BOSTON at last! Thursday June 20th

Although it remained cloudy, we were cheered by our hot drinks and hearty breakfast, and set Cordelia on a direct route to Boston.  At one point she took us off the interstate into a small town, weaving us in and out of side streets and turning left and right every other block.  Whatever was she DOING?  But when we swung back onto the ramp for the interstate right outside of downtown Boston, we saw why she had taken us around.  Traffic was bumper to bumper – four lanes – into the city, through construction, crazy traffic.  Although we were impatient – so close yet so far away! – we were finally in BOSTON! I could hardly believe it.  A dream come true; something to check off my bucket list.  After one missed turn, we found the underground parking garage at Boston Commons, geared up for the day, and set off for the visitor’s center on Boston Commons to sign up for our walking tour of the Freedom Trail.

And just so you know.  The Freedom Trail is definitely a trail.  It is a bi-color brick path that starts at the Commons and ends at Bunker Hill – some 2 and a half miles – and twists through downtown Boston past the amazing historic sites and churches and cemeteries and houses and buildings.  I loved following this – it felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  I was walking where John Adams, Paul Revere, patriots that gave everything they had to make this country great, had lived and walked.  But back to the tour.  We had a wonderful tour guide.  She was young and spirited and full of life and information.  We heard stories about Paul Revere’s ride (truth or fiction?  Read up!), stopped at Old North Church, explored the cemetery in the drenching downpour of rain, and acted out the Boston Massacre. (Two circular brick photos depict the site.) I felt breathless and excited and in total awe.

At the end of that adventure, which was almost two hours, we went to the Quincy Market and got lunch.  It’s like a giant food court from the mall; if Quincy Market didn’t have it, it didn’t exist!  Kathy had a Lobster Roll and I had a very juicy delicious burger right off the grill.  By the time lunch was over, we had dried off enough to trace our steps back and visit the inside of the places our tour guide had taken us past.  One of my favorites was Paul Revere’s house.  He was an amazing man – a dentist, an industrialist, a patriot – he had a LOT of kids and outlived most of them.

By this time we were pretty much at the end of our day – worn out and ready for our hotel.  We followed Cordelia’s directions to the other side of Boston – really only 7 miles but about 20 minutes’ drive! – to our Inn for the next two nights.  We stayed at the Longwood Inn, on Longwood Avenue in the Brookline section.

It was a beautifully quaint three story inn, very clean and in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood.  We checked in only to find that our quaint little inn had no elevator, and we were in the very back corner on the third floor!  Let me tell you that climbing all those flights of stairs with all our luggage was no picnic.

And speaking of picnics, we discovered that although we had access to laundry and full kitchen privileges, breakfast was not provided.  So we jumped in the Honda and went a few blocks into town.  We bought ice to refill our cooler, a loaf of bread and some butter, and went home to picnic on our beds with all the goodies from our trip bag.

I want to mention here that most of those goodies were a generous birthday gift from the girls at work – two big bags full of every type of snack and munchies you could imagine!  We didn’t need to buy anything, although we did sneak in a little chocolate on the side!  We had plenty.

It was crazy to say, but well before 9pm we were both tucked in bed with our books, reading ourselves to sleep.  There was still a lot to explore tomorrow in Boston.  And the evening and the morning were the third day – and the sisters saw that it was very good.