This trip was (mostly) courtesy of the ELLEN's show 12 days of Giveaways (at Christmas time) where I won luggage, 2 round trip airline tickets and an Airbnb 3 night stay. That paid for more than half of it and really made this trip possible for us. So thanks Ellen…you ROCK!
Anyway, so we had my mom come down and watch the kids for five days while we went on this amazing trip. It was the first time we have ever left the kids this long and the first time we have flown anywhere away from them. The other trips we have taken have always been around the LA and surrounding areas. So this was a really big deal for us. And I was excited…but also nervous. I kept having these terrible thoughts that we would die on the plane and leave our kids with no parents. It was awful. I almost didn't want to go. But I said a little prayer and felt better and decided it was just nerves. The flight was long and kind of bumpy and I got nauseous on the decent (which never ever happens), but we landed just fine and once we were there, I felt totally fine and knew the kids were in good hands.
We got to Boston mid afternoon on Wednesday and after making it to our apartment and unpacking, we decided to find some place for a nice dinner and hit a movie. Everything was pretty much within walking distance to us and walking we definitely did A LOT OF!! But it was really fun despite the cold. Probably because we knew we were only going to be there for five days.
I seriously felt like I was on a movie set because the buildings were all so old and huge and just AMAZING! I wanted to take a picture of everything. This city has SO much history and I know we didn't get to go and do and see everything it has to offer, but we sure crammed in as much as humanly possible in our time there and had a GREAT time doing it.
Our walk to the movies was about a mile away. We found a little cafe to have dinner at and then made it in time to see the new live action Cinderella movie. It was so sweet. Such a good movie and I really loved it.
One of the many cool churches in the area.
At the movies.
Park Street Church
The song "My Country Tis of thee" was first sung from these steps in 1831.
Massachusetts State House where Mitt Romney was Governor of. This building was built on John Hancock's property after the end of the American Revolution because the old State House was too small and had too many memories of British Authority. We didn't get to tour this building but we walked past it a couple of times. It was beautiful and HUGE!
Across the street from the State House was the local Fox News Station. It looked so quaint. Just like a news station from back in the day would look like. I had to take a picture of it even though it was dark.
Thursday morning we were on CA time but we pulled ourselves out of bed at 9 am Boston time to get ready and head out for the day. First stop was a pastry shop. I thought there would be yummy breakfast foods, but it was literally just pastries and desserts so we passed and decided we would come back later that day.
Instead we found a place affectionately called "Cafe Pompeii". I don't know why anyone would want to name their cafe after such a tragic event, but the food was good and the hot chocolate was delicious.
Then we stopped in at another pastry shop (Mike's pastry shop) which is world famous and I can tell why. Not only are their pastries amazing, but the variety is incredible. We visited this place at least three times the four days we stayed in the North End.
And I didn't even get a picture of their case filled with cannoli's. There were too many people in front it. Wildly, their most popular item. Although I liked the Chocolate covered lobster tails the best. No seafood in this dessert. Just flaky crusts that resemble a lobster tail with three different creams and cheeses inside and then covered in chocolate. I think my mouth was in heaven!
Pictures from walking around the North End.
We first stopped and toured the Paul Revere House but weren't allowed to take pictures inside. It was cool to walk around and see how the family lived. Paul Revere had 16 children with two different wives. First one he had eight with, but she died shortly after the birth of her last. Then he remarried and had another 8. No more than 9 ever lived in the home at the same time though and 5 or 6 died in infancy. Common back in those times.
This is one of his liberty bells he manufactured.
Just another cool building.
Then we walked over to the Old North Church. It is the oldest church in Boston and is the site where Robert Newman climbed the steeple to hang the two lanterns that signaled to Patriots that the British were marching on Lexington and Concord "by sea".
There are 1,100 bodies buried under this church, which was kind of creepy for some reason. The church is open to everyone to come worship and is still used today. But back in the day you had to purchase boxes to be able to be able to come in and listen to a sermon.
This is an example of what a box would look like back when they belonged to families. Mostly only the wealthy could afford them. But then they were allowed to decorate them as they wanted and could bring anyone in with them as long as they could fit.
This has a funny story. I was standing here looking at this bust of George Washington and commenting on how it wasn't a very good resemblence, when a man standing by me motioned to the plaque next to it which says this is the most accurate "picture" of Washington he had ever seen. Haha…so I guess all those portraits made him better looking than he really was.
Paul Revere Park right behind the Old North Church.
