Wicked Awesome--Boston, Massachusetts
We started the day off in Boston following the red brick Freedom Trail to the Bunker Hill Monument. We arrived at the monument at around 9am and climbed the 294 steps to the top. Boy, you don’t realize how out of shape you are until you are climbing almost 300 steps, but the view at the top, which overlooked all of Boston, made the sweat (and blisters) worth it. Once at the bottom we continued on the Freedom Trail all the way into the downtown area of Boston. We saw many famous, historic sites like The Old North Church, the Boston Massacre site, and Paul Revere’s home. We even found a cute little local breakfast place and ate our food on a bench with Paul Revere (well.. the statue of him anyways!) Mom had a sandwich called “Piggly Wiggly” which had ham, bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese. Poor little piggy. I had a bagel with a smear. NOM! Once we finished up eating and of course took a selfie with our selfie stick, we continued on the trail. We eventually ended up at Faneuil Hall, which is a building full of cute shops, and Quincy Market, also known as heaven on earth. Quincy Market is all food related, with any type of food you can think of-- bagel places, sweet shops, icecream parlors, pizza places, seafood, etc. Even though I had eaten less than an hour before that, I still wanted to eat it all. Mom and I were drawn into getting some New England Clam Chowder from “Boston Chowda”, known for the best Clam Chowder in Boston. It was creamy, hot, and delicious. Safe to say we ate it in less than a minute and still wanted more. We did some shopping in the market and then continued on the trail to Boston Common, where the Freedom Trail ended. We kept walking on our own, passing by a park with swan boats and my mom’s favorite statue of ducks.
We then headed more towards the waterfront to the Boston Tea Party Museum. The museum was very interactive. All of the guides were dressed in costumes and spoke with accents to make it seem like we were in a town meeting. We were all handed feathers and cards that told us who we were back in the Revolutionary war days. Of course I got a speaking role in the meeting (there were only 2 speaking roles the whole time.. what are the odds?) so I had to say how I could not buy my windows because I had to choose between the windows or putting food in my family’s bellies when we were discussing the tea tax. It was quite hilarious. We then chanted “Hazaa” with our fists in the air and made our way to the ship to throw fake blocks of tea over the side into the harbor. We also toured the ship and then saw the Robinson Half Chest, which is one of the only two tea chests left in existence from the Boston Tea Party. Following our tour, we headed upstairs to Abigail’s Tea Room, where I did a tea tasting. It was special to get the opportunity to drink tea at the site of the Boston Tea Party.
Once I was full of tea, we walked along the Boston Harbor back to the Quincy Market area. There were plenty of sailboats and yachts in the harbor, which made it quite beautiful. Once we made it back to the Quincy Market area, we sat down for a meal by the water at “Tia’s”. We split another bowl of the New England Clam Chowder-this time in a bread bowl- to see if it was any match for the one we had earlier. Yet again it was delicious and fresh.
In order to save our feet, we took the ferry back to the Charlestown Navy Yard, which is where our hotel, The Constitution Inn, was located. It was a short ferry ride that provided us with stunning views of the Boston skyline.
xoxo,
Em