Boston 2017

This year, in thinking about a late spring vacation, I thought perhaps we could go somewhere fun that would also be somewhere we have read in about in early American history this school year. We have been reading about Indians (Massasoit, King Philip, Somoset and Squanto) and people like Myles Standish and Columbus.  I had never been to New England and have always wanted to go. Thus, the Boston vacation idea was born. 

Adam had lots of frequent flyer miles, so we all flew! Chloe and Autumn were both very excited about that. Chloe had flown once as a baby, but otherwise, they had not been on a plane. We headed out of town on Friday and had lunch at O'Charley's in the airport.  

We girls all sat together on the plane and Adam sat across the aisle from us. It was fun to hear the girls exclamations on the flight. They did watch a little tv, but we also drew in our Boston journals and read some of a book and looked out of the window. They thought the clouds looked like snow or soft mountains. 

It was quite rainy Friday night when we arrived, but we had come prepared. The weather forecast for the whole week was wet. Umbrellas and raincoats for all! We took an Uber to our apartment for the week. Our apartment is clean, comfortable, and secure which are the things I worry about when I travel :) 

We are using the public transit system for the most part this week, so we walked to dinner. Roxy's Grilled Cheese...it was okay. Chloe is convinced (some days)that she doesn't like white cheese :) Roxy's was nothing spectacular, though I had never had a grilled cheese with avocado on it. There is a nice little park just outside of our apartment with lots of blooming flowers and green. Spring is so lovely!

Public Transit was an adventure in itself. Teaching the girls not to stare (even though there were tons of things to stare at!) It might have been their favorite part of the whole trip! Adam enjoys using public transportation. I, on the other hand, did not like it at all! SO MANY GERMS. So many stops and starts. On one hand, it's efficient because of the number of people riding, but sometimes 45 min to go 5 miles seems a bit ridiculous. When the trains are stopping and starting...oh! the noise...like fingernails on a chalkboard. I was glad I didn't have to find my way around and had someone who enjoyed that part. Chloe knew more about where we were than I did most of the time :) 

Saturday was a rainy day as well. We tried to stay away from the big indoor activities since we have all week and we thought those would be much busier on a rainy Saturday. Thus, we began our tour of Boston at the Mount Auburn Garden Cemetery. Sounds odd, I know!

Check out the website though! http://mountauburn.org/category/plants/

It was incredible! It was recommended for one of the first stops in Boston because of the view from the Washington Tower on the grounds. We have not taken the girls to a cemetery just for fun and this was definitely an amazing first experience. There are family plots and incredible tombstones and a large amount of them are from the 1700s!
 

Inside the Mount Auburn Cathedral. Gorgeous stained glass! 

Family plots abounded. Adam and I taught the girls what all the numbers and words meant on the gravestones. Epitaphs were so interesting then! Facebook memories do not compare to what used to be written on tombstones! 

This Family...he had TWO wives...interesting,though probably one died in childbirth it seems.  

And what we came for! The view from the top of Washington Tower. It was a rainy day, so we couldn't see as far, but still a pretty great view!

Afterwards, we went to Tasty Burger for lunch. Which WAS tasty! Below, Chloe is taking a photo for her very own Yelp review :) 

Then on to the Boston Fire Museum. This was a tiny fire station, but they crammed a bunch of things inside! Even had a dalmatian named Sparky :) 

Next, we went to ride on a boat...the USS Constitution Cruise. Just a slow cruise around the harbor and past the USS Constitution. Adam would have liked to tour it, but the rest of us, just wanted to rest from our day of walking :) 

We then came across a cool playground. Which ended up being visited several times over the course of the week.

All of you know how much we like to eat...so the food pictures begin :) To use the restroom, near this playground we had to purchase something. The restroom was in a bakery called Flour. Adam ordered a raspberry cloud. 

Next on our list for the day was the Prudential Tower. It was neat. There was an audio tour of the things you could see from various viewpoints. There was a "game show" you could be on. It was on Government facts...so, obviously Adam and Chloe beat Autumn and I:) 

 

 Dinner was near our place of abode for the week. A restaurant called Sulmona. It was Italian. The beet salad was delicious! Everything else was okay, but not a place we would definitely recommend.

 

Looking back, I can not believe we did ALL of that on Saturday! We were certainly bushed by the time we got back to our little apartment. I checked my phone's activity gauge and it said we had walked 7.5 miles!!

Look for the continuation of our Boston trip soon!