I've Never Been to Boston in the Fall

But I have in the Summertime!  And it was fabulous!  I'm posting pictures now and text will come in the next few days.  

Edit:

Okay kids, it's a few days later.

Here we go.

First of all I have to explain that Hunter and I do not travel much because he is a student and I am a teacher.  We try to get a good vacation in every year but always know we have to be on a budget.
This trip was absolutely perfect because of my gal pal HOLLY KING.  So I would like to dedicate this post to her.

Holly has been going to school in Boston (At the Boston Conservatory) for the last four years and is the most talented, smart and capable young woman I know.  She just graduated in May and was a week away from heading off to NYC to start auditioning for Broadway when Hunter and I crashed her place for a week.

She's the best because she let us stay at her place, use her car and she was our personal tour guide for the entire week!  As she says- our trip was perfect timing because she is in transition and had nothing to do this week!  Plus- it was her last week in Boston so she got to go to all the sites and see her favorite shops and restaurants with us one last time.

So really she owes us.

Just kidding.


Holly and her bestie Sara were singing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the last few weeks.  So they had rehearsals at Symphony Hall a couple times and shows weekend nights.

Our first day began as we drove into the city and Holly went to rehearsal while we explored on our own.

Across the street from Symphony Hall is the Christian Science Center.  Sad to report, Tom Cruise was not around- probably because he's off getting a divorce.

But the center was super awesome-architecturally speaking- and had an amazing 14 acre campus complete with the largest splash pad I've ever seen.  

As we kept walking we came upon the Boston Public Library.  Cool looking building on the outside- but then when we went inside I was amazed!  THIS is their library?  We're totally getting jipped here in the West.  Gorgeous art, architecture and artifacts in this place.  Check out the courtyard too!  It was complete with a restaurant and cafe.  

My favorite part of the library was the domed study room.  Do you see that in the bottom left corner?  Real people were just hanging out there- studying, using the wi-fi, whatever.  

I especially liked how they kept everything pretty traditional.  Like the chairs in the large domed room were ladder back wooden chairs.  Not swivel kind. Cool. 

When we walked out- we were in Copley Square.  So beautiful! 

Holly and Sara caught up with us then- rehearsal was over.  She took us down the streets in the most beautiful neighborhoods.  We were on the Back Bay heading towards the Boston Garden.  As we walked in- George Washington rode up on his horse to greet us.  Hunter liked that.  

The garden was in full bloom.  Sara- the humorist- told us a funny story about how she hated gardens growing up and as a punishment her mother would take her on walks through gardens.  

PS- the weather was so fine.  We were really lucky our whole trip.  It had been rainy and dull the day before we got there- but then warmed up a tad and got nice and dry and crisp when we arrived.  The only day that kinda disappointed was beach day-  I'll get to that in a sec.  

We kept walking through the gardens, crossed the street and were in the Boston Commons.  Basically the Central Park of Boston.  But not as big- but honestly, prettier.  

We kept exploring and found Brattle Books.  The most affordable, versatile and homey bookshop we've ever found.    Hunter and I love books.  We ended up coming here twice in our trip and buying half a suitcase full of treasures.  Definitely a place to check out if you ever go to Boston! 

Our time in the City ended a little early that day because we were going to meet up with our other cool friend, Tyrel and his ward for Temple night.  Pretty convenient  if you ask me- because the Temple is a 20 minute drive away and Holly had a show that night.   

 But before we met up with Ty in Cambridge, Holly took us to this cemetery near her house in Watertown.   And besides being a very large, very beautiful cemetery, it had a public tower with 

THIS VIEW:

Now this is one of the reasons it's best to travel with friends who know their area!  We would have never known about this without Holly.  Truly one of my favorite parts of our trip was this view.  You could see the entire city, many surrounding towns and the Boston Temple!  Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.   The camera didn't do this justice.  

We met up with Ty and got to the Temple.  I love Temples.  

That evening we had some delish ice cream and pizza before heading to Holly's for sleepy time.  

Okay- time to insert how I love traveling to one destination for a long period of time.  I don't think I'm the kind of person who could ever do "20 European cities in 20 days!".  Hunter and I agree that we liked being able to slowly take our time in Boston and the surrounding towns- getting enough sleep, and knowing if we wanted to see something twice we had the time.  

Basically I'm saying we slept in the next morning.  

And then it was Freedom Trail day!  

The Freedom Trail is literally a brick trail that goes through the city connecting tourists with the historic sites within Boston.  

I must say too, that I'm really proud of myself for enjoying these historic sites so much.  I knew when we planned our trip that we HAD to see all that we saw but, when I was really there- I loved it.  Truly, I was more excited about exploring the modern day city with it's restaurants and shops.  But what I remember most are the historic sites and how great it felt to be there.  

I'm now about to butcher the names of all these plots along the Freedom Trial- but here we have the Capitol Building, a view of the brick laid path, a cemetery where cool people are buried and the statue of Ben Franklin at the Old State House. 

Here's an awesome site- this is where the Boston Massacre happened.   And I'm going to add more here later. 

From there we got a little distracted by the Hayes Street Farmer's Market, Sweets Bakery and Mike's Pastries.  This was all in the North End.  

A few hours later we were back on track and at Paul Revere's House.  SO COOL.  

