Today is our second location where we're staying 2 nights in the same place, so we can skip packing up and just get in the car to go see the area. "K" and I spent a week in Boston back in '08, but this was the first time for the kids. There's a LOT of city to cram into one day, but we did our best!
We parked in a parking garage in central Boston and crossed the street. There were a few enormous anchors just sitting on the street, so the younger 3 all climbed all over them and tried in vain to lift them. We waited for a few minutes, and a trolley came around the corner with its bell ringing. We had booked a hop-on/hop-off trolley tour through Old Town Trolley Tours. The kids were pretty excited, they had been wanting to ride a trolley the whole trip. The trolley had 15 stops, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time for everything - the entire loop, without taking any stops, is about 2 hours.
We saw lots of cool things like the arena that the Celtics and Bruins play at, the site of the Boston Massacre, the site of the Boston Teaparty, and the Cheers bar. However, the first spot we got off at was Boston Common, a giant, awesome park.
The Boston Public Garden / Boston Common is nearly 75 acres and lush, filled with tons of shade, beautiful flowers, trees, and things to do. Our first stop was swan boat rides. These were originally started in the 1870s by Robert Paget, and his descendants still run the ride to this day. They've got seating for about 30 people and are peddled by a single person in the back of the boat. The ride is short and a little expensive for 7 people, but it was beautiful, relaxing, and we got to see several baby ducks. The skies were overcast, it was about 75 degrees and there was a gentle breeze - it was perfect.
After the boat ride, we walked across the street to Boston Common. It's right next to Boston Public Garden, but it's different. We walked over to some bleachers for a lunch picnic, watching 8 grown men play a game of wiffle ball. Before long, "T" needed to go to the bathroom, so I took him and "Z" and walked over towards some port-a-potties we could see, but unfortunately we found them to be padlocked shut. A quick google search showed some more bathrooms about a 5 minute walk to the Boston Common Welcome Center, but we got there and the men's bathroom was out of order and the women's room had a line out the door. We crossed the street to a McDonald's, because surely they have a restroom. But no, they didn't. I tried 2 more shops up the next block, all with no restrooms, so we gave up and walked back to the rest of the group, where "K" had found a restroom close to where we began. 20 minutes of walking later, we finally got "T" to a potty. Luckily, no accidents!
The hike through the park showed lots of cool things, like that they put on free Shakespeare performances for 2 weeks in the park - this summer, it's MacBeth. We also saw several art installations. It was a nice afternoon! After the potty trip, everyone wrapped up the rest of their lunch and we headed back to the trolley pickup spot to head to our next stop.
The next stop we got off at was near Copp's Hill Burial Ground, the largest colonial burial ground. It has graves dating back to 1659! It's at the top of a decent sized hill, and it's along The Freedom Trail, which is a 2.5-mile path through Boston hitting several major historical sites and museums.
We didn't have time or energy to walk the whole trail, but we did follow it up the road some. We walked to Old North Church (famous for the "One if by land, 2 if by sea" phrase referencing the lanterns held in the window during the march of the British), then turned the corner and continued along the trail. We passed Theo's Cozy Corner (which had some incredible smells emanating from it) and around a few more corners to Paul Revere's house. We stopped across the street for a quick snack before hiking back (avoiding Copp's Hill) to the trolley stop.
Our final stop for the day was back at the place we first got on, the site where the USS Constitution is docked. Old Ironsides is a beautiful old naval warship (the oldest commissioned waship still afloat in the world) that the common folk can climb aboard and explore. The ship remains moored at the dock 364 days out of the year, and only sails for a few hours on the 4th of July every year. We toured the 3 open decks of the ship before heading off.
Between the USS Constitution and the Museum dedicated to the ship, they have a small mini golf course overlooking the dry docks where you can "putt your way through history". It was free, and the kids love mini gold, so they all got clubs and balls. "A" raced through all 9 holes (twice) while the other 4 took much more time. At one point, "T" jumped in front of "Z" and she got so mad that she hit his ball off the course - and down, into the dry docks. There were lots of tears - from "T" for his lost ball, and from "Z" because I made her give up her ball to her brother. The 4 other kids finished their round of mini golf and we hiked back to the parking garage and headed back to our hotel. There was a car accident on the way so our 15 mile trip took almost an hour, but we made it!
A few blocks from our hotel was a mexican place named Torito. The reviews online seemed good, and the location was great, so we decided to try it for dinner. The price was far higher than I wanted to spend ($10 for a kids meal seems outrageous), but we were there, it had just started pouring rain, and we had to eat SOMEWHERE, so it might as well be here. We ordered and I swear it must have only been 5 minutes before the food was delivered to the table, and the servings were HUGE. It was delicious, filling, and more than we could eat. 4 of us (including me) couldn't finish our dinner - and if you know me, you know that I don't leave leftovers. I'm a sucker for nachos, so I got the Supremos Nachos. They were piled high with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, sour cream, chicken, and jalapenos. They were divine. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, these were huge.
