Epic Road Trip Day 6: Boston

On the 6th day of our epic road trip, I finally was able to introduce Graham to my favorite city: Boston. 

We started the day in the Boston Public Garden. So beautiful... once you get past the crowds of people and the abundance of homeless people. The amount of homeless people in big cities like Boston, Chicago & DC always blows my mind & makes me sad.

Anyways. The Public Garden. 

The Make Way For Ducklings statues were my main reason for wanting to see the garden. This is my all time favorite children's story. The statues were as precious as I imagined they would be.

After leaving the garden, we started our exploration of the Freedom Trail. We started at the Massachusetts State House. We didn't do a tour of the inside, but the outside is beautiful. I love the dome & the statues around the building.

The Granary Burial Ground is one of the most interesting places on the trail. It's the final resting place to Ben Franklin's Parents, Paul Revere, the victims of the Boston Massacre and others. This place is always packed with inconsiderate school children, but it still is incredibly moving.

King's Chapel was amazing. The interior of the church was absolutely beautiful. The construction of the church was completed in 1754, and the quality of the work of historic structures always amazes me. For something to be this old, and still be this stunning just makes my history loving heart go pitter-patter. I'm not going to even try to be cool. I spent about five minutes sitting in one of those historic pews, staring up at a beautiful light fixture and thinking about all of the people who have sat where I was sitting. 

The Old State House was just as beautiful inside as the churches were. The displays they have inside change regularly. There is a lot of information inside about the evolution of the building, and it's free to military members =) 

Right outside the Old State House is the site of the Boston Massacre. 

The balcony where the Declaration of Independence was read to Bostonians for the first time. *chills*

This picture is the perfect example of why I'm so in love with Boston. It's the perfect mix of history & modernity. No where else in America will you find a city that ties the two together as well as Boston does. 

I found him! He was at the Cheers in Faneuil Hall. 

 It's slightly off the trail, but there is an incredibly moving Holocaust memorial. It's definitely worth walking through to remind yourself what hate and intolerance can do. 

Next up was the Old North Church. It is the oldest standing building in Boston, and once again, the beauty of the inside just blew me away. If you go looking for Paul Revere's lantern, you will be disappointed. One of the docents I spoke to said there is a museum in Concord that claims to have it, but that it's unlikely that it's the actual lantern. Anyways. Beautiful church, beautiful architecture. 

Thanks to the fact that our government doesn't give a crap about it's constituents, a lot of attractions were closed because of the shutdown. Including the USS Constitution. 

 After many, many miles we reached Bunker Hill and the end of the Freedom Trail. So, we walked around for a minute, then headed back to where we started. 

 And stopped for a cannoli on the way ;)

Road Trip Day Four: Newport, RI & Massachusetts

On the fourth day of our epic road trip (I keep wanting to type Rhode trip =)) we said goodbye to Rhode Island, and headed up to Massachusetts. I hated to leave Newport. It was absolutely beautiful, charming and I want to go back for longer than a day.

Almost directly in between Newport & Boston is the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts. This small town is infamous thanks to Lizzie Borden. I know it's probably creepy, but I've been fascinated by Lizzie Borden since I was about eight years old. I was raised watching true crime & Lifetime movies, and the little rhyme about her has been in my head forever.

Lizzie Borden had an ax,
She gave her mother 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father 41.

Creepy, right? Anyways, we stopped in Fall River to see the home where the murders took place. It's been turned into a museum/B&B. We had dinner reservations in Boston, so we didn't have time to tour the house, but I definitely want to some day.

After we left Fall River, we headed to Plymouth, MA. I love history. I especially love pre-revolutionary American history. So stopping to see Plymouth Rock was a must. The area was so pretty. I'll never get tired of adorable New England coastal towns. The main attraction there is the replica of the Mayflower. The Mayflower II was built in 1957 in England and made the same voyage. It has been recreated to not only look like the original on the outside, but the interior helps give you a feel as to what it was like nearly 400 years ago.

The site of Plymouth Rock is supposedly where the Mayflower landed and the "rock" that remains is apparently a fraction of what was their initially. The rock was moved in the late 1700's and was split in half to make movement easier. The structure that houses the rock wasn't completed for almost 100 years, and then then two pieces of the rock were rejoined. Pieces of the rock have gone missing & have been sold over the years, and now only 1/3 of it remains.

After leaving Plymouth, we headed to Boston (finally). We checked into our hotel, took a nap and then dressed for dinner. I had a huge list of places we had to try, but our first night there was our special dinner. We went to Stephanie's on Newbury after reading very positive reviews, and it did not disappoint.

