Boston, Lexington, and Concord Trip Plan

Please click below to view my trip plan for Boston, Lexington, and Concord. We were away from April 25th-April 29th 2013.

Trip Plan

To learn more about the sites I visited:

–Boston Tea Party Museum

–Park Street Church

–Granary Burying Ground

–Museum of Fine Arts

–Hancock-Clarke House

–Buckman Tavern

–Old North Bridge

–Old South Meeting House

–Old State House

–Faneuil Hall

–Quincy Market

–Bunker Hill

–Old North Church

–Paul Revere’s House

–Boston Common

–Make Way for Ducklings

 

Boston in College

During my freshman year of college I went to Boston with a tour bus full of people from my college. Our original plan was Boston and Salem. Salem didn’t work out because our bus broke down and we had to change buses in the middle of nowhere. My suitcase was broken in this process. When we finally got to Boston it was already dark. We were staying in the outskirts of Boston in Somerville. It was St. Patrick’s Day weekend, which we found out is a big deal in Boston.

My friends drank, danced, and laughed for hours in the hotel room while I watched in amusement. We were warned that the subway shuts down at midnight which we thought was beyond stupid. A small group of us headed out to Quincy Market. On the platform my friends sang and danced on the benches, while I made sure they didn’t end up in the tracks. When we finally got out of the subway my friend Kathleen went into oncoming traffic and almost got hit by a car, but I pulled her back at the last second. The funny thing is that it happened right by the Boston Massacre site.

When we got to Quincy Market Michael left us to catch up with his friends. The girls and I checked out the Cheers gift shop and whatever else was open. We posed with some guys dressed as leprechauns. Molly’s friend joined us. Kathleen and I were standing in the middle of the market (it’s a round open area) when a guy came over to us and hugged us while saying beam me up Scotty. His wife wasn’t too happy with him. Once we left the market it was crazy. Everyone was drunk! One of my friends was running around looking for her glove while the other was making out with random guys. I eventually got us to a 7-11 to pump food into them. Then I dragged them back on the subway to our hotel. There was no way in hell I was missing the last train before midnight. Our friends wound up missing the last train and had a horrible expensive time getting back. Once back in our hotel room a group of drunk guys tried to get into our room, but I wouldn’t let them. They gave up once they realized I was sober.

The next day we all woke up early and went to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was fun and strange at the same time. Lots of weird floats. Afterwards we met up with Molly’s friends who dragged us around for what seemed like hours. Kathleen and I had enough. We were starving, freezing, and tired. We broke away and walked in search of food, comfort, and warmth. We found a Borders. The people at the Borders cafe felt so bad for us. They picked out the biggest m&m Rice Krispie treats and poured lots of whipped cream and chocolate sauce in our hot chocolates. We could have kissed them. We went back to the same 7-11 we were in the night before. We then met up with our group and did the Freedom Trail. We didn’t do Bunker Hill though. We ended at the Old North Church. We took Hanover St. Back down to Quincy Market. All the pastry places looked so good! A bunch of us decided to eat in a seafood place by Quincy Market. I got Mac n cheese. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t enough food. Back to our 7-11 and then we headed back to our hotel. Kathleen, Molly, and I rented the movie Bobby.

The next day Kathleen and I took the bus to Cambridge. We walked around for a while using my guidebook. My guidebook said we could go into this old building so we did. We wound up getting yelled at because it was the President’s office and is closed to the public. Stupid guide book. After that we opted for a Harvard history tour. We had a student show us around campus and tell us the history of all the buildings. She did the whole pahk yah cah at hahvad yahd bit. We met up with the whole group for dinner at Uno’s.

The bus ride home was a mixture of sleeping and karaoke. I think we also watched the Simpsons at one point. The trip was short, but fun.

Our karaoke videos (that’s not me singing):

Boston for my Birthday

April 28 2013

Today is my birthday! So I decided I wanted to stay local and do a bunch of historical sites. I picked many of the sites on the Freedom Trail.

