Every year we take a trip between Christmas and the start of school. Cancun, Chicago, Indianapolis, etc. We've been all over. Anywhere that isn't home with endless hours of screen time and sibling bickering. This year we decided to visit Boston. It was fabulous.
I found a great AirBnb walking distance from Boston Common that was really nice and yet very inexpensive.
The first day we took a walking tour with Ira, a native of Boston, who showed us all around and taught us about the history, architecture, and culture of Boston. It was so interesting and a great introduction to the city. It gave us a great overview and ideas of what we wanted to do the rest of the week.
The tour started at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The church where Paul Revere hung his two lanterns to warn of the British troops' advancement.
And on and on and on. We saw Beacon Hill - the ritzy Boston neighborhood, Public Gardens and Boston Commons, Faneuil Hall (now home of stores and restaurants and street performers), the graves of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, the Massachusetts State House, the Boston Public Library, and many more sites. It was a lot of fun and seemed to end way too quickly although it lasted 3 hours.
Other fun stops during the week included:
A late evening stop for hot chocolate at a café where they serve dark chocolate hot chocolate. Delicious!
A walk up to the North End for Italian treats. We found some adorable outdoor swings on the walk.
There were a ton of seagulls at the harbor and every time I wanted to take a picture, Peter would run and scare some so they'd fly through my picture. Kind of a fun action shot.
The children's department was in the new section. Peter immediately made himself at home and started playing with the dress-ups. They also had a puppet show going on which was a fun surprise.
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One day we took the subway over to Cambridge to visit Harvard. I loved walking the paths of the place I had long thought I'd attend. It was fun to learn about traditions at the school, see things I'd only seen in pictures, and hear interesting stories like, did you know George Washington stayed in the dorms there with his troops during the Revolutionary war?
The Johnson gate. The oldest gate at Harvard dating to 1889. Supposedly you're only supposed to go through it twice - on your first day and on your last.
We had to cross Harvard bridge and see the Smoot measurements. The story goes that some MIT students in 1958 used a pledge to one of their frats named Oliver R. Smoot, Jr. to measure the length of the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge. They kept picking him up and laying him down and marked off his length all along the bridge and the measurement became official and stands to this day, memorialized with a plaque on the bridge and marks painted on the ground. I get such a kick out of that story. Who would ever think that some freshman midnight silliness would become so enduring. Reminded me of many fun freshman late-night antics in the dorms.
We also crossed a different bridge (so many bridges in Boston!!) to get to the sports complex and Harvard Business school. That was also fun to see after hearing so much about the Harvard Business school from Kelly. The kids had fun playing model in various places around the city. I'm a pretty lousy photographer but they did a good job of photographing each other. I just love that my kids like having their picture taken. So much better than having to coax them to do it all the time!
Sometimes the photo sessions got pretty silly -
We visited Fenway park - home of the Boston Red Sox. A tour would have cost us $100 so we just admired it from the outside. We aren't big enough baseball fans for that.
Boston Public Garden was wonderful. Would have been even better in Summer but the sunshine was wonderful. Overall the weather was fantastic - 50s and sunny. Just one day - the one this picture was taken - the wind kicked up and made things feel a bit chillier.
On Newbury street we had a great day shopping. The kids all bought something. Bella and Peter got shoes and Christian got a jacket. Peter's shoes made him deliriously happy until it came time to learn how to tie them. Then things turned sour. Learning to tie shoes is tricky and Peter has a hard time pushing through mistakes. He's getting there, though. We've been practicing tying them every day and although every day he screams and kicks and cries during the effort, he always pushes on until he get gets it. Can't ask for more than that.
Can't go to Boston without checking out the Cheers bar! I was the only one who cared, but the kids humored me. Inside they have the set with cardboard cutouts of the most famous characters so you can sit at the bar and take pictures with them. No drinks are served there. The actual bar is in a different part of the building.
We saw the USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides. It's the world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat, originally launched in 1797. It looked so amazing. Everything was closed, I assume for the winter, but it was fun to see it from the dock.
We also visited Paul Revere's house.
New Year's Eve was spent in Boston Common where they had a fantastic fireworks display and then in Government Center where they had live bands all night. The mariachi band was my favorite. We didn't make it to midnight but we had a great time. I've never done an outdoor city-run New Year's eve and I really loved all the energy and excitement.
Overall it was an amazing trip. I'm so glad we went. I've wanted to see Boston for a long time and it didn't disappoint. It was so easy to get around with public transportation and every one we met was very friendly. My only regret was that we didn't have another week to spend there.
