When I talked to Diana originally, she expressed interest in visiting Boston. She mentioned that she'd never been there before and she was curious what it was like. It's about a 2 hour drive from the Valley to the parking garage at Boston Commons. Not too bad.
We left pretty early on Sunday morning, we were nervous about the fact that Hurricane Sandy was supposed to be making landfall up here later that evening and bringing the rain with her.
We kind of did a small recap of what I did with my family back in October, we parked at the Boston Common parking garage ($12 a day on the weekends, probably one of the best deals in the city) and started up towards Quincy Market.
Our first stop was the Granary and the King's Chapel burying grounds . This seems to be a regular stop whenever I've toured the city in the last year. I mean, who doesn't want to see a bunch of old graves from the 1700's? I know I sure do. The Granary burying ground is home to some famous Bostonians like John Adams, Paul Revere, and Sam Adams.
As we were heading over to Quincy Market, it started to rain. We bolted inside of Faneuil Hall as quickly as we could and Diana checked out some of the shops there. While walking around, I noticed that there was a sign that said "Free Tours Daily" and there was one at noon, which was in about 5 minutes. I asked one of the park rangers how we sign up for a tour and she gave us a sticker told us to head downstairs where the tour was going to start. These tours don't bring you inside the places you stop at, but it's a great way to see the city by way of the Freedom Trail. We found out that the tour we were going on was to Old North Church in the North End. Our park ranger tour guide gave us a brief introduction about the tour and we headed outside to start.
Our first stop was a place called the Green Dragon Tavern, which according to our tour guide isn't exactly the original Green Dragon where some historical meetings took place. The original pub was demolished a looooong time ago. Diana found a minuteman buddy here.
The next stop was Paul Revere's house. By this time it was drizzling pretty hard again, so that was kind of a bummer. It was a little tough to pay attention to the tour guide, since we were out in the open and getting rained on. It wasn't long before we were on our way up to the Old North Church where the tour ended.
After the tour was over, Diana and I headed over to the courtyard at Old North Church (you know, the church Nick Cage sends the bad guy to at the end of National Treasure). We were having fun taking pictures there because of all the fallen leaves. Fortunately the rain held off for a little bit here so we could get some shots.
On our way back to the car, we stopped to get some Mike's Pastry treats. We got an oreo cannoli and a lobster tail. Exhibit A shows just how large that lobster tail is - as big as my hand. It's seriously amazing.
Diana really liked this noodle we passed in the Quincy Market area. We thought the signage was pretty funny too "Do not climb on the big noodle sculpture". I kind of wonder if anyone has tried to ride it?
It started to rain pretty hard again, so we decided to call it a day and head home. At least I felt like Diana got to see some of the main attractions in Boston on her first trip. I totally recommend the walking tour if you're looking for something free to do that helps orient you in the city. I liked that now I know where to head if I want to actually go inside the Paul Revere house (which is about a $3 admission).
This post was shot entirely with my iPhone and some of my Photojojo lenses. Sometimes simple is better. :)
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