Today we got to explore Boston! It was a good day to do it because it was Labor Day and it wasn’t too crazy, it was a horrible day to do it because it was hot in ways that I can’t describe with a G rating. (Seriously, we came on this trip this time of year so it wouldn’t be so hot and we have had heat advisories everywhere we have gone, starting with our trip to Seattle earlier this year) We got in our clown car… our rental car is a teeny, tiny hatchback that is so stripped down that John asked me to roll down my window and manually adjust the mirror as soon as we got in! Thankfully it had air conditioning that worked very well, and we were glad to have a tiny car to drive into downtown.
We started our day at the Boston Tea Party Ships Museum, which was GREAT! This is a multi-media presentation, hosted by a cast in period dress who always stay in character. I would highly recommend this tour, even my kids – BOTH of them – were very engaged. We started off as the angry mob at the town meeting the night of the Boston tea party. We went in and were seated, and they gave us cards with new identities of men who were there that night. The cast member came around and asked where we were from and when we replied with Colorado, he said, “Where is this place?” Our first thought was, ‘Seriously?’, but then we realized that it was 1773 and Colorado didn’t exist yet. Some people that came in after us weren’t so quick on the uptake and they kept saying, “Minneapolis!” “Minnesota.” “The Mall of America is there!” And he kept shaking his head in confusion, and we just laughed! Another cast member jumped back at Trista’s light up shoes and asked if that was one of Benjamin Franklin’s inventions. In the town meeting, they told us how to cheer or yell ‘Huzzah!’ or boo and hiss and stomp our feet or pound the pew… Levi especially loved this and followed along with the town meeting and did the right thing at the right time with everyone else. After that, we headed out to the ship and got to throw some tea into the harbor, the kids really liked that part. We toured the ship and then went into rooms that had hologram presentations, talking picture frames and videos. We were able to see one of the remaining tea crates from that night and some tea that was preserved in liquid that came from the boot of one of the men throwing tea into the harbor. It ended with a video of Paul Revere’s ride and the battle at Lexington. Excellent!
Sadly, the trolley tour we wanted to take was at capacity, so we walked through the Financial district (even the Dunkin Donuts were closed – eerie) and found a gluten free lobster roll restaurant for our first meal out! John and I shared a trio of shrimp, crab and lobster rolls and our kids (Ah, kids) had Chipotle across the street. We were much less cranky after lunch and we made our way over to Boston Common – beautiful park. We stopped so the kids could play in a park. We told them not to get wet, but had them take their shoes off so they would be dry once the inevitable happened, below is a picture of them not getting wet!
We saw the ducklings from some children’s book which we should apparently know, but don’t. We saw the swan boats and near there was a high school band, playing traditional band instruments to pop songs (Call Me, Maybe; Unchained Melody…) We also made our way over to see Cheers! Somewhere in here we decided to take a trolley tour (it was SO, SO HOT) and managed to find a Groupon for half price tickets! As we were walking to the main trolley stop to redeem our tickets, we called and asked if we could get on closer. They said we might be able to sweet talk the driver to see if he was willing to let us ride back to the starting point to settle up our tickets. We walked until we thought we might die and a trolley stopped. I told him our situation and he just looked at me and said, “GET ON! I don’t care about your tickets!” Some time later on our ride with him some other passengers got snippy that they missed a stop and he said, “Hey, I announced it and I stopped.”
“But you didn’t open the doors!”
“Look, can we not argue? It is way too hot to argue!” He was great and we were able to see quite a few sites and hear some interesting tidbits, without getting heat stroke.
After we completed the tour, we got off near the harbor so that we could see some boats. We stopped and grabbed some ice cream and ate it in the shade and then made the HOT trek back to our car. Did I mention it was hot?
When we got back to the car, we collapsed inside and cranked the air conditioning and headed home. We made a stop at Walmart to get a couple of things and I’ll just say that was quite an experience, another story for another blog, but we kept our cool and made it home in one piece! After dinner, the kids wanted to go swimming and even though it was late, it was still crazy wicked hot (when in New England) and we went over to the pool while I ran some laundry. Another good day!
We were your neighbors up in Maine! Glad you enjoyed Boston! 🙂
Thanks for checking in! Hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay!
“Make Way for Ducklings” is the book.