Boston & New England

I'm back! Our trip was amazing! Not only did we do a lot of fun things, everything went smoothly. There wasn't any stress or getting lost or wondering what to do next. That's my kind of vacation! I love it when we fit a lot in but still have time to relax.

Friday afternoon after going to our hotel and resting, we started down the Freedom Trail, a 2 and a half mile walking trail through downtown Boston that goes by all of the major historical sites. It's marked by a line of red bricks along the sidewalks and in some places by a thick line of red paint so you don't lose your way. We went halfway down the trail and stopped at Faneuil Hall for dinner and to do some shopping (we bought Evan a cute hoodie!). The most interesting site that day was Granary Burial Ground. It's filled with graves of some very important people, including victims of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. It rained a little that afternoon, but not too much. The temperature was fine, especially with all of the walking we did.


On Saturday we started up on the trail at Faneuil Hall again. The second part of the trail isn't as "action packed," the only things to see are Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground. It was still worth the walk though because we discovered some beautiful gardens (the flowers and trees there are just now in full bloom there). We ended up at the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat in the world (launched in 1797). They are doing renovations on it, so it wasn't as neat as it was the last time I went (in 2002), but it's still an amazing thing to see and visit. The navy gives free tours of the ship, I definitely recommend going to see it if you're ever in Boston!

(Matt standing by the Paul Revere statue in front of the Old North Church)

After the Constitution, we went to the Public Garden, mainly to visit the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture. We bought Evan the book earlier that day and wanted to get some pictures with the sculpture to show him when he's older. The garden was beautiful! The trees and flowers were blooming, there were so many beautiful tulips planted everywhere. The weather was perfect at that point, in the mid-70s. The sun shone more that day than any of the others we were there. We found the statue and even though there was always a crowd around it, we were able to get a few pictures next to it.

On Sunday we slept in and spent the rest of the morning at Harvard, which is an amazing place! We just walked around and snapped pictures, we didn't really have a plan, but everywhere we went was beautiful. There was a festival going on in Harvard Square so we had fun crowd watching and listening to interesting music. Then we met up with Nity!!! I can't describe how fun it was to meet her in person. We had lunch with her and then met up with her husband, who is also a lot of fun. We walked around Concord, which has a lot of very old (and beautiful) houses. One of my favorite things to do on vacation is walk around and look at architecture, so Concord was a treat. We also walked on a trail that went past where the Revolutionary War started and some beautiful fields and woods.

(Harvard)

After Concord we stopped by their cute urban house and I got to meet their dog, who turned out to be really cute and fun. :-) I vote that Nity should post a picture of her on her blog! We went to a great pizza place and even had fun standing in line waiting to get in. It was definitely worth the wait! We took some leftovers to our hotel that night and as soon as we got in I ate more. lol They were so nice and drove us to the car rental place near the airport after dinner. I can't believe that we forgot to take pictures!!! I didn't even realize it until the next day. We had a camera, but I was so busy blabbing my mouth off that I forgot to take pictures, even though Nity and I had already talked about getting belly shots. She's 2 weeks ahead of me and our bellies are about the same size. She looks good!! She's tall and slender so I guess there's a little more room in there for her little boy or girl. As soon as we got to the car rental place and Nity and her husband drove away Matt said, "That was so much fun! I had a great time with them!" And I had to agree. :-) Matt had been a little nervous about spending a day with strangers, but we all got along great. I only wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often.

We spent Sunday night in Peabody, near Salem. Monday we went to Salem and were very disappointed in the main downtown area. It's mainly occupied by new age and witch stuff, which I knew about ahead of time, but I was still planning on parking downtown and then walking around the town to see the historical sites. However, after getting out of the car and seeing all of the not very nice looking people loitering around in the middle of the day, we rushed back to the car and left Salem without seeing anything. We had lunch at a nearby mall and then worked up enough courage to drive around the outskirts of Salem so that we could at least see some of the historical sites from the car. After getting over to the Maritime Site and the House of the Seven Gables (I haven't read the book, but Matt and I watched a film adaptation of it) we realized that area is fine so we parked the car and got out to walk around. I loved getting to see the places Nathaniel Hawthorne had been. We also saw the graveyard in Salem and the memorial to the witch trial victims.

(Salem Maritime Historical Site)

(House of the Seven Gables)

(Salem Burying Ground)

After Salem we drove to Manchester-by-the-Sea to walk around and have a snack. We didn't go out on the beach, but we drove by it and we did get out and walk around the harbor. We also went up to Crane Beach, which is beautiful! It's farther out in the country and we went walking along the beach. Then on to Newburyport where we ate a yummy seafood dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the water and boats.

(Crane Beach)

Monday night we discovered how close we were to Maine and decided to go up there on Tuesday. It was going to be cold and rainy, so we knew we didn't want to walk around much. We drove up and down the coast of Maine and drove through a bunch of cute little towns. We saw the Nubble Lighthouse, which was beautiful. It was actually neat that it was windy and rainy because the ocean was rough and the waves broke over the rocks.

Later that day we headed back to Boston and then on back home to Charlotte!

(22 weeks)