I don't know what church this was, but it was cool looking so I took a picture of it.
After that, we continued on the Freedom Trail which is a nicely bricked out path to all the historical sites around Boston and the North End. It's 2.5 miles from end to end and you don't have to go in any particular order. But it was really handy to just be able to follow it and hit every stop we wanted to without having to stress that we were passing something cool.
Copp's Hill Burying Ground.
The second oldest in Boston and was founded in 1659. It's named after William Copp who was the original owner of the land. The hill is the highest in the North End and during the siege of Boston, the British occupied the city and used this hill for target practice. You can see musket ball marks on some of the tombstones. It's also the site where cannon's were mounted to protect the harbor. And during the Battle of Bunker Hill, these cannons were used to bombard Charlestown (the neighborhood you can see across the harbor and where the Bunker Hill Monument is) prior to the attack.
All of the tombstones have markers at the top. The most common was the skull with wings which totally reminded me the type of tombstones you would see in a haunted house. A lot of the tombstones would say how old the person was when they died (like 36 years and 3 months) in addition to the dates they lived. I guess a long life wasn't very guaranteed back then and every month counted.
Next stop was across the harbor over a VERY cold and windy bridge that had a grate you walk over so you could literally see the water below. I was definitely glad it was at least a strong bridge. That water had to be freezing.
A dry dock where the USS Constitution will soon be docked for repairs. Looked like a smaller panamal canal. Not that I've ever been there, but that's what it reminded me of.
We first went through the USS Constitution museum and got lucky to be there on the last day of the Model Ship Exhibit. It was so amazing to see all of these model ships that had taken hours and hours with painstaking detail work.
This is one of the model ship builders who was nice enough to take a picture with me. He was there volunteering and talking to people about all of the ships.
This is whale bone.
Then there was a whole exhibit about the battles the ship has been in. Thirty three I believe and never lost a single one. In 1794 Congress authorized the Naval Act which allocated funds to build six ships that were to become the start of the US Navy. The USS Constitution is the 3rd of these ships. The US realized it needed a unique boat to fight against the many ships the British had. So it was designed to be very long and narrow and mounted very heavy guns. It was made of pine and oak from Georgia because of how dense, heavy and hard it was. It proved to be a wise move because it was unstoppable against the British fleets. It got nicknamed "Old Ironside" because during a battle the opposing ships witnessed their cannon balls literally bouncing off the side of it and said it must be built of iron.
We got lucky that we were allowed to go on the ship. We had to show ID and pass through security, but I didn't bring my wallet with me that day. Paul had his so I didn't figure we would need it for anything. The lady looked me over and decided I probably wasn't much of a threat and let me go through anyway. Then while on the ship we learned that it was suppose to go into Dry Dock the next day, but because of the extremely harsh winter Boston had, it had been delayed until mid May. So we were doubly blessed. It was cool to get to walk around it. I felt like I was on a pirate ship.
I don't know the significance of this clock tower, but it was so cool and a great marker of where we were in the city. You could see it from everywhere just about.
We took a water shuttle back over to the North End so we didn't have to walk over that bridge again and then stopped at a yummy pizza place for dinner.
This is how you bundle up when prepping to step out into 30 degree weather.
After dinner we walked over to the site of the Boston Massacre and then walked around their gift shop. The museum was closing in 15 minutes so we didn't want to pay to only get to see it for a short time. Still cool to stand on the site and see the memorial which I guess has been grossly exaggerated over the years. The massacre took place after British soldiers fired on an angry Boston mob, killing 5 and wounding 6. It was later used as propaganda to provoke Colonist against the British. But apparently the mob was kind of taunting the British soldiers past their breaking point. But still quite different from the famous picture done by Paul Revere that we were all shown in our History books growing up.
Next stop (yes, we are still just on our first full day in Boston) was the Holocaust Memorial and was by far the most moving and hardest Memorial to walk through. Six glass towers have been erected just down from Union Street. Each tower represents one of the six primary Nazi Concentration camps. Each tower has smoke from charred embers coming up from the center to represent the death of so many. There are six million numbers engraved on the glass towers representing the tattoos that were cut into the Jews arms. I was so glad we walked through it but it was tough. I didn't expect to have it hit me so hard. There were stories of people having to bury their own families. Of barbers shaving the womens heads before sending them off to the gas chambers, telling them they were just getting a haircut. Of people watching their entire family being killed. It was just awful. Made me realize how much turmoil the world always has been in. The fight between good and evil has always been on the earth and it's terrible and tragic.