Our dinner started with an amazing bread basket. There were sweet scones & whole wheat rolls. Both were absolutely amazing.

We ordered the warm goat cheese as an appetizer, and this was one of the best things I've ever tasted. The bread was buttery & garlicky on the outside, soft on the inside, and the warm goat cheese was just heavenly. I'm not exaggerating about the epicness of this dish. It was amazing.

warm vermont goat cheese 

baked goat cheese, roasted garlic and olives with toasted 

french bread 

$13 

Graham chose the meatloaf for his entree. He was more than pleased with it. The beans & the mashed potatoes were delicious as well, and the portion was huge.

our famous meatloaf 

stuffed with cheddar cheese, served with mashed 

potatoes, haricot vert and mushroom gravy 

$21 

I had the pan roasted cod, and this was amazing. Every component of this was amazing. The chowder, the roasted potatoes, the onion rings on top & especially the fish... The cod was a huge, thick, flaky piece of cod. It was perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned and absolutely delicious. 

pan roasted native cod 

over smokey bacon corn chowder and herb roasted potatoes, 

topped with buttermilk onion strings 

$27

Our dinner here exceeded all of our expectations. We had reservations, so we were seated promptly. The atmosphere was romantic & very chill. It was a wonderful evening, and I will definitely visit again on our next visit to Boston. 

After dinner we stopped by Target for a few things, and I found this hoodie I wanted, which didn't sit too well with my Carolina Panthers loving husband (Panthers fans can't let go of a Superbowl loss from almost 10 years ago...).

I think I'm going to Boston...

Oh yeah and I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind...
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset,
I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice

-Boston; Augustana

Boston from Bunker Hill

I'm in love with Boston (the city, not the song). I realized tonight that it was exactly two years ago my mom and I were up there for a week. I have a BA in History, and my idea of a perfect vacation is to go to a historically significant city and do all the touristy things.My favorite period of history is pre-revolutionary American so Boston was the perfect city for me. We decided to drive from Charlotte, so we could stop along the way. We stopped in Philadelphia, so I could see the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin's gravesite. We had planned to stop in NYC, but traffic was awful, so we went on to Boston. I have also always been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials, so we made plans to visit Salem while we were there as well as Lexington (the Louisa May Alcott house was at the top of my list) and Martha's Vineyard.

Louisa Alcott House

Lexington Battlesite

Liberty Bell

Martha's Vineyard

 

Salem Harbor

Salem is one of my favorite places that I've ever been. I loved driving through the area and seeing so many 17th century homes. Not even the homes that had been turned into museums and were for tourists to gawk at, but just regular homes that people live in. Historical preservation is so important in New England and that is evident everywhere you look. Not to mention the historical stuff dealing with the witch trials is just cool.

Salem Witchcraft Hysteria Memorial

Halloween in Salem is just plain cool!

Rebecca Nurse Homestead

Me at the House of the Seven Gables

The Witch House

While Salem was definitely my favorite part of our trip, Boston was amazing too. A little too hectic for me. The parking situation was atrocious. $35 to park in a parking deck? No thank you. But the history of the city is so amazing. Even though I'm a little annoyed with the military and the state of the country right now, I've always been incredibly patriotic, and the early history of this country is just awe-inspiring.

To kneel in the very spot where the Boston Massacre happened...

To give a bunch of pubescent boys an impromptu history lesson...

And to look up and see the place where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time...

Everything about Boston blew my mind. Except for the cold. I wasn't crazy about the cold.

One night at the gym I was watching House Hunters and the people on the show were a young couple in Boston. And I just felt this overwhelming tug. I had only felt a tug like that once before, and that was the night Graham walked back into my life. As I watched these people look for a house, I felt like that's where I belong. Everything about that part of the country speaks to me. I don't want to live IN Boston, more like one of the suburbs. Salem, Danvers, Lexington, Marblehead, Peabody, etc. I'd be happy with any. Graham and I are actually considering spending a good bit of time there when he gets out of the Air Force. We'll ultimately end up in Charlotte, of course. We both want to be with our families and friends too much to move away for good. But his enlistment is up in March, school doesn't start till August, so we've been toying with the idea of spending the summer in that part of the country. I'm drawn to it... and as a completely southern girl and ridiculously cautious person, I know it seems a little insane, but it would be an adventure. One that appeals to me more and more every day.