Tuesday, Sept 6th 2011
Unfortunately, DH woke up feeling not great on Tuesday. He had allergy symptoms. He thinks they were due to the "dead bodies" he breathed in during the tour of the crypt. Much more likely it was just the weird and new pollen, or perhaps some dust from the old sites we visited. He dragged himself out of bed anyways and we headed out on foot from the hotel to locate the nearby Boston Public Library, which was only about 3 blocks away. We went in and started to walk around and it was super unimpressive, just modern functional library, not even that big. Then I noticed this through way and we walked through and BOOM, beautiful courtyard, big sweeping staircases, murals and statues, and awesomeness. We wandered through it all, very neat, but they are not using all of the neat rooms for actual books, so that was a bit less exciting. Kind of a strange set up in my opinion. When I had got my library fix we walked across the street to look at Trinity Church. We did not go in, but it is really cool architecture. I was totally starving so we stopped at a place called Finagle my Bagel and I had breakfast. We walked back to the hotel and changed, then walked over to Fenway to take a tour. It was pretty neat! It is a very old ballpark, and while I am not a huge baseball fan, its still neat hearing all the history and legends associated with the place, and I always like getting in press boxes of pretty much any sports venue, such a different perspective. After the tour we walked back to the hotel, stopping for a slice of pizza along the way. DH was really not feeling well, so we decided that he could go nap while I went off and explored a few sites in the city he wasn't interested in. I hopped on the subway and headed to Harvard University. When I got there I stumbled upon the start of a student-lead history tour and joined in. I went with the tour for about 15-20 minutes, but I was not really enjoying it. It was raining, and the tour was so, I don't know, pretentious? Self satisfied? All of these historical stories about how Harvard screwed over Cambridge or any of those things. I wandered around campus a bit on my own, and then headed back out on the subway. I took it to MIT and wandered around their campus a bit. It feels so full of potential. Walking their halls was a bit like being in a science college commercial, because you really would just walk by a random window and there would be a nanotechnology lab behind or other things. From their I walked across the river, looked at the sailboats, and up the hill to my hotel. It was quite a long walk, especially in the rain, but I had realized that we only had one more full day in Boston and it would probably be rainy then too, so I better see what I can! Back at the hotel I went swimming, then crawled in for a nap. We went out and got a quick dinner from a place called Boloco (boston local) that was sort of chipotle-esque , with a bit more variety, and the coolest soda machine ever. We spent the night in bed watching football and relaxing, hoping DH would feel better the next day.
Wednesday, Sept 7th 2011
Luckily, DH did feel better after his afternoon/evening of rest. We went to breakfast at a place called The Pour House that was recommended by the concierge. It was a casual place, delicious hash. I think DH liked his pancakes as well. We then took the subway over to the same stop that we had ended our Freedom Trail tour on. It was a rainy day, but neither of us really minded. We walked over to the U.S.S. Constitution and the navy yard it was located in. We walked briefly through the museum, explored a WWII destroyer that is dry docked there, and then took a tour of the USS Constitution. It is the oldest commissioned navy vessel afloat in the world. Commissioned means it is manned by active duty navy, afloat means that they can still sail her, and do so a couple of times a year. There is a boat in England apparently that is also commissioned, but is dry docked. It was pretty cool to see it all, hard to believe how old it is and how much action it has seen. It is most famous for a battle during the war of 1812. It is nicknamed "Old Ironside" because the construction of the sides, using a combination of woods native to the U.S., made them virtually impenetrable to cannon balls of the period. Of course it has seen lots of restoration, but they keep as much of it original as possible. After the tour we walked up to the Bunker Hill monument and looked around their a bit. The combination of my pregnant status, the long walk we still had to our next destination, and the poor weather (very thick fog) made us decide NOT to climbed the 100+ steps to the top of the monument. We wound our way back across the river to the North End (remember, the Italian District), and had a nice, slightly late sit down lunch at a Italian place, which was tasty, then picked up a canolli from Mike's Pastries. We had both kind of had it with being on our feet by this point, so we headed back to the hotel and then decided to go see a movie. We went and saw Crazy Stupid Love. It was quite good, funny and sweet, and neither of us saw the "twist" coming at all! Well executed, definitely a feel-good type film, not so realistic. After the movie we walked back to the hotel and just relaxed, watched some TV for awhile, then went back out for a late dinner. We just walked from our hotel and looked for a place, ended up at Mass Ave Tavern. They were nice and casual, they had a live trivia game going, but we did not join in, which turned out to be good because the question structure was very odd. The food was delicious! I had hummus w/veggies, mac&cheese, and half of DH's burger. I would go back for the mac&cheese alone in a heartbeat!
Thursday, Sept 8th 2011
We got up, had breakfast a quick breakfast, and checked out of the hotel. It was pouring cats and dogs outside! DH started out driving, got us out of the Boston w/some traffic delays, then out of MA. We went down through Rhode Island, which was cool, right through Providence. I took over driving and headed out of RI, into Connecticut. I was surprised by how pretty the area is, hills and trees, quite nice. We headed down through Connecticut into NY, actually right into NYC! I drove though the Bronx and the northern edge of Manhattan! Impressed? I am. I am very proud. Anyways, across the George Washington bridge, down to New Jersey, switched drivers again, and DH took us into Philadelphia. (more to come on this evening later...)
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