But it also made me very grateful to know that good will win in the end. And that one day all the suffering people have had to go through will not be for nothing.
This tells of a story of a little girl who found a rasberry on the ground in the camp. She carried it around in her pocket all day and then presented it to her friend on a leaf at the end of the day. The ONLY possession she had and she gave it away to her friend.
Okay…on to a lighter note. During the trip my mom and SIL would send me pictures of the kids having fun. I was really grateful for them and I just wanted to kiss this adorable face.
Khloe and Carter. Little buddies. Makes my heart happy.
Chocolate mousse and key lime tart. The first of many many many desserts I had over the course of the next 4 days. These were from Modern Pastry. Right down the street from Mike's Pastry and it's biggest competitor. We of course had to try both. Mike's was better!
After dessert we decided to call it a day and walked back to our apartment. Our feet were definitely feeling it. Boots kept them warm, but there's not much padding in them for comfort.
The next morning (Friday) we woke up again at the bright ole time of 9 am (still on CA time apparently). After getting ready we found a cute cafe called "Theo's cozy cafe". And cozy it was. Only about 6 small tables and a bar with no more than 6 stools. We opted for the bar (mostly because the tables were all taken), but were glad for it because then we got to watch the cook.
More delicous and soul warming hot chocolate. I love how they sprinkle cocoa on the top. I'm gonna start doing that.
Just another cool church. I tried to go inside but it was locked. This was a catholic church and it had all these cool stained glass windows. I bet it was gorgeous inside. But oh well. It was only opened on Sundays.
We walked back over the bridge from the day before but it wasn't windy so it was much more enjoyable to walk over. This time we took the Freedom Trail the other route option through Charlestown and over to Bunker Hill.
And of course stopping to take many many pictures of all the cool buildings and homes and town squares.
I was kind of sad that we were there when there were no leaves on the trees, but then the next day when we met up with Dan and Alicia, Alicia was telling me how much easier it is in the winter to see all the buildings and homes because the trees are so dense with leaves and block your view. So then I was happy.
Are these not the cutest houses? I just stood there and stared at them I loved them so much.
We made it to Bunker Hill and decided we HAD to climb to the top of it. All 294 steps that basically went straight up in a circular pattern. They marked every 25 steps so you knew how much further you had to go. It was hard on Paul's bad knee but we both made it to the top and were glad we did.
The view was amazing. It did take my breath away though and I'm not usually afraid of heights.
Afterward we walked over to the museum across the street and watched reinactment of the Battle of Bunker Hill. The colonists were way outnumbered in this battle (like 2 to 1), but they were still able to kill or wound half of the British army. This was an important battle because it was the first one that made the British realize the colonists were not backing down. That they could fight and were going to continue to. So even though we lost, it was a pivotal day in history and in the freedom of our country.
Walked past the USS Constitution again on the way back to the Water Shuttle. Tried to get a better shot of it, but the gate was blocking its view.
There's that cool clock again.
The Great Hall at Faneuil Market Place. This was a major meeting place for a lot of important political activity. It served as a funeral place for the Boston Massacre victims, was the place of the first of the meetings to protest the tea tax, was a barrack for troops and later a theater. In the 1800's, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy spoke here in defense of slavery.
It was also the sight of JFK's final campaign speech, made just prior to his election to the presidency in 1960. Today it is still used as a frequent stop for local and national politicians. Pretty cool huh! And I'm not even a huge history buff. In fact, history is my least favorite subject and my memory is pretty terrible, but it was so much more interesting to know this info when you are actually standing in the place where events took place.
The Irish Famine Memorial commemorates the Great Irish famine which took place in 1845-1852. Many Irish immigrated to Boston settling in the North End. I sound like a tour guide huh!? Haha…
He he…I teased Paul that I was going to print these two pictures to put on his desk at work. Everyone around him are VERY liberal democrats who like to ridicule and tear Paul (and his conservative ways) down at every chance. It's pretty sad. I don't understand why they can't just let everyone have their own opinions. Instead they have to make him feel like an ignorant idiot. Trust me, Paul's not ignorant. He makes well studied choices.
Statue of Benjamin Franklin
Boston Latin was the first Public School in America.
Boston has a LOT of first's for America. That's for sure.
There were a few other little stops we made, but contrary to what you may be thinking right now with my over abundance of pictures, I didn't take a picture of EVERYTHING. There is just literally a ton to see.
