Bits from Beantown...

It seems like so much has happened since we were in Boston this past weekend, but it was only three days ago! With all of this house stuff popping up unexpectedly, I don't want to leave the second half of our trip unaccounted for... Boston is too great of a city and we had too good of a time not to share with you all.

~ After a post-nuptial brunch with the newlyweds, we set off in our rental car for Boston. After receiving many suggestions as to how to deal with transportation in and around Boston, we opted to park in a commuter lot and take the train into the city (best idea ever). It cost us $9 each to get an all-day pass, which we could use for all of the subway trains and buses in the city, saving us outrageous parking costs and traffic headaches. I would highly recommend not driving in Boston if at all possible - it really is as expensive and annoying as all the locals claim it is.

(NavyGuy in front of the statue of Robert Gould Shaw... civil war soldier who led the first African American regiment... aka: Matthew Broderick's character in "Glory")

~ We had hoped to make it in time for a historical walking tour, but we were having too much fun chatting with everyone at brunch, so we missed that. NavyGuy and I took the train into Boston Common (basically a large park/green space), near the Massachusetts State House. After wandering the common for a bit, we took a chance on a bus tour. Best. Decision. Ever. The tour allowed us to see the whole city in a couple hours, we could get on and off the bus wherever we wanted, and our tour guide (Billy O'Brien) was fabulous. He told us tons of great stories about all the buildings and history of Boston - all in his hilarious Baaahhhston accent - and we even heard clips from Good Will Hunting! The bus tour was a great introduction to Boston; the Old State House, Fenway Park, the original Cheers bar, Faneuil Hall, Harvard, MIT, and tons of other sites. I am now a huge fan of bus tours - you get the geeky history lesson all the while sitting down - hooray.

(where everybody knows your name...)

~ The only downside to the day was the weather turning cold and windy while we were busing around town. We missed seeing Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church because I needed to stop for an over-priced sweatshirt. Sadly then, we pretty much only had time to walk through Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market before all of the historical sites closed for the day (which just means I now must go back some day... possibly with HistoryGirlie and TWP...?). We took the train back down to a big shopping area, wandered around, and then had dinner at Cheesecake Factory!! NavyGuy had never been there, (and Mom had sent a gift card for us to use on our mini-mini-moon in Seattle), so we had a great dinner, and took yummy dessert back to the hotel (I had chocolate mousse cheesecake, while NavyGuy opted for the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough version).

(In front of Faneuil Hall, in my new Boston sweatshirt.)

Boston rocks. We will definitely be going back, because there are way too many historical things that I have to check out yet!