Boston Trip: Our Perspective

(Disclaimer: This is a long post, but includes a lot of pictures.)

This last week for an extended weekend Jeremy and I went to New England.  The original destination was Boston, but we expanded it with a rental car to pick up some more states on our list of those to visit.  (We are each down to about 5 or so states to get all 50!)  We dropped Madison off at my mom and dad’s house for some special grandparent time while we were gone – see upcoming post for her perspective :)  The cheapest flight was out of Pittsburgh at 7 on Thursday morning.  So, we got a hotel there and started the adventure.  The airline threatened a 2 hour delay that morning due to a missing part, but it ended up borrowing a part form another airline and the delay was only about 30 minutes.  We picked up our rental from Boston around 10am and hit the road. 

We headed up the coast and made our first spontaneous stop at a town called Newburyport.  It was a great coastal town – delicious seafood, the first coast guard station (which we were able to tour since it was the coast guard’s 221st birthday), tiny shops, and a beautiful walk along the water.  They were having a little festival in town as well, which added some flair to the town, but more importantly some kettle corn to our bellies!  Here are some pictures from our time.

                

                

We continued north along the coast.  We saw some sandy beaches loaded with people – low-80s, breezy, and gorgeous out!  We continued driving and stopped along a rocky beach area.

                           

We hopped back in the car and made it to Maine to visit Kennebunkport.  It is, in case you don’t know, the home of the senior George Bush’s getaway home/compound.  The place was beautiful, located out on a point.  I decided that I could definitely live there; Jeremy concurred. 

             

               

From there we headed to our final destination – Middlebury, Vermont in a little bed and breakfast famous for the outside shots for The Newhart Show.  It was a nice little place.  We ate a delicious restaurant on the river for supper before turning in for the night.

             

The next morning, we ate a full breakfast – eggs, toast, hash browns, fruit – before asking directions for the best short hikes in the area.  We did three “hikes”; I use this term loosely considering our hiking is usually longer and include a lunch break.  The first stop was the Robert Frost Interpretive Hike - a flat walk with poetry placed in selected areas along the way. 

                                

We headed to Texas Falls next.  This was a stop where you just got to walk right up to a beautiful falls.  You could continue hiking from there, but we didn’t. 

                                

            

Our “big” hike of the day was to Silent Cliff (I think that was the name).  You can take this trail up and continue on the Long Trail, which is a part of, or hooks up to, the Appalachian Trail.  This hike started off pretty steep – I was definitely huffing and puffing!  We continue on and it tamed down, but it still continued to climb.  I think it was about a mile hike up.  When we reached the view area, we were treated with a view of the Green Mountains that was worth all the work.  We ate a small snack and rested before heading down.

             

From there, we headed to Beverly, Massachusetts, a town near Boston where we were staying for the next two nights.  We went to the town of Essex to have dinner looking at the water.  Our hotel room was bigger with a kichenette.  It was nice to have some space to spread out our things.  The next day we went for a whirlwind tour of Boston.  We started with a train ride to the subway and the subway to Fenway Stadium.  We took a tour of the stadium to learn a history of the renown “Green Monster.” 

              

We took the subway to Harvard University for our next stop.  We should have taken the student tour to hear anecdotes of student life, but didn’t know how much time we wanted to actually spend there.  We feel smarter just for visiting. :) 

                         

Next, we started the Freedom Trail – a historic walk through the city.  It is only 2-1/2 miles long, but it felt MUCH longer.  It took you by all the sites.  The memorable ones in my mind:

location of the first public school,                         Paul Revere’s house (left in background),

              

the Old North Church where the whole lantern hanging happened (you know, two if by sea, one if by land),

                                     

and the USS Constitution. 

                              

These are more memorable than others because we actually took pictures.  It was a neat experience to walk through town between buildings and streets with such history though.  We took the ferry back to access the nearest subway station to get us back to the train to get us back to the hotel.  Jeremy posed with the Stanley Cup in the subway…. he likes to say this is the closest a Blue Jackets’ fan will get to one. :)

                       

I had a little emotional breakdown before supper from exhaustion, but recovered for a succulent supper of lobster and corn on the cob.  We turned in at a decent hour since our flight left at 7am the next morning. 

The flight back was uneventful; the drive to my parents’ tiring; the reunion with Madison – awesome!  Her reaction to seeing us was priceless and I wish we had video taped it, but I am sure it will stick with us.  She was not sure if she should cry or talk or run or stay or what.  It was great to see her again.  After all who wouldn’t want to come back to this (taken a few days before leaving, we looked at this sometimes when we were gone):