I will start off by saying that we did A LOT while we were in town. Hence the need for a second post. Our days were packed but we still carved out a little bit of downtime each day. It ended up being perfect. I am so excited to go through all of the things we did while we were in town! Some of these were things I had done before and some were brand new. However, I ended up enjoying each thing for different reasons!
Walked the full Freedom Trail: A Boston staple for any tourist is the Freedom Trail. We started at Boston Common and made our way along the two and a half mile long trail to Bunker Hill. Along the way we were able to see 14 other historic sites. Some are free to visit, like Boston Common, Granary Burying Ground and Faneuil Hall. Others do cost admission to go inside, like the Paul Revere House and Park Street Church. The cost is normally fairly low, but it would get fairly expensive to visit them all. In all we stopped at Boston Common, Granary Burying Ground, Faneuil Hall, the Boston Massacre site, Old North Church, Paul Revere House, Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution. We probably spent six to seven hours in total on the trail. It was a long day but really worth it in my opinion!
Boston Common & Gardens: This was my second time visiting both places and I loved it even more this time. When I was there last it was winter and a bit dreary. This time it was spring and full of life. Such a beautiful place to visit and walk through. You can walk through everything in about an hour or take your time and enjoy things for longer.
The New England Aquarium: I am a sucker for a good aquarium. I love being able to witness sea life and their interactions with each other. I do struggle with the animals being caged up, but try to only visit places that focus on rescues and conservation efforts. That aside, the New England Aquarium is spectacular. The have a wide range of creatures from sea lions to penguins to octopi. We probably spent three plus hours at the aquarium. If you were there with kids, I imagine you could spend even longer!
A walk through Harvard’s campus: I have a slight obsession with college campuses. Ever since my first job out of college were I visited college campuses, I always love seeing new ones. Even though I have already seen Harvard’s campus, it was fun for me to show my mom one of my more embarrassing past times. I enjoyed being able to show her why it is that I find campuses so interesting and unique to visit different ones.
Watched a Street Show: Outside of Faneuil Hall there are apparently shows on a regular basis. The last time I visited there was nothing going on, so I had no idea. I must have been there during a break I guess. Any who. The show was so cool! The one we saw did all sorts of acrobatics and it was so fun.
Went on a Duck Boat Tour: This is potentially the most touristy things we did while in town. And was absolutely my first time doing anything like this. The tour did end up being a lot of fun and gave you so many fun facts about the city and all that has happened there.
Visited the Paul Revere House: This was one of our many stops along the Freedom Trail. You were able to go through both the house that was built by Paul Revere and the museum that has since been built next to it. The house has been completely restored and they did a great job showing what the house would have looked like at the time it was built. We really enjoyed walking through and learning about the history of Boston from a very specific perspective. (P.S. Pictures were not permitted inside the house/museum, so I only got this one of the monument sign.)
Visited the USS Constitution Museum: This was the final stop on our Freedom Trail so I will qualify by saying we were a bit tired… However, it still ended up being a really cool experience. The inside portion of the museum is just okay, but getting to tour the actual USS Constitution is so cool! The ship, also known as Old Ironsides, was first launched in 1797 and remained in service until 1881. Touring the ship truly felt like touring a piece of history. They have done a great job of restoring the ship to its original glory and showing people today what a ship looked like then.
Harvard Natural History Museum: I wanted to take my mom to see the Harvard campus at some point during our visit. It is such a historic and prestigious campus, it felt like a fun trip. Because we were making the trip over there, we wanted to do something while we were there and landed on the Natural History Museum. The museum was really well done and cool to see. However, it is not a museum I would spend an extended amount of time in. If you go, you can plan for maybe an hour, whereas I thought it would be a 2+ hour trip.
Boston Red Sox Game: Probably my favorite activity of the entire week! We decided kind of last minute that we wanted to go to a game. And it was SUCH a good choice. We ended up having so much fun. We got drinks before we went in, then hot dogs while at the game. The atmosphere and pride in the team was amazing. We loved so much being able to experience a game at such a historic stadium.
Hope you enjoyed hearing about all of our adventures through the city known as bean town. My last Boston post will be up next week. I thought it would be fun to share my thoughts on what the perf long weekend in Boston would look like. So stay tuned! Until next time, friends… CML
