston, so we transferred to the Red Line, rode over to Broadway, walked a couple of blocks - and discovered that place is closed on Saturdays, too.

One last option in this Australian-meat-pie-deprived city: The other KO, in East Boston. Fortunately, it was open, so after rides on three-quarters of the T subway system and a walk down Marginal Street (with the all important stop in the Piers Park spray pool), we got to sample Australian meat pies. And they were good and quickly all gone.

Our hunger dealt with, we could now spend more time looking at all the unusual, and in some cases, really large, artworks in the Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina in which KO is located. Such as this lady of the sea, at the opposite end of the shipyard from the giant cod:

One artist apparently was thinking of East Boston after Greenland melts:

Red light, green light, 1, 2, 3:

Despite some new uses, such as an Australian meat-pie place and an auto-body shop, much of the shipyard is still a working shipyard, where you can watch boats being built and ships being repaired or stored:

And, of course, a working shipyard means having to be careful:

At one end of the shipyard, you can easily evade the watchman, since he's busy keeping cool on a warm day:

Getting there:

The shipyard does have some parking, but if you take the Blue Line to Maverick and then walk down Marginal Street, you'll also get to spend some time enjoying Piers Park, which has great views of the harbor and downtown. In fact, you could get some KO meat pies to go and bring them over to the park for a picnic (also off Marginal: The start of Boston's other Greenway, featuring an old Conrail caboose).