Bean Town! (part 3 - and I promise the last!)

So here is the end of our Boston Trip! We took too many pictures! It was an action packed week. As you can tell, we did so much during the day! We practically passed out every night because of being so busy all day. So here's the rest of Thursday and Friday. Enjoy!

So, after the Museum of Science, we went back to Quincy Market to eat. I realize I didn't really expand on Quincy Market in my last post. It was originally a 1-building market where people gathered to sell flowers and goods like cheese, bread, etc. It was such a popular meeting place that it was eventually expanded to be 3 buildings. Now, the center building is like a giant food court - all with locals selling their food. The outer buildings are all shopping, local stuff and chain stuff. For example, we found this really cute Christmas store where we were able to pick up some Boston ornaments for our Christmas Tree, but there's also a Crate and Barrell.

As we were walking to our next destination, Marc had to take this picture. He was obsessed with all the giant word signs above buildings:Then we headed over to where everybody knows your name!We walked in to the original bar, and it is really tiny! It was a busy Thursday afternoon, so we went up and around to the set bar. They had it set up just like the bar on the TV show. Marc and I sat and had a couple of beers by the window, and just watched all the people and the tours go by. Here is Marc at the Cheers Bar:We enjoyed the atmosphere, and this was just about the coldest day we were there (did I mention it was in the 50's the whole time we were there??), so after we had a couple of beers to warm us up, we went for a leasurely walk through the Public Gardens to watch the ducks!

These two were having a conversation, it was really funny to watch them!There is a pond in the Public Garden, and the college kids apparently ride these Swan Boats and take people on tours of the little pond. The kids actually pedal these boats, and it makes them a little extra money!And back in the 80's (I think it was), there was a mother duck who had her ducklings here. Before that there really were no ducks in this garden. They wrote a book about it, called Make way for Ducklings. In tribute, these bronze sculptures were made:It was really cute! Marc and I then made our way back through Boston Commons to our hotel and ended up falling asleep (oops!) before our dinner reservations. The concierge at our hotel recommended Oceanaire, so we got dressed up and went out for our last night in Boston!

And since it was our last night, we bit the bullet and ordered WHOLE LOBSTER!! It was the best meal I've ever eaten.I had to turn my plate to keep my lobster from staring at me, but I enjoyed it very much!! Here's the proof:After dinner we hit another local pub. I'd been so impressed that at every bar, there is a place to hang your coat, right under where you are sitting! People don't wear coats in Texas, so this was new to me. I had to get a picture! There was just something I didn't know about until after I took the picture....

If I had known about all of that gum, I probably wouldn't have hung my coat!

On Friday our flight didn't leave until 3, so we had time before we had to be at the airport. We realized we hadn't done the Freedom Trail from beginning to end, so we decided to do it that last morning. Unfortunately, Boston decided to get a downpour, so we ran most of it! We came out of our hotel and went down past the Old South Meeting House. We wound our way around and through Paul Revere Mall and down to the Old North Church.

Here is the plaque on the North Church:Then we crossed the river into Charlestown, through a park there, and up to Bunker Hill!

(Yes, that is the Charles River under our feet.)

There is a statue of William Prescott outside the Bunker Hill Monument, where the Freedom Trail ends.It's funny that there is this warning outside the Monument:There are 294 steps inside the monument, and they wrap just about as tight as a winding staircase. Steep. Any guesses as to how far Marc and I got??Yep, step 100. In our defense, we were getting short on time before we had to be at the airport, and Marc's achilles still doesn't like to climb like that. We were also short of breath.

So, we headed back to the hotel and picked up our bags and said Farewell to Boston! We took the subway back to the airport and made our way home. It was one of the best vacations of my life!