Beautiful Boston

After Brian and Mike ran the relay, we spent the rest of the weekend with the Hawkers. Sunday was spent in Providence and Brian took the day off Monday so we could venture back up to Boston and tour around a little bit since I had never been there. All 5 of us were going to go together, but Kaitie had to work because she was on call and ended up being called in. We were kinda bummed, but we still had a really good time.

We drove to the southernmost subway stop of Boston, parked and rode downtown.

The first thing we saw was TD Garden and as you can see ALL the boys were excited. :)

We headed to find somewhere to eat and ran into this holocaust memorial. There were several glass towers with victim's numbers etched all the up the sides. It was a really neat thing to see.

I can't remember the name of the place we ate, but it was not busy at all. We were the only people there and the food was delish! I had my first bowl of New England Clam chowder and it was to die for!
Brian and Mike had some fresh fish and chips that they loved.

After finishing our awesome lunch we decided to follow the Freedom Trail. 

The Freedom Trail is marked by this double-brick line and is 2.5 miles of historical sites around Boston.

These were some of the first sites I saw of Boston and I immediately fell in love. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't the quaint, old feeling I got.

One of our first stops was Green Dragon Tavern. This is a spot where the Freemasons met (Ben Franklin being one of them) and where the Boston Tea Party was planned.

Paul Revere's Home was our next stop.

 We didn't get to go inside or anything, but it was very cool to be where Paul Revere once lived.

The boys and Paul Revere's Home.

In between all of our stops this was the scenery we got to take in.

Places like Boston are the reason New England is called New England!

I loved it!

We took a little break from site seeing and hit up Mike's Pastry shop.

Brian filled up that whole box!

While Dad and Mike waited in line for pastries, Thad and I crossed the street to this church with a peace garden so he could stretch his legs.

To many this would not be very exciting, but Thad stayed entertained for quite sometime!

All of us in front of the church with our pastries.

It was really fun because we just found an alley nearby and plopped ourselves down on the curb to enjoy our pastries. There was way too much for all of us, but they were pretty good. 

Brian and I think Carlo's Bakery is better, but it was a fun treat to have in Boston.

The chocolate covered Boston Creme Pie was my favorite!

Back to the sites!

This is an awesome statue of Paul Revere.

I love this little fam. :)

This picture melted my heart. I love these boys so much and love how they love each other.

Very cool.

The Old North Church was our next big stop and a crowd favorite.

Thad had fun cruising through the pews.

The pews were very interesting with these cubicles, and the history behind them was neat. 

As a family you would purchase a pew and some of the front ones sold for the equivalent of $25,000!

They had them in the cubicles to keep warm in the winter. Each family would bring their own warm brick in a tin and it would heat their pew. Pretty cool!

Read the sign about Paul Revere.

After the Old North Church we continued along the Freedom Trail...

and made a few pit stops. There was a GIANT Carp down in the water, so the boys had to stop and stare. :)

Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in the background.

After crossing the bridge we made our way to the shipping yard

To see the U.S.S. Constitution, a Revolutionary War ship.

This ship was first launched in 1797 and retired in 1881.

Checking out the other ships in the  yard.

U.S.S. Cassin Young

Thad just being the cute kid he is!

He loved running around the ship yard throwing rocks in random puddles. What a boy!

The ships concluded our site seeing of the beautiful city of Boston, MA. We had such a wonderful time and are so glad we got to go with Mike. He was such a good sport to go to a lot of the places he had been before. We know how he feels - it's always fun and different with each person you go with.

Mike and Kaitie are so much fun and we are so happy they live only 2 short hours away. 

We should really see them more often than we do and hope to make it up there a few more times this summer.