I've wanted to visit Boston for such a long time that when the day finally arrived it felt rather surreal. "Really? We are going to Boston today?!" We considered taking the train into the city, but with so many of us it would have been too expensive. So, we braved the traffic (eek!) and successfully navigated our way to Charlestown where we parked next to the Boston National Park.
Since we parked there, we started off at the Naval Shipyard and ended up doing the Freedom Trail backwards. In the morning, we didn't spend long at the shipyard (just long enough to get our maps and Jr Ranger booklets), because the USS Constitution was out for a sail. Still, Bryce looked around long enough to find a Lego recreation of a Destroyer that he really liked.
Then we walked across the Charlestown bridge, and were on our way down the Freedom Trail! Our first highlight was the Old North Church. The kids were pretty familiar with the story of Paul Revere (Aubree's even memorized the first stanzas of Longfellow's "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"), so it was neat to see the actual church and steeple. We opted not to pay for a tour of the inside.
I loved having the Freedom Trail's "red brick road" to follow. It really did make maneuvering through the city really easy. That being said, it's obviously a long walk. Nellie was pleased as punch in her stroller, but Graham (who is usually pretty stellar at hikes/walking) started complaining, "How much longer? I'm tired."
At about this point I caught sight of "Mike's Pastry," a shop "everyone" said was a must-visit in Boston. We'd been warned that the line is usually out the door, but when we ventured over there were only a few customers.
We'd also been warned that they only take cash, but I'd forgotten that warning and neither Mark or I had cash on us. Aubree to the rescue! She has gotten in the wise habit of keeping a small amount of money with her just in case. We got a ricotta canolli (which sounded gross but tasted amazing), a chocolate cream cannoli (which sounded fantastic but tasted mediocre), and a Boston Creme Pie (because, Boston). It was only 11 am, but we shared the three desserts sans silverware (a messy, but delicious affair).
The treats perked everyone up enough to continue on the trail. We made our way to the second visitor's center at Faneuil Hall. We made it up to view the actual hall just in the nick of time as a graduation was scheduled just moments after we left. The kids finished their Jr Ranger booklets while we listened to a Ranger talk about the history of the hall. His facts were interesting, but he spoke softly and it was hard to hear.
Though we weren't done with the Trail, the kids got their Jr Ranger badges and were sworn in.
We were getting hungry again, but decided to push on to have lunch (mostly snacks from the car) at the Boston Common. The kids ate quickly so they could have time to play on the playground.
We let them play for a little while, then crossed over to the Boston Gardens.
I was really excited to see the Make Way for Ducklings statues. I know it's silly to be excited about statues, but, picture books!
Now we faced a dilemma, walk back (2 miles) to where we started or take public transportation? Unfortunately, the public transportation options only saved us a tiny bit of walking, so we hoofed it back to Charlestown. On the way, Graham almost got himself hit by a school bus! He was walking near me, but failed to realize that Mark and the older kids had turned left. He also failed to notice or care that he'd come to the end of the sidewalk. He walked headlong (and quickly) right into the sidewalk. I ran after him, but couldn't grab him until he was already in the middle of the street with a school bus heading down the hill toward him. Talk about terrifying!! For the rest of the day, he was required to hold onto my shirt.
It was a long, long walk, but we finally managed to make it back to the shipyard, and this time the USS Constitution was in the harbor. We enjoyed touring the old, old ship. It was sketchy making our way down the steep steps to the lower levels (and Bryce hit his head pretty hard on the way back up), but super interesting as well. I would not have enjoyed being on a boat chalk full of cannons and powder.
We also took a quick tour of the USS Cassin Young, a WWII era Destroyer. It was interesting to compare and contrast the two ships.
By that point, we were pretty much exhausted. We walked the legs off our kids that day! Thane recorded over 21,000 steps on his (fake) Fitbit. In retrospect, it might have been a better choice to do the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus. While walking the Freedom Trail is certainly part of the Boston experience, I'm a little worried that my kids will just remember the walking and not the amazing things we saw.
Overall, Mark and I were super impressed with the city of Boston. Everywhere seemed clean and welcoming. Bryce kept talking about how he might live there someday (because he wants to work for Boston Dynamics) and imagined himself visiting these places again as an adult.
Speaking of Boston Dynamics, we checked to see if they gave tours of their facilities, but didn't have any luck. Sorry, Bryce.
We did, however, drive through Harvard on our way back to Emily's. It added a lot of time to our drive back (grrrr, traffic), but I couldn't be that close and not at least see the campus.
I thought the kids would collapse once we got back to the house, but they were so excited to see their new friends, Max, Mae, Spike, and Guy again. Bryce and Mae played outside with Maple, the dog, and came in with bouquets of flowers. Let me pause here to say that Emily and Jeff have a gorgeous property. It's tucked back in the woods with flower bushes blooming everywhere.
After dinner, we put Graham and Nellie to bed, and then played JackBox games on their TV. Aubree had done Jackbox before at a party, but it was new to the rest of my family and we had a blast! It's such a clever idea (everyone plays games from their own devices). After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up for an extra hour or two playing, taking breaks to switch out loads of laundry.
As always, it was hard to leave Saturday morning. Emily offered to keep Nellie, and she had been so generous to Nellie that Nellie waffled a bit before deciding to stay with us. We are so grateful to Emily and family for opening up their home to us; it made our time in the Boston area extra special.
No comments:
Post a Comment