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 5: Witch City & Corn Mazes.

Salem, Massachusetts in October is such a fun place to be. The take total advantage of their Witchy past & do the whole town up for Halloween. The decorations are fun, scary & totally creative. 

I loved the swinging pot heads. 

  

Other than the commercial Halloween decorations, Salem is a lovely, charming, picturesque New England town. 

Lunch in Salem was actually a stressful moment for me. Last time I was in Salem, I ate at a restaurant called Tavern on the Square and had the best buffalo chicken pizza of my life. Weeks leading up to the trip, I knew I wanted to eat there again, but was unsure if I'd order the pizza. I feared it wouldn't be as good as I remembered it. Once we got there, I asked the waitress, and she said the recipe for the pizza had changed since the last time I was there. Graham ordered it anyways, and I had a turkey sandwich. The pizza was not nearly as good as it was the last time. My sandwich was good, but nothing special. 

Even though it was such a tragic moment in our nation's history, I've always been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials. That was the whole point of my first trip to New England 4 years ago, and the history of the area is fascinating. Even though Salem is what people think of when it comes to the witch trials, the nearby cities of Danver & Andover are actually more important historically when it comes to the events of 1692. Salem is home to a few historically important homes & a memorial to the witch trials. Both are fascinating.

Old cemetaries are fascinating to me, and Salem has a few of those. They also offer nighttime graveyard tours. How creepy would that be?

Last time I was here, we didn't get a chance to go into the Witch House. This time, it was at the top of our list. The house only has a few rooms open to the public, and most of the artifacts are not original to the home. They are period specific though, and very cool. The home once belonged to Jonathan Corwin, who was a judge on the trials. He purchased the home in 1675 and it stayed in their family until the 1800's. It amazes me that a house built in the 1600's is still standing and still retains some of it's original features. There's a sign upstairs asking you not to cross the line in order to protect the original floors. It's amazing. 

 

 

After we left Salem, Graham decided we should find a corn maze to do. I was less than enthusiastic, but it was actually a lot of fun. 

After the corn maze, we changed & headed out to Cambridge for a sushi dinner. I don't remember the name of the place, but it was pretty good. The three pictured together were delicious. The one pictured alone was the nastiest thing I have ever tasted. I only managed to choke down one, and Graham ate the rest.

After dinner we headed back into Boston & stopped in to Cheers for a touristy drink to end our day. Here's a tip: go upstairs if you're just having a drink. It's a little quieter and the bar has name plates of characters attached... Any guesses as to which character I was on the hunt for? ;)