Guest blogger: my husband! Thanks for spending some time on the airplane writing this one down for me!
A few years ago some of our best friends left CO and moved to just outside Boston for work. We had never seen Boston before and had always wanted to see the city. We made a trip of flying to Boston to see the historic sights and visiting our friends.
Our kids are troopers who did a fantastic job getting through the Airport to Boston. We arrived at Logan International Airport in the evening, rode a shuttle bus to the Metro stop, followed by the blue line under the harbor to Boston where we got off near the Boston Aquarium. We walked a few block to our AirB&B rental which was a small two bedroom apartment in the historic North End of Boston. This area is filled with small alleys, historic sites dating back to colonial America, and some of the best food imaginable. While the apartment was tiny, and there was construction next door, the location could not be beat as we were ~300 yards from Paul Revere's home, and 3-4 blocks away from Old North Church.
After arriving at our apartment we quickly dumped our bags and set out to find a restaurant to eat dinner. We at a Joe's on the waterfront with outdoor seating. About 1/2 way through our meal it started to rain. Luckily we were seated under an awning, by the end of our meal the kids were up splashing in puddles in the nearby park as they were rained on. As our kids were soaked, and it had stopped raining we didn't want to walk straight home and instead chose to walk around the North End to let our kids drip dry. We walked up to Paul Revere square and noticed that everyone was carrying around boxes from Mike's Pastries, and the trash cans were full of them. This set off a hunt for the Pastry shop which was just down the street. It was a very popular destination as it had a line down the street, and was cash only. We ordered 4 different flavors of Cannoli, one cream puff, and a gluten free "Black & White" (a cookie). The kids enjoyed tasting each of the delicious pastries in the park before we returned to the apartment for bed.
Our first morning in Boston is one I will not soon forget. This happened to be K's birthday. I (Dan) was awoken at 6:30am (4:30am CO time) by K jumping up and down with excitement for it to be her 10th birthday. With the commotion it wasn't long before D was awake as well. Being our first morning in a new place we decided to set out and walk to the local grocery store (The Golden Goose) to get breakfast food to bring back to the apartment for our stay. While there K found some instant noodles that she really wanted to eat for breakfast (yuck - I know) but being both her birthday and being inexpensive I told her if she wanted them we could buy them.
We returned home to the apartment with our bounty of goods, where K proceeded to open her instant noodles and prepare them herself. I asked her if she wanted help making them and she refused, being adamant that she knew how prepare them and could follow the instructions. This proved to to not be true, as 2 minutes later the apartment began to fill with smoke and the fire alarm for the entire building was set off. We quickly opened all the windows to air the apartment out, but the smell of melted plastic permeated the apartment for a few days. Surprisingly, we never heard any complaints from anyone else in the building after setting off the fire Alarm at 6:30 AM. I think we lucked out that most of the other units happened to be empty at the time.
After an eventful breakfast we made our way back to the aquarium where we hoped to catch a famous Boston Duck Tour for a quick first day orientation to the city. We learned the next available tour was not until 1:00 PM. We quickly swapped our morning and afternoon plans and walked to the sight of the Boston Tea Party and museum. We really enjoyed this activity as we were guided by characters that helped us reenact the tea party. We all enjoyed learning to hiss, "Huzzah", and "Fie" the way it would have been done in 1775. It really brought history to life to learn about the events in charachter and to reenact them. The kids (and adults) even had the opportunity to throw crates of tea overboard into the historic Boston Harbor. We purchased lunch and the museum cafe before quickly returning back to the aquarium to catch our departure of the Duck Tour. *S's note: This was M's favorite activity of the entire trip!
The Duck Tour is a 1.5 hour tour of Boston using replica WWII era ducks which can travel on both land and sea. The tour visited the major sights of Boston and the Freedom Trail before diving into Boston Harbor and providing a tour of Boston Harbor. For the most of us this was an enjoyable experience. I say most, because about 2/3 of the way through the tour N started crying because she needed to go potty really badly. The highlight of the tour had to be when children were allowed to sit in driver's chair and drive the Duck while on Boston Harbor. Of course our D jumped at that opportunity.
After the tour and quick race to the restrooms, we cooled off with some Slurpees from 7-eleven on a sweltering day, before heading up to explore Quincy Market, watch the street performer known in Boston as "Bob" who performed juggling and balance tricks and taught our kids a few "bad words" their father had already exposed them too. We then toured Faneuil Hall in Boston which was an assembly hall that was built for the early Bostonians.
We quickly made our way back to the North End to visit the Paul Revere house, Old North Church and the historic chocolate shop where our kids were able to watch and sample chocolate made from beans the way it was historically made. *S's note: Hubby and I loved how it tasted but our children much prefer modern day, sugary, no spices added chocolate!
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