Boston, Massachusetts

We have had a wonderful time in the lovely New England area! Our little plane departed from Raleigh, NC at 8pm Wednesday. By little, I mean little. ;) The flight was nice ~ we sat side by side, me by the window. We gazed at the small villages below and God's beautiful cloud coverage. We even got to see some flashes of lightening as we zoomed through the sky. Tony read his school book. I worked on the crochet monkey I'm making our soon-to-be one year old nephew. Two hours later our plane landed in Boston, Massachusetts. We had a couple hours to spare until time to pick up our rental car. So we walked around the airport to look for a place to eat ... everything was closed except Dunkin Doughnuts. So that's what we got; two grilled cheese flatbreads, a donut, and a coffee. We sat there in the airport. Tony read and I mostly people watched. :) It was neat to watch them standing there waiting. waiting. waiting. for their loved one to exit the plane. And then, there they were. Big smiles. Big hugs. Lots of chatter. Sweet reunions. You can call me strange.

A little after midnight we rode the Thrifty shuttle to pick up our rental car - a white Ford Focus (with no cruise control). Ha! But it has served us well thus far. We made our way to downtown Boston. Because of all the tall buildings, Tom Tom (our GPS) was just slightly confused and we ended up making a few wrong turns. But we finally figured it out and parked our car in the garage right across the street from Faneiul Hall at 2am. To sleep we went, right there in the car. We were up and out of 'bed' by 8am. We ate a very reasonably priced breakfast at a little place in Quincy Market; scrambled eggs with wheat toast and hasbrowns. Mmmm. Most places at Faneuil Hall were still closed, so we slowly made our way to Boston Commons, enjoying the pretty sites along the way.

10am we started the Freedom Trail tour with two other couples and our guide Michael. A nice small group. We learned lots of neat little facts about Boston.

Under the lid is a staircase that leads down to nearly two hundred bodies.

Paul Revere's grave surrounded by the next generation.

The oldest street in Boston.
Here was the great spring which for
more than two centuries gave water
to the people of Boston.

Walking across the busy intersection where
the Boston Massacre occurred. Our tour guide
joked "You have to cross quickly or a
massacre of another kind will occur." Ha!

After the tour Tony was introduced to life with Croc's. "How did I ever live without them?"

Next we took the T-line to Samuel Adam's Brewery. Lauren was our very enthusiastic tour guide.

Love birds in the production area.

From there we took the T-line back into downtown. Before we had left Raleigh, we met an older couple who highly recommended the Boston Duck Tour ... so that is what we did next. :) Lots of fun! We drove through Boston, Charlestown, and then splashed right into the Charles River. Very neat experience!

We then took a lengthy walk to Bonfires Steakhouse at the Park Plaza Hotel. Through some research we did before the trip, we discovered that this fancy restaurant was serving $1 tacos at the bar. Talk about a great bargain. Since the bar was completely full, we just stood behind the the folks seated and enjoyed our delicate tacos - three of each kind. Mmm.

We then made our way back to the car, with a few stops along the way. The Old South Meeting House where Ben Franklin was baptized. Statue of Samuel Adams. And we enjoyed a slice of Boston Creme Pie.

Hotel bound we were at 7:30pm ~ with much anticipation. We had read such great reviews online about the Nylo Hotel and now it was time to see if the claims were true.