We ended our Freedom Trail self guided tour at Granary Burying Ground. This is where three of the signors of the Declaration of Independence are buried (John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Robert Paine), nine Massachusetts Governors, Paul Revere, the Boston Massacre Victims, and Ben Franklin's parents among many others. Pretty cool but this was our third grave site stop and after two full days of touring historical sites, we were worn out. So we decided to go step back into the 21st century and go to the movies. This time to see Insurgent (which I LOVED).
Afterwards we walked over to JM Curley's Burger Restaurant and had some seriously greasy, yet delicious food.
It started to snow while we were waiting for our table. I was SO excited!
Unfortunately from the pictures, you can't even hardly tell it's snowing. But it continued the rest of the night and into the morning. So while we were going to call an Uber car to take us back to our apartment that night, I decided I couldn't pass up the chance to walk home in the snow. Reminded me of my College days. It was nostalgic and fun!
We found this restaurant on Yelp. It had great reviews and it did not disappoint. Loved the ambiance, even if we didn't drink and there was a whole LOT of alcohol in this tiny restaurant. The food was great though and we really enjoyed it.
This sign on the wall was the best! Every restaurant should have this hanging up somewhere.
Fried pickles the way they are suppose to be. With chipolte mayo. YUM!
The BEST mac and cheese ever. Despite the way it looks, it wasn't overly cheesy. It was perfect. We gobbled it up. Then we were glad we had got one hamburger to share because, one we were STUFFED, and two it was an HUGE burger.
Asked for mustard and was given this. I've never ever seen mustard like this. It was tiny and kind of crunched when I bit into it. Not my favorite way to enjoy mustard but it worked and definitely tasted like mustard.
Oh and then we stoopped at Mike's Pastry on the way back and picked up some pastries to take home for the night. Seriously people, I ate my way through Boston.
The next morning (Saturday), we packed up, said goodbye to our nice little place and waited for Dan and Alicia to pick us up.
First stop on our now car riding tour, was John Adam's home. Not to be confused with the Addam's family home which is what I thought we were going to at first. I know…it's pathetic. I've been in LA too long.
Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't tour it. But the area was beautiful and at least we got to walk around for a little bit.
The next stop, which a very pleasant surprise to me (since I didn't know it was in the area we were in) was the house of Louisa May Alcott and the location of where she wrote her famous book "Little Women". I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but I seriously loved every second of this tour and was so glad we didn't miss out on seeing this. So big kudos to Alicia for suggesting it even though she's already been there. The tour guide told us that while the book was fiction, Louisa based it off of her own life. She did indeed have 3 other sisters and they did call their mom Marmi. She was the tomboy of the family but in real life, never married. Her book was originally two books. The second one written because of the popularity of the first. Louisa had NO intention of marrying off Jo, but her fans demanded it, so even though everyone wanted her to have Jo marry "Laurie", the boy next door (if you remember from the book/movie) she refused and instead found a less appealing character for Jo to marry (in protest to her fans). Her oldest sister did really get married in the parlor of this house (just like in the book). Her sister Lizzy (Beth in the book), did infact pass away (and actually never lived in this house), and her littlest sister May (Amy in the book) was an artist and drew pictures all over the walls of their home because they were very poor and could not always afford paper. The family was close friends with Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson who helped them purchase this home. The Alcott's were very poor people and the four girls often worked to help supplement the family income. The youngest daughter gave art lessons to the artist (Daniel Chester French) who made the minute man statue at the Minute Man National Park (pictures below) and also the statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in DC. That's pretty impressive stuff!
Louisa was the JK Rowling of her day. Her book was so popular, that the family became instantly famous and very wealthy. This, along with other things, allowed May to travel to Europe to study art.
I think some day I must move back here to live and be a tour guide of this house. You think they'd let me? Not being a native and all. I hope so. (wink, wink)
I bought these two tea sets from the gift shop there. This one was Beth's and the one below was Jo's. Not replica's of their own actual tea sets. Just ones that would have been indicative of each girls style. I wanted all four sets, but that would have been pretty pricy. Plus I thought someday, maybe, I'll give one to each of my girls. Ashlyn's already claimed Jo's and Leah want's Beth's, which is exactly which ones I thought they would pick. Love my different girls!
Close by was Walden Pond which was completely frozen over (people were out there ice fishing) and the ground reminded me of a snow beach. I was tempted to lay down in the soft powder and make a snow angel, but I knew Dan and Alicia would think I was weird. So I didn't.
