Boston 2023 - Day in Boston

Oh man did I get SO much good (and needed) sleep last night! That's just my first thought for the day. It was nice just being in a bed, first of all, but also not having any kids or cats interrupt it. Unfortunately, we found out this morning that our hotel does not, in fact, have free breakfast, like we thought when we booked it (we even kept mentioning yesterday at least we got a hotel with free breakfast this time...UGH). It was a somewhat unfortunate start, but we made the best of it.

A view on our walk to the trolley

Once we ate and got ready, we took the subway down to the trolley station to start our hop on, hop off exploring (a funny note, on the subway an LDS missionary stopped by and started asking everyone if they wanted to go to church with him...everyone said no and I felt kind of bad at how bad he was doing, but it was funny to see one of those here). We got our tickets and decided to start with the Harbor Cruise. We were getting on the first one so we figured that would be good to do that and then spend the rest of the day going through the city. The cruise was a good one. There were lots of Asians, the don't understand personal space or not standing where they shouldn't (the guy talking had to constantly tell them to sit down or move somewhere else). But once they finally figured it out, it was enjoyable. The guy had a lot of good information and was really funny. It was interesting to learn how much of the coast line of Boston is man made and how they once had a garbage island that is now one of the most visited parks in the state (maybe country even...I can't remember).

After the cruise, we went back to the trolley. We got to see Paul Revere's House (which was only eh, because you had to pay to get in and there's only 3 rooms to see and you can't take ANY pictures inside), we walked quite a bit of the Freedom Trail (they have a red brick line on the sidewalk/road that shows where it is), and saw a lot of really cute buildings (VERY ornate out here).That was all just at the 2nd stop. So then we went to figure out where the trolley would pick up and decided to stop for lunch.

I was obsessed with the old cemeteries

We went to this pizzeria close to the stop, and while it had to be a SUPER health code violation (the bathroom was literally across from the kitchen, it only had a swinging door that was about a foot long, and it was for men and women...it was really gross), the food was decent. We finished up there and got back on the trolley. I noticed it was already 2:00 at this point and the last trolley pick up is at 4:30 and we had like 6 more stops to go so I felt a little rushed at this point. We headed to stop 4 to see the USS Constitution. We walked through the museum and the boat, which was pretty cool. I'm fascinated by the cannons for some reason. The ship was also VERY short, like MY head touched the tops of some parts and I even had to duck through some of the doorways. But it was still really cool.

Aboard the USS Constitution

We got back on the trolley at this point and headed to stop 6 (Feneuil Hall and the old meeting house). At this point I was kind of over all the old buildings (sorry!) and this just seemed like a place to do a LOT of souvenir shopping. I wanted more history though, not shops with Boston shirts. We kind of did this area quick to get back onto the trolley to go back to the beginning. Our last trolley driver was REALLY funny so it was fun to just sit there and listen to his jokes. We got off back at the beginning, which was close to the aquarium and I thought since we had extra time, why not do that? Unfortunately, the aquarium closes at 5 there so we were too late. But we were not about to call it a day already.

In front of the Old State House
AKA The Boston Massacre site

We ended up taking the subway out to Harvard. We did some "shopping" (by that I mean we walked the stores and saw how expensive that stuff was out there), we then went to part of the Harvard campus (where they seem to do the events) and walked through one of the buildings. It was really cool to see the classrooms and the digital tablets they had outside them to tell you what class was in that room. We stopped by some fast food stop for dinner and then did more shopping. We ended up coming back to the hotel after this (it was getting a little later) and realized maybe getting bagels at the grocery store would be cheaper and better than buying breakfast every morning. Luckily there is a grocery store real close to the hotel so we stopped there and got bagels, cream cheese, orange juice, and some plastic knives to use.

So it was a busy day, I've had a shower, and am SO ready for Salem tomorrow!! I'm hoping I like that area since Boston has been a little eh so far (still cool, but I expected something different).