Boston in February may sound crazy to some, but to the budget traveler, it's a perfect getaway... if you can handle the cold of course! Luckily, living in California, seeing and being in the snow seemed quite romantic; almost as if I were experiencing my own historical winter wonderland.
I landed on Friday evening with my two girlfriends and after an all day flight, we were starving!!! We flew on Southwest, AMAZING airline but no food on board!!!! After we checked into our hotel we walked straight on over to Chinatown. With so many different options to choose from, we decided on the Gourmet Dumpling House. We ordered 10 vegetarian dumplings, noodles with vegetables, an amazing sweet and spicy mango sauce with scallops and shrimp and for the non-vegetarians, Kung Pao chicken. Three girls; we ate it all. It was probably the best authentic Chinese food I have had in a long time. We walked in and the place was packed! Our waiters didn't speak much English, so we knew we were in for a treat. After a huge meal, we were ready for bed. Not an eventful first night, but definitely worth it.
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| Samuel Adams Brewery |
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| Round 3 of taste testing! |
When we woke up in the morning, my husband had arrived after his overnight red eye flight. What could possibly be the best way to stay awake? Drink of course! We went straight to the
Samuel Adams Brewing Company to learn all about the Boston Lager. The Guinness Brewery in Dublin was much larger and I felt that I learnt more there, however the Samuel Adams Brewery is still pretty awesome. It's a lot smaller because they don't do any mass production. It's where they create the seasonal brews, taste testing them until they're just right. We tried 3 different brews, but my favorite was the Single Hop Cascade. Sadly, it's not even out yet and it may not ever come out! It was a light tasting beer, but cloudy like a Belgian beer. I hope it gets the stamp of approval and becomes the summer seasonal as it was delicious!
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| Massachusetts State House |
After the brewery tour we started the
Freedom Trail. It is an easy way to explore Boston because all you have to do is follow a red painted line on the ground. It makes sight seeing super easy, plus it's free. We started at the beautiful Boston Commons at the foot of the
Massachusetts State House. It was gorgeous with the big huge golden dome! We followed the trail over to my favorite site, the
Granary Burying Ground. I know that sounds morbid, walking around old tombstones, but it actually was inspiring. I saw the tombs of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Mother Goose, & Samuel Adams. So much history! It was especially amazing seeing the tombstones of four of the signers of the Declaration of Independence: Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Robert Treat Paine. After attempting to find the oldest of the tombstones, some dating as far back as the 1700's, we carried on following the red "brick" road to the
Old State House.
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| Old Granary Burying Ground |
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| Tomb of Benjamin Franklin |
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| Old State Building and Boston Massacre Site |
The
Boston Massacre Site is at the bottom of the Old State House. A marker on the ground shows where the Boston Massacre happened; we couldn't even fathom how horrible that must have been. After having a quiet moment, we carried on with the Freedom Trail all the way up to the North End where the
home of Paul Revere lies. There is just so much history in Boston, it blew my mind. It was like walking through my beloved history books. My friends were good sports listening to me lecture on the importance and the start of the slogan "no taxation without representation" and how the free thinkers of Boston truly were the creators of America by starting the rebellion against the crown. It also was particularly entertaining that my husband happens to be English, which led to many "red coat" jokes.
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| Harvard Square |
On our last full day we woke up in a blizzard! It was very blusterous outside, but we decided to grin and bear it. We took the subway to Harvard to wander around and pretend we were some of the worlds most genius people. We were blown around Harvard Square, which was a feat in itself with the 25 degree weather and 5 degree wind chill! Even though it was cold, it was gorgeous. It was everything you would expect the University to be. Quotes were all over the walls of the buildings, some by my favorite Ralph Waldo Emerson. The old buildings, students trekking in the snow, and thoughtful quotes made it a truly magical experience. We managed to make our way from Harvard to the waterfront to take pictures of the city's skyline before the sun went down. We only lasted about 20 minutes at the harbor as the wind made it too cold to be outside, but it was worth it. We ended our night like the true locals we were pretending to be; a Bah-Stan lager, pizza, and the Bruins game!
On our final day we crammed in the remainder of the Freedom Trail, making our way to the Bunker Hill Memorial. The sheer height of the memorial was outstanding. We wanted to climb to the top, but it was too icy and dangerous so it was closed to the public. With that disappointing news, we decided to train it over to Fenway Park. Boston is a city extremely passionate about it's sports; so no Boston trip would have been complete without visiting
Fenway Park. Before heading to the airport, we made it to Fenway. Even though it wasn't baseball season, you could just imagine how the place could come alive with the fans crowding the streets, hoping the Red Sox make it to the next world series!
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| Bunker Hill Monument |
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| Fenway Park |
Boston truly was an amazing city bursting with history and culture. I love history, but Boston is so diverse. If you like sports, there are the Bruins, Red Sox, Celtics, and many more with the university rivalries. The theater is popular and had many different forms of art displayed at the museums and the universities. I personally thought Boston was an adventure in the winter. Not only were flights cheap, but I felt that we had the city to ourselves. Fighting the winds, stomping in the snow, and popping into bars and restaurants to warm up was a lot of fun. Boston is such an interesting city and I felt that I could go back again and again to have a completely different experience. Maybe one day I will as three days simply were not enough to do it all. Even though my time here was short, the memories I made and the experience of being surrounded by some of America's most important parts of history, will stay with me forever.
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| Bye, Bye, Boston |
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