Boston 2015-Day 1

My resourceful and wonderful husband found super cheap tickets to Boston a couple months ago for this past weekend, so we decided to take a two-day getaway trip! I have never been to Boston, so this was really exciting for me, not to mention the fact that just getting away without kiddos for a couple days is a real treat. We left very early on Sunday morning (I think we arrived in Boston by 8:00!), and we came home early Tuesday morning, so we had two full days in Boston. We stayed on the north side just a few steps from Old North Church. Most things we wanted to see were in walking distance, so we did a ton of walking, especially the first day. A few thoughts/memories from our trip:

1. Although Chicago will always be our favorite city, Boston has an old and new charm that Chicago does not have. There is such rich history mixed in with the city that we really enjoyed. I would highly recommend a visit to Boston if you have never been. Oh, and  you have to have a cannoli if you go.

2. Eric pretty much planned the whole trip (with my input, of course), and I took pictures along the way. As I like to say, he's the trip planner, and I'm the documentarian....yes, I think I just made that word up. :) I have to add that I have no idea how people took trips without smartphones! It was so great to take out our phone if we wanted to see what time something opened or find a good dive to eat at, etc. Seriously, I was thinking the whole time how convenient we have it these days!

3. On a random note, I have decided that taking pictures of buildings is not my favorite thing. It's hard to get creative with buildings, and I'm always left feeling that it never looks as good in a photo as it did in real life. Conversely, I have also decided that I think it would be super fun to be a food photographer. I know nothing about being a food photographer, but I really thought it was fun taking pictures of delicious food! It may sound strange, but I think food can be pretty with it's different colors, textures, and detail.

4. Some of the things we did included: getting a tour of the Freedom Trail (which included Boston Common, Park Street Church, Granary Burying Ground, Faneuil Hall, Massachusetts State House, the Old State House, site of Boston massacre, and more), visiting the Boston Public Garden, visiting the Old North Church, Paul Revere's house, touring the J.F.K. Presidential Library and Museam, visiting Harvard, and of course eating at some fun places.

Just as an added note: Some of the words are cut off from my descriptions in some of the pictures. You should still be able to get the gist of what I wrote. :)

The Old North Church: Boston's oldest surviving church building. The steeple of this church is where Paul Revere was signaled by two high lanterns that the British were coming by sea and not by land. It is currently a fully functioning Episcopal church. 

A Boston street near where we were staying

Where we had breakfast....very cute cafe.

The New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston

Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial honoring the first African American regiment and their young white commander. The movie "Glory" is a reenactment of this brave regiment.

Picture of the founding of Boston

Boston Public Garden

Make Way for Ducklings sculpture after the famous book set in this park. 

The Boston pub that inspired the show "Cheers".

The squirrels in the park were not afraid of humans at all!

This one even stopped to pose for a picture. :)

This guy was interesting

The Freedom Trail "path"

Our tour guide

Park Street Church

Granary Burying Ground

John Hancock Memorial

These are all original gravestones

Notice the detail on the stones...the skull and bones were later adapted to a skull and wings (which you see pictured here). The carvings were even later adapted to what resembled an angel face with wings (pictured below).

Paul Revere's grave

Kind of creepy

Old South Meeting House: The meeting house where the Boston Tea Party began

I just took a picture of the name of this store because we sometimes call Asher "Lou-Lou"

The Old State House: the oldest surviving public building in Boston (built in 1713)!

On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed from this balcony

Faneuil Hall: This has served as a marketplace and meeting hall since 1742. Inspirational speeches by Samuel Adams and other patriots were given here. 

I thought this was a cool door, so I took a picture, I decided that there were lots of cool looking doors in Boston, and it would be really neat for a professional photographer to go around a take pictures of neat doors and make a book of them or something.

Where we stopped for lunch....great food!

Eric had the lobster ravioli-I have to tell you that this was spectacular.

We stopped her for dessert.

While waiting in line, I had fun taking pictures of some yummy looking food.

There were tons of pastries and sweets behind a glass display case. Some of them were works of art!

This is what we ended up getting-a canolli!

Paul Revere's House

Old North Memorial Garden: hundreds of dog tags represent the fallen soldiers lost in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

This is inside the Old North Church. This is the original organ that is still in working condition!