Boston or Beantown is all about “firsts” and “oldest”. But after having visited NY and DC, lived in Chicago, I feel like Shania Twain in “That don’t impress me much”. Ha ha…. My favorite part about Boston – food, Fenway, Cambridge and the Bostonian accent. Riva (river), Harba (harbor) and so on.
Our first stop was the Star Market next to our hotel to buy an all-day bus/train pass. It was super easy to travel after that – once we figured out how to get kids through the turnstiles with your adult tickets. We got to TD Gardens to catch the Old Town Trolley hop off hop on bus tour.
Boston Commons and the Public Gardens seemed like a good place to start. We recently watched Kevin Hart in Fatherhood and wanted to see Mrs. Mallard and The Duck Family statues. It was a very nice pleasant walk. The Swan Boat Tours seemed very popular but we didn’t want to wait for the lines. There was also a bench labeled Good Will Hunting bench. Fans of that movie were lining up to get their picture taken.
The walk from Boston Commons to Quincy market was pleasant and full of historic sites – parts of Freedom Trail, site of Boston Massacre, old graveyards, old style architecture.
Quincy market was quite modern and “not” quaint 😂. Once you walk past the main entryway it seemed like a normal market. The interior rotunda area and shops were nice. There was something for everyone and with excellent food. Lobsters, chowder, sausages, hot dogs, etc.
After Quincy Market we hopped back on our tour bus and “visited” the USS Constitution and a few other sites. We intended to go see the Trinity Church – a 25-30 mins walk through the downtown area. But in the late afternoon rush hour, the tour bus took almost 1 hr. Maybe Boston needs another Big Dig project to alleviate traffic.
While we couldn’t go inside The Trinity Church, the architecture was fascinating. The next door neighbor of this old building is the towering John Hancock Tower with its unmissable “slit”. We walked through a farmer’s market outside the church towards the Boston Public Library.
It was eventually time to go to Seaport and meet old friends and coworkers from 10-12 years ago. I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic again, so we decided to take the subway or they call it “T”. As we were figuring out our stops we realized that Boston has weird names – Alewife, Braintree, Wonderland to just name a few.
We went to a Brewery and a nice restaurant for dinner. It was great to catch up with friends from long time ago. The conversation flows and there is so much to catch up on 😊. After dinner we decided to head over to the Northend – the place to go on a Friday night for nice Italian desserts. Based on my friend’s recommendation we ended at Cafe Vittoria for Tiramisu, Canoli, cheesecake and some much needed coffee.
As we wrapped up the day, we realized we were 5 mins walking from Paul Revere’s home. So we decided to drop in and say hi. The part we forgot was – it is getting late on a Friday night. It took us ~45 mins to realize that we are not getting a Lyft or Uber at this time to take us to our hotel. We did find one Lyft but apparently the driver kept getting confused inside the Boston Tunnels and eventually cancelled on us. So after a whole day of walking, we decided to walk some more. ~1 mile to our hotel in Cambridge. We walked past a few bars and night clubs – not a sight I want to show my 13 & 10 yr olds but way safer than taking the dark alleys. Irrespective – I was impressed with the resilience and patience of my kids. While they did say they were tired and asked about how much more walking, they were still a great sport and had fun along the way. Proud dad!!!!
Fun experiences of 2 kids and their dad 