Holly left us to get ready for her show.  We grabbed some chowda on our way to see her and Sara sing in "Visions of America".  

It was pretty awesome to get free tickets on the orchestra level- but it just so happened to be friends and family night for the musicians so it worked out perfectly.  The music was beautiful.  The second act was where the singers came in.  Holly even had her own solo that we kept singing throughout the trip.

"We the People....."

Day three was Saturday and after two days of walking in the city it was a perfect day for the beach right?  Well, sort of.  It was a beautiful day- but it was also a beautiful, cool, windy, cloudy day.  So beaching it up was a little awkward.  We were in blankets and sweatshirts.   Sara and Holly made the best of it by throwing the frisbee around.  I sat and ate Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn and fresh cherries in my two layers of blankets.  (I sound like a pig.)  Luckily, Ty showed up to join us and as boys will be boys- he and Hunter actually went for a swim.  Seriously, it was COLD.  I don't know how they didn't end up sick. 

That evening after showering up and warming up- we took the T into Harvard Square.  What a beautiful area and a beautiful campus.

That night there was a concert in the park hosted by a local radio station.  We met Ty and his date there for some Rook on the lawn while the Classic rock bands played away.  We were right on the Charles river which was amazing.  Hunter and I slipped away from the couple for a half hour to walk around the river.  I feel so deprived now that I'm back home.  

BTW- do you see how sunny and pretty it was now at the park versus the beach?  What the heck?

Next day- Sunday.  We went to the Single's ward with Holly which has enough stories to be a post all on it's own.  The church building is all colonial and pretty.  My favorite were the large windows in the chapel so you could see all the lush green outside while you were in Sacrament meeting.  

Across the street from the Church- yes right there across the street- was the Longfellow house where George Washington was stationed during the Revolutionary War.  Geez- all we have across the street from our Church building is a brick wall. 

Then Holly took us out to see Bunker Hill- we were actually on Bunker Hill the DAY OF THE BATTLE!  June 17th I believe.  

Here's a picture of her in front of her school's building.  And then to the right of that is a Boston garden- window pots.  They are everywhere are they are real and they are pretty. 

Some of my favorite shots of the trip are of us at Bunker Hill.  We were so LUCKY because they were about to close when we got there!  

Then a few minutes walk out to the S.S. Constitution.  These two sites are the last on the Freedom Trail but are across the Charles river in Charlestown.  And since we had a lady friend with a car we decided to skip the walk across the Charlestown bridge and catch these last two sites on another day. 

Again- we were minutes away from the Constitution being closed for the day.  We got to snap some good photos and get back to the T.

We got home and made dinner for Holly, her roommates and Ty came to hang again.  We were glad he was able to spend so much time with us while we were there.  He's a grown up working man. 

The next day Holly had a full day in Concord planned for us.  We started at first bridge.  

Then drove into Concord.  And let me say- I got my small town shopping fix.  The cute specialty stores were all I could ever dream of.  I am jealous of the locals who get to shop at kitchen hardwares, cheese shops and toy stores on a regular basis. 

We got ice cream at Kimball Farms.  This "small" cup of ice cream was like $3.00.  

Here's the farm- literally on the side of a country road. 

We took a quick stop at Walden Pond.  Next time we're there we decided Walden Pond would be an entire day trip on it's own.  People were swimming, fishing and hiking.  

That evening we took the T down to South Station.  I've seen it in like two movies since.

Then walked over to the Barking Crab for dinner.  Sorry no pics.

 But on our way we passed the Boston Tea Party memorial site.  Sadly, they were having their grand reopening a week from the date we were there.  Just got a picture of the boat and the museum.  It looked really cool.  

Our last day- Hunter and I took a trip alone down to Quincy where we spent most of the day touring the Adams Family homes and farms.  Truly, we almost didn't do this- but I can't imagine this trip without going here now.  These beautiful, historic, sacred sites were my favorite part of the trip.  

Abigail and John were inspired, courages and happy people.  The Adam's last house that you can see Hunter standing in front of below, is still furnished with all of the Adam's family's furniture, decor and possessions in all the same place that the last generation had them.  Nothing is replicated.  It was very special to see their own books, paintings, and even Abigail's kitchen table.  

My  favorite story was earlier in their life when Abigail was home with the children in Quincy (in their first home on the bottom right) and John was away.  In the middle of the night she heard thunder, but came out to the window to see there were no clouds in the sky.  She grabbed her children and walked out to a nearby hill where she saw and heard the Battle of Bunker Hill.  She soon found out that the rebels had lost that battle due to insufficient ammunition.   And that next day, Abigail started melting down all her metals in the house and forming bullets.  Her children recorded that they remember smoothing down the rough edges of the balls.  And as soldiers would walk by on the road, she would go out and hand them a bagful of bullets to take to war.  Talk about patriotism!  

We ended our trip with food in Little Italy.  Modern pastry was our favorite dessert find- that's their creme brulee!   This cute grocery store had the best homemade mozzarella- and check out that Italian Ferrari up front! 

Ty, Sara and Holly were all there with us for our last meal.  We had such a fabulous time- and really most of it was because of these three.   Thanks guys for taking time to host us, guide us and play with us!  

Hunter and I are so happy and grateful that we were able to take this trip.  It was our first plane ride just the two of us since our honeymoon.  We saw so much, ate so much, and laughed so much.  

Can't wait to go back!