Wednesday we traveled the last, short bit to Boston. We had rented a 3rd floor, 2-bedroom apartment near a stop on “The T”, Boston’s Metro. We didn’t drive our van again until we left Saturday. Parking was scarce so we were happy to not need to move it. Our Airbnb host gave us a pass for us to park in the residential areas nearby. Parking is at a premium there.

I sadly didn’t get as many pictures as I should have in Boston. 🙁 Our first excursion out was to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Wednesday evening was admission with a donation however large or small you wanted. We probably wouldn’t have put it on our list at full admission, with everything else there is to do and see in Boston. Oddly, the only photo I took was at the restrooms where the signage left me slightly confused.

There was a sign at the other end for “self-identified” men.

The museum was interesting, with some sections being more “my thing” than others. It was pretty busy, I’m guessing the donation entry fee helped with that.

We walked a ways to a restaurant Kaleigh had found, Boston Burger Company. I’m pretty sure the burger I had was the best I’ve ever had. The burgers are cooked to order and medium was perfect! I had The Rundown burger. The freak frappes are ridiculously rich looking and intended to be shared. We were all too full to order one but enjoyed seeing the ones that others around us had ordered. I mean, just check them out HERE.

From there we went to Prudential Center (shopping plaza) where the Skywalk Observatory (which is part of a Boston Museum) was. The girls went up to the top to view Boston. Lois and I stayed decided to not go up. I’m guessing that the night views are cool but you would get to see much more of the city, if you went in the day time.

Boston has a large Italian contingent and the North End is primarily Italian. In the same plaza as the Skywalk Observatory is Eataly.  I had seen some information on this market/restaurant/bakery when I was doing research on Boston. We took time to swing through on our way out. I would class it as slightly touristy but interesting. I’m guessing it’s a little more authentic than your Italian chain restaurants in the US like Carrabbas & Macaroni Grill. The Market is a fun place to shop, finding ingredients that you don’t seen in small town America grocery stores. There’s wet pizza dough in a container, ready to take home for your own pizza. And pastries, breads, veggies, etc.

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Thursday

Thursday morning we went to the F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. The library you can only access by appointment for research purposes. The museum was quite interesting. Mrs. Kennedy had chosen the site for the museum. It’s out on a point, with a good view of the Boston skyline.

There was a good film on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Details that I either didn’t learn in school, or am old enough to appreciate knowing.

Another section was dedicated to Mrs. Kennedy and the impact she had as first lady.

 

It was a windy day, temps the 40s, wind off the water. Unfortunately not the best day to enjoy Boston’s waterfront areas. We should’ve had more layers along. We  eventually got to Faneuil Hall Marketplace & Quincy Market via bus/T for lunch. There was nearly too many options to choose from. We walked the length of the “food colonnade” before deciding. I ended up with lobster bisque (no question there!) from one vendor and arancini (an Italian rice ball stuffed with a cheese cube, lightly coated in crumbs and fried, with marinara sauce for dipping, again, no question there) from another.

A quick walk-through tour of the nearby Old State House. There was more to see than what we had time for. From Wikipedia: Built in 1713, it was the seat of the Massachusetts General Court until 1798, and is one of the oldest public buildings in the United States.

 

Being a touristy spot, there were street performers around as well. One young man had a serious drum rhythm going on buckets and cooking pots. I will try to upload some video later.

Lois and I swung back through the marketplace to grab some dessert: Boston creme pie and a cream puff. Yum.

We got back to the apartment in time to make and eat supper. After a windy, chilly day, it nice to be in a cozy apartment.

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Friday

We took a bus tour, which is a good way to see any congested city that you’re not familiar with, in my opinion. The driver, not you, deals with the traffic. You have big picture windows to see the views. You get to hear about the history, as well as current information. Win-win.

It was worth the ride for the accent. ^

They were happy to tell us that they had more Dunkin Donuts than Starbucks. They are mighty proud of DD.

One of the 1st stops that we “hopped off” was in Beacon Hill. Beautiful streets, although a month would have been a better time to see it!

After the tour, we went to the North End, walked past the Old North Church and on to lunch. We had earlier thought we would do the whole Freedom Trail but everyone was about “petering out” by this time.

We wanted to eat an Italian lunch in Little Italy, which we did. See my awesome margarita pizza below. We stopped at a semi-chaotic Mike’s Pastry for cannolis that were unreal good, and nearly too many flavor combinations to make a quick choice.

We still had time to do something but the girls all voted to go back and chill at the apartment. It wasn’t a bad idea to have extra time to start packing for the 2-day trip back home.

We walked through Harvard University on our way back to the T stop.

The traffic around DC the next day was the worst I have seen (not that I had driven through/around DC that often. We didn’t think of it being the end of the Cherry Blossom Festival and it seemed like we would never get out of there. But we did. Patience is a virtue, as they say.

We were so proud of the way these girls had packed. We had highly encouraged them to try to stay within a carry-on size and for the most part, we all did. Even with the food we took along, we still were able to see out the back, over the top of the luggage.

We felt honored to be asked to take them on this trip. They worked so hard to earn the money for this trip! I would be curious to ask them now what they wished they would have done differently. I’m sure we’d have 4 different answers. 🙂 We barely scratched the surface at either place, and yet, we did get to experience a great many things.

I feel like I should have something really profound to say to close this out but my brain is as tired as my feet were by day 7. 🙂