Our first stop was an army store where we bought my dad a Boston shirt. Then we took pictures outside the Old South Meeting House. We passed the location of the old Borders that has a soft spot in my heart because they revived my friend Kathleen and I years ago when we were beyond cold, tired, and hungry. We passed the 7-11 we frequented during my Boston trip with my college. We went into Potbelly Sandwiches looking for the chocolate brownie cookie a friend recommended to me, but they didn’t have it.

We continued on to the Old State House. I’ve always wanted to go inside. We caught a tour of the museum. The tour was informative and it was interesting to hear about the many uses of the building. We then caught the Boston Massacre tour. I learned a couple new things on the tour. I gave all the right answers to the tour guide’s questions so I couldn’t help but be proud of my memory. 🙂 My mom and I went into the gift shop. I bought some postcards. I really wanted to a join or die snake shirt, but didn’t feel like spending $16.

We left and then went to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. I went looking for the restaurant my college friends and I ate at. However, it was no longer there. I wanted to go to get the name. We walked through the food area. My mom and I got some free samples. The Greek food looked so good but it was expensive. I really wanted some Mac n cheese from the mac n cheese vendor. There was an entire store for One Direction, which I thought was hilarious. So many of the girls were walking around with life size one direction cut outs. I took a picture in the center of the market to commemorate the stranger that came up to Kathleen and I and said beam me up Scotty. We stopped at the gift shop, but I didn’t buy anything. We left the gift shop and caught the bus to Bunker Hill.

I was really excited to finally do the Bunker Hill Monument (even though it’s really Breed’s Hill). I’ve done the real Bunker Hill before. We got off the bus and walked through a cute quiet neighborhood. The monument looks exactly like the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, the bottom is graffitied. We decided not to walk up. We crossed the street and went to the museum. The museum is two floors and the better part is on the 2nd floor. They have artifacts from the Battle of Bunker Hill and from the Boston Massacre. There’s a button in the back that tells you about the Battle of Bunker Hill. We used the restroom in the basement, bought a postcard, and left.

We decided we were going to walk to Paul Revere’s House. We were going to make sure that on our way we passed the Old North Church. As we crossed the bridge you could see the church sticking out. If the modern buildings weren’t around you easily could have seen lanterns hanging in the church on that famous night. On our way to the sites we passed a bakery that’s open 24/7 everything looked absolutely amazing, but we didn’t have a fridge in our hotel. So we bought cookies. I got chocolate rugelach and it was incredible. We walked down the street to the church. There was a gift shop across the street that was cheap so we got some things in there. We took pictures of the outside of the church. I didn’t pay to go in because I’ve done it before. We went to the official gift shop where I got a pillbox to add to my collection.

We took what was supposed to be a connecting alleyway to Paul Revere’s House. It wasn’t direct. We passed a printer’s press shop. I took a free postcard from there. We finally found Revere’s house. We paid and went right in since there’s no official tour. You only see 4 rooms: the kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms. You have to read the signs to feel like you are on a tour. It was just ok, but my mom liked it. The admission price was super cheap so it was worth seeing.

After that we headed back to the bakery we were at before. I got more rugelach but the woman gave me pieces without much chocolate and were very small. The bag wound up ripping outside of the bakery and they all fell all the floor. The bakery was nice enough to replace them free of charge. We walked down Hanover St. And saw all the famous bakeries with their lines out the door. We walked back to Quincy Market and I bought one oft bosses a pen. We continued on and walked to the Omni Parker Hotel.

The Omni Parker is beautiful and immediately transports you to another time. We went to Parker’s bar. We took a lovely table for two that faced Old City Hall. We ordered the plain pizza and shared it. It was enough for the two of us. It was pricey, but hey it was my birthday and it was good. However, the main reason we came here was for the famous Boston Cream Pie. It was small, but beautiful. It tasted great! The bathroom was huge!!!! 20 stalls. The floor with the bathroom felt haunted. Overall, it was a beautiful yummy historic birthday dinner.

I convince my mom to go with me to Make Way for Ducklings. I loved it when I was a little girl and wanted a picture there on my birthday. Someone had made hats for the ducks. They were so cute!!! We picked up some whoopie pies from 7-11 and went back to our hotel. I don’t want to leave!!!