Boston

Bryan had a work trip to Boston this week so I tagged along with him. He's had a couple of trips lately & our schedule had been too busy to sneak away from the girls but I was able to make it work this week. We flew out Monday morning & were home Wednesday night so it was a quick trip, but we had a great time. I enjoyed myself so much on Monday that we didn't take any pictures! That's hard to imagine from me :) It was a 4 hour flight & I read the entire time. When we got there, we checked in to our hotel, walked around the city & had a nice seafood dinner.

The next day was quite the opposite. We slept in, had brunch & then set off to tour Boston all day. Bryan has been to Boston for business before, but never for pleasure. I went 15 years ago with my parents so it had been a while. We didn't do any research before we got there & since we only had a day, we decided to make it easy & do a trolley tour:

I don't know how we lucked out, but the day we flew in, it was rainy & cold. Tuesday was perfect - mid 70's with no wind. And it was beautifully sunny all day! We spent most of our time on the trolley enjoying the tour & learning about the city but we did get off at a couple of stops. These are our pictures from the trolley. First stop, Fenway Park:

If we had more time, we would have stopped & toured. Bryan kept saying "Oh- get a picture of that!" so these pictures are for him:

We also leaned a lot about the Freedom Trail, Paul Revere, the Boston Tea Party & so much more. Some of my pictures didn't turn out since we were driving, but later that night after dinner we walked by Paul Revere's house & got to see it up close:

My picture of the Boston Tea Party ships didn't turn out, but it was pretty neat & it was next to the children's museum. The girls would have loved it & I would definitely bring them back here where we could spend more time.

We also saw the Old State Museum House where the Declaration of Independence was originally read on the balcony. Apparently they still go out on the balcony & read it every July 4th:

One part of the tour drove us through campus on MIT & then we got off & caught the subway to head outbound to Cambridge where we visited Harvard:

We have been to several college campuses around the nation so thought we should at least see Harvard since we were so close. You can definitely see it's age compared to other campuses but I loved the big iron gates that protected the original structures:

You can definitely tell the newer part of campus that has been added through the years. Some of my favorite buildings included the chapel:

the library:

and the auditorium:

We found this beautiful Baptist Church on campus & that was one of my favorite buildings:

And we visited the Harvard Book Store:

Of course we had to pick up the girls a children's book about Boston:

We have gotten them a book every place we have ever traveled. I keep thinking they will come in handy when they start learning more in school!

Bryan grabbed a quick lunch in Cambridge & then we took the subway back into the city to catch the trolley again. We stopped on the North End because our tour also came with a cruise of the Boston Harbor:

We had about 30 minutes to kill while we waited for the boat so we walked around Quincy Market where Bryan picked up a cheap souvenir for the girls:

Finally we boarded the boat:

Even the captain said we lucked out because it was one of the best days all spring to experience the city by water:

I learned about a light ship which is similar to light houses. I had no idea they existed! Apparently this is one of the largest in the world:

We sailed by the USS Constitution & the Charleston Navy Yard. Another place we would have stopped if we had time or were with the girls:

It was a 45 minute cruise & the perfect way to end most of our tour:

On the trolley home, we drove by TD Garden, where the night before The Boston Celtics had just defeated the Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference Semifinals:

Thank goodness the game was the night before so we missed all of the traffic!

Our final stop of the tour was at:

You can't go to Boston without stopping here, right? Truthfully, I don't think either of us have ever seen the show but we do know what it is & who was in it! Unfortunately, they were have a meeting in the room that was the set so we weren't able to go in there :( This is all that we got to see:

But we did go downstairs to the real Cheers bar where the tv show was based off of:

The bar was pretty close to our hotel, so we decided to walk back from here. Our hotel was in a great location right in front of a huge Boston Park that was beautiful. We actually face timed the girls while walking through the park so they could see everything:

The girls would have loved this park. This is where the famous swan boats are, the duckling statues, there was a play ground, soccer fields & a carousel.

That night, we went to dinner in the North End, which is basically Boston's version of Little Italy & I LOVED it!! I have traveled with Bryan quite a bit & this was one of my favorite little hot spot for dining. Cute little dive bars & restaurants every where. Literally around the corner from Paul Revere's house! I always take pictures of restaurant signs but usually don't post them. I just have a horrible memory so I use them as reference for if we go back or referrals for friends but this restaurant was worth the post:

I love Italian food, especially home made pastas with a cream sauce & this one was delicious! It was a cheese tortellini with pancetta & I loved how they served it in the pan itself. We also had their famous meatballs served with ricotta cheese & their home made gnocci. All of which was fantastic!

Everyone told us not to get dessert at the restaurant because we had to go to Mikes:

Everyone told us they are famous for their cannoli's. Man, they weren't kidding! The line was literally out the door & they had so many desserts to choose from, it was crazy! We went a little crazy & ordered several things:

We took them back to our hotel & got comfortable while we enjoyed them:

I say we got comfortable, but actually Bryan had to stay up pretty late & work all night while I got comfortable & stayed up late reading :)

So that's it! We spent 1 day in Boston & loved it! The weather was perfect, we leaned a lot of history about the city & really got to experience it by walking the Freedom Trail on cobblestone streets. I would totally bring the girls with us next time because I surprised how great of a city it was for children. I have never seen so many great parks & play grounds in an urban city before. But for now, I enjoyed a quick trip just the 2 of us. Thanks for letting me tag along Bryan, even though I got to relax & enjoy myself a little more than you did!