New England #1 - Map

After a week of walking, eating, and sightseeing (but mostly eating), we are home from New England. For years my family has been working on a goal of visiting all 50 states, and we hit six - Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine - in a week.

We flew into Boston on Friday and drove up to Rhode Island, where we spent two nights. We didn't do much sightseeing there - hung around in our hotel on the first day, went to some local food joints, saw the mansions in Newport (if you get a chance to go there, make sure to go off the beaten path and see the Breakers - the largest house in that area, built by the Vanderbuilts). On Sunday we drove to Connecticut and saw Mystic Seaport (not "mystical," it's an actual town called Mystic) and the Hartford houses of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. We continued to Vermont, where we stopped long enough to get gas and walk around the gas station (if we touch the ground there, we say we've been there) before heading to New Hampshire. Monday morning found us in Maine at a lobster house (the first time Austin and I ate lobster), and we were back in Boston by dinner.

Our sightseeing began on Tuesday in Lexington. We tried to go to the Isabelle Gardiner House (an incredible house in which the walls are covered with collected artwork) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house, which doubled as George Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War...but both were closed on Tuesdays. Frustrated, we drove back downtown to the Old North Church, where Robert Newman hung two lanterns to let Paul Revere know the British were coming by sea (remember the poem?). Behind the Old North Church is Hanover Street in the North End (Little Italy), where Mike's Pastry is located and sells canolis - a must when you hit Boston. After eating our canolis under a statue of Paul Revere, we walked across Boston Common to the Granary Burying Ground, the final resting place of Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and many other Sons of Liberty.

Foul weather on Boston Day #2, so we spent most of the day inside. Austin led us to the aquarium, and, being near the water already, we visited "Old Ironsides" (the USS Constitution, used in Revoluationary War battles against the British), saw the Boston Massacre sight at the Old State House, grabbed lunch at Quincy Market, took a "duck tour" of the city (a "duck" is a vehicle that can be driven on land and taken directly into the water as a boat), and saw Paul Revere's house in Little Italy. As we left the hotel the next morning, we found the weather to be much better and took a trolley tour of the city, as well as a two-hour cruise in Boston Harbor on a tallship. (Legit ship - ropes, sails, helm, whole nine yards. