Trip to Boston, MA, Friday, June 2, 2006, cont. (end)

Trip to Boston, MA

Friday, June 2, 2006, cont. (end)

Part of the journey required walking across an open grate bridge. As some of you know, I really don’t like that. I had to make sure not to look down as we crossed the bridge, which seemed to go on forever. In the water next to the bridge (where the sidewalk was actually concrete) we saw what appeared to be a very large tea bag in the water (on closer inspection it appeared to be some sort of construction material).

The “tea bag” that started it all

Next stop on our journey, The USS Constitution. We didn’t go on the ship, as there was quite a crowd. As we were leaving we passed by these kids. They were picking up tricorne hats from boxes. We stopped and Lisa asked them what they were doing or who they were or something to that effect. Turns out that they were a high school marching band from Bismarck, North Dakota. They were performing later in the day at Faneuil Hall.

USS Constitution

We continued on our journey. We decided to venture off the red line for a bit. Lisa wanted to try and find this thing on our map. We never did find it, but got to take a nice little walk down the pier. And discovered that we took the long way to get to where we were. Oh well.

Next stop Bunker Hill. Turns out that they were working on it, so we could not walk up the hill to the monument…that was kind of okay. By that point I was getting a little tired, and I was hungry, so having to walk up yet another hill, when I just finished a walk up a pretty good sized hill was not something I was anxious to do. So we headed back down hill, enjoying the cute little neighborhood along the way.

Bunker Hill Monument

Lisa wanted to stop at John Harvard Mall. “Ten families founded Charlestown in 1629, a year before the rest of Boston was settled.” From Eyewitness Travel Guides, Boston, 2003.

Plaque at John Harvard Mall

Unfortunately there were no houses there or anything, just some plaques on the wall. Behind the mall there were some older homes. One from the 1750’s I think.

We had to cross back across the Charlestown Bridge. We veered off the path to take a shortcut back to the area where we had passed some restaurants. We went to The Union Oyster House for lunch. Established in 1826, it is America’s Oldest Restaurant. We ordered a “beerah” and “chowdah”. Couldn’t go to New England and not have some New England Clam chowder. It was very very tastey. While we were there one of the bartenders was chatting with us. He looked at me and said, “You’ve been here before, right?” Um, no, not so much. This was my first trip to Boston. Actually, first trip to Massachusetts.

He told us about Harpoonfest, an event that was going on at a local brewery. He gave us some free passes so we could go check it out. After lunch we headed back over to Faneuil Hall to check our friends in the band. They were pretty good.

The Marching Patriots of Bismarck, ND

Next stop on the Freedom Trail, the Old State House. [For future reference, the Boston Massacre Site is in the street across the street from the front of the Old State House. There is an island in the middle of the street with a brick circle in it…this is the site.] Next: Old South Meeting House, Irish Famine Memorial, Old Corner Book Store (now a jewelry shop), Old City Hall, Site of the First Public School (on the ground on the sidewalk outside the Old City Hall, on the side with the Ben Franklin statue), King’s Chapel and Burying Ground.

Irish Famine Memorial (Old Corner Bookstore is behind the middle lamp post)

Statue of Ben Franklin (Outside Old City Hall, behind Kings Chapel)

Inside Kings Chapel

Next up, Old Granary Burying Ground. Paul Revere is supposedly buried here, as well as Ben Franklin’s parents and John Hancock, I think. Then it was past Park Street Church to Boston Common. And a view of the State House.

State House

After lunch it had started “misting”; not raining, not even sprinkling, but yet still wet. After we left the Common it became more of a rain. It was very light, more of a sprinkling than a rain. The forecast called for rain all weekend, so we stopped at TJ Maxx on our way back to the hotel to try and find Lisa a raincoat. Couldn’t find one. L

We went back to the hotel and checked in. If you ever get the chance to stay at the Langham Hotel, I highly recommend it. It’s very swanky. Costly, but nice. While we rested, we made a tentative plan for the rest of the trip. We wanted to make sure we were able to see all the sites we wanted to. We also made reservations for Saturday’s lunch.

After awhile it was off to dinner at the Barking Crab. We took a route that walked us past the site of the Boston Tea Party Ship & museum, which was, unfortunately, under construction. As it was still rather wet outside (not heavy rain, but steady) and getting dark, I did not bring my camera on this part of the journey. We also walked past the Children’s Museum, which usually has a large milk bottle on it, but it was also under construction (like much of Boston seemed to be during our visit). Dinner at the Barking Crab was good. We shared a lobster roll and a crab cake sandwich.

We headed south to the Harpoon Brewery. It was a little further than I thought it was going to be, but we finally made it. Got a tour of the brewery. Learned some stuff about making beer. We were lucky enough to be part of a small tour. There were only 7 on our tour. Three of the other people were recent graduates from University of Miami (Florida). I think it made Lisa feel a little old to find out that they graduated 10 years after she did. After the tour we tried the Harpoon UFO, their unfiltered beer. It was pretty good.

We took a cab back to the hotel. All in all it was a very good day. Very busy, but fun.