Beautiful Boston

Down in Georgia, we knew Boston was a huge sports town; we knew Boston was a huge college town; we knew Boston had a huge St. Patrick's Day celebration; and we knew they had lots of bars where everybody knows your name if you're a huge drinker (NORM!).  On our first trip to Boston, however, we discovered something we didn't know: Boston is beautiful!

I'm sure others knew this, but nobody told us.

Goofy tired kids

We arrived in Boston on a rainy afternoon and checked into the Hyatt near the Boston Common and Beacon Hill.  Great Location!  We walked down to the harbor for dinner at the Union Oyster House (Thanks for the tip, Suzy and Martin!) near the Quincy Market and the historic Faneuil Hall.  The walk was extremely pleasant with many people out enjoying the evening.  The Union Oyster House has been in operation as a restaurant since 1726.  The clam chowder (pronounced chowdah) and oysters were delicious, but the service was extremely slow.  We had plenty of time to study all the history around us and read every thing about John F. Kennedy as we were seated in the Kennedy booth.  After only five days, I have grown weary of entertaining kids in a restaurant while waiting on the food.  We tried the sugar packet shell game (see traveling games post,) but the kids were too tired to care.  We desperately needed a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, we awoke to a beautiful day!  We decided to buy the Old Town Trolley tour for the day since we knew nothing about the city and wanted to see as much of Boston as possible.  The Freedom Trail winds throughout the historic district past many famous landmarks, but we opted to ride after all our walking in Philadelphia.  We hopped on the trolley at the state house on top of Beacon Hill and headed back down to the Harbor for our Boston Harbor Cruise that was included in the trolley tour.  The tour guide drivers on these trolleys were wonderful: a little bit of history and a little bit humor.  The H&H combination helped keep the kids’ attention and hopefully, helped them learn as something historically important was on every street.

The Harbor Cruise was fantastic!  If you visit Boston, this is a must!  Our weather was perfect and the harbor views were pristine.  We sat on the top of the boat to enjoy the mix of sun, wind, blue skies and lapping waters.  Looking back on the city of Boston and across the Harbor from Charlestown, we could see the Old North Church. If we were Minutemen, we would’ve been able to easily tell one if by land and two if by sea in the church belfry.   (I love it when history is all around me!)  We cruised right over the site of the Boston Tea Party!

The cruise took us over to Charlestown and the home of the USS Constitution a.k.a. “Old Ironsides."  The old battleship, commissioned in 1797 is made of wood, but made so thick and so well that the cannonballs seemed to bounce off its sides so the British, during the War of 1812, thought it must be made of iron thus the nickname.  We could have gotten off the cruise to tour the ship, but our stomachs begged for our return to the Quincy Market for lunch.

(FYI: You can enjoy a Sam Adams just across the street.)

After some Boston Barkers, we boarded another trolley to continue our tour.  We drove past Paul Revere’s house, the Old North Church, Boston Gardens, the site of the Boston Massacre and Sam Adams and John Hancock’s graves.  

Greg and Wyatt got off the trolley to tour Fenway Park (See their separate post.)  The girls and I continued the loop over the Charles River to M.I.T. and back to Charles Street and Beacon Hill.  The Old Towne Tour was definitely the way to see everything in one day!

I took the girls back to the Hyatt to rest and went out again.  I had spotted Julia Child’s old stomping ground on Charles Street where she shopped regularly for her show, The French Chef.  I loved Charles Street! What a fantastic shopping place with beautiful views of the Charles River and beautiful homes and things everywhere!  

I walked and shopped at Savenor’s, Julia’s purveyor, buying sandwiches for the kids for dinner (Since Greg and I had decided to dine alone that night in Chinatown at The Best Little Restaurant;  Sorry, but my dinner entertainment repertoire needed a night off.)

 Walking back through Boston Common I made up my mind to return to Boston soon and often.