We awoke on our second morning in Boston to heavy rain, but were fortunate that the rain stopped right before we walked out of the hotel. Our morning started with a tour of Fenway Park. Seeing the ballpark and getting to sit up in the Green Monster Seats made us want to come back for a game.
We took the train into Downtown with at least 200 of our closest friends in the same subway car. Andrew fell down at the first three stops because he refused to hold on to the pole or let us hold onto him. Despite the crowds, Allison still wants to ride the train everyday for the rest of her life. Too bad she lives in Dallas.
We had lunch in the North End neighborhood of Boston, home to over 250 Italian restaurants. Overwhelmed by so many choices, we picked the first one that was empty and had televisions playing SportsCenter. La Famiglia Spagnuolo turned out to have great food as well, and we enjoyed witnessing the colorful interaction among the family that owns the restaurant. Authentic pizza, ravioli, and spaghetti with meatballs gave us energy to continue our walking tour of historic Boston.
We then headed down to the famous Mike’s Pastry to get some treats for later. (Thanks to Grant for the recommendation.) While we were choosing from the incredible selection, a man came into the store in 18th Century Dress (powdered wig and all), and proposed down on one knee to one of the employees of the store – certainly an event that you do not see every day. She said yes, and service was temporarily halted while the entire store celebrated. Very cool! More pics here.
We then followed the Freedom Trail to the Old North Church, the famous site where two lanterns were hung to warn that the British were “coming by sea”. In addition to the main sanctuary, we were able to tour the bell tower and the crypt in the basement where approximately 800 people were entombed between the 17th and 19th Centuries. Our tour guide was enthusiastic and very informative, and it was really cool to see bells dating back to the time of Paul Revere and see the complicated process it takes to ring them.
Next, we went to a nearby cemetery where some of the tombstones dated back to the mid-1600s. The long and important history of this city is hard to fathom.
We probably ended up walking around 5 miles that day, but the kids were great and only turned grumpy near the end of the walk. Luckily they spotted a cab that Dad was able to hail with his big city whistling skills. Allison is already planning our next trip to Boston because there is so much more to see.