But this is where Henry David Thoreau came to write the famous "Walden: Life in the woods".
Here's some of the famous lines that you will probably recognize from English class at some point in your life. SO cool to get to be there.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
Next up, and the final historical stop for the day, was the Minute Man National Monument. This is where the first forcible resistance against the British took place. The Battle of Bunker Hill happened just months after this event.
The weather was cool but perfect this day and I was so glad because we did a lot of walking around and enjoying our surroundings.
I know most Bostonian's probably think Spring is never coming, but I really enjoyed getting to be there at this point. In this picture the ice has chipped away from the banks and is floating down the river rather rapidly. These chunks were a good 4-6 inches thick. So you know it was a cold winter. I bet in a couple of weeks, spring will be in full bloom there.
That night we went to a restaurant called 29 Sudbury, which was basically the address of the restaurant. But what they lacked in cleverness, they more than made up for in taste. The food was amazing and probably my favorite meal of the trip.
The next morning we stopped at the Colonial Inn for another fantastic meal. Brunch with some serious pizzaz. I've never seen so many options for a brunch. And I've never seen such an impressive dessert bar either. We thought it was for a wedding reception taking place later that day. Nope…it was for us! YUM!
I of course had to have some Boston Cream Pie. I couldn't leave Boston without trying some right?
Since we all know I wasn't going to have any "New England Clam Chowder". Yuck.
Then a short stop at the Boston Temple for our "church" that day. I know….I opted for brunch over church. I'm terrible. The temple is beautiful and huge and reminded me of the Houston Temple. It was VERY cold this morning though, so we got out, snapped a few pictures and got back in the car. I wished we could have walked around more, but it was quite chilly at the top of this hill where the Temple was located.
Our final stop for the day (and the trip) was the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I must admit that I was PRETTY darn tired by the time we got here, but I couldn't waste my time sitting around the whole time we were here, so I forced myself to walk around and take in all the amazing art. We were here for at least 3 hours and I still barely skimmed the surface of everything there is to see here. I didn't do a whole lot of reading of plaques in here. Mostly just walked around and looked at things. So my "tour guide" knowledge is limited. But enjoy the pictures. They're pretty cool!
Maybe kind of creepy but I thought this was a sweet way to memorialize yourself as a couple.
Wonder if people would think this is weird if I had this put over me and Paul's final resting place. Haha…just kidding.
This was made out of hand blown glass. Pretty amazing even if I was tired.
I took this picture for Brandon. Thought he would appreciate it. Ashlyn thought it was gross.
This American Flag is made out of bullet casings. A reminder to me that freedom isn't "free". I loved this even though I think the artist was protesting war. I decided to get out of it what I wanted. War is definitely terrible, but I'm so very grateful for the many many men and women who have sacrificed for my freedom.
I took this picture because it reminded me of Ashlyn. Whimsical and soft.
And I couldn't leave the museum without walking through the hall of musical instruments.
Aren't these pianos amazing. I was dying to tap the keys. But most of them were covered so that you couldn't. Apparently I'm not the only one that was tempted.
Musical glasses. I wanted to ding the sides of these too. Haha… No touching allowed.
After the museum we were going to go to dinner with Dan and Alicia before our flight left, but we got lost driving around Boston and decided it would be cutting it too close to make our flight. We did get to drive past Harvard though so that was cool.
Paul and I found a nice little restaurant in the airport where we could sit down and have a good meal, since we had plenty of time, and then headed to our gate to wait for our flight. It ended up being an hour and a half late, which stinks because we would have had time to have dinner with them after all, but who knew. The flight home was REALLY long (like 6 1/2 hours because of the head wind) and I was cramped like a sardine in a can. So I mostly stuck my headphones on, watched TV and tried to sleep some. I couldn't wait to get off the plane. We didn't get home until 2:30 in the morning, so the kids were all asleep. But I got the best and most awesome hugs from all my kids in the morning when I woke them up. Well, from all of them except Brandon. He was mad at me for being gone so long, so he wouldn't hug me. But I took that as a sign of love and that he missed me. He just shows it in a different, less appealing (haha) way. I sure had an amazing trip and I loved spending so much time with Paul. I'm already trying to think of where we would like to (hopefully) get to go next year. Pending awesome parents and Inlaws willingness and ability to watch our children.
It's nice to be home though and back to the familiar.
Goodbye Boston. Thanks for the memories. I hope I shall get to visit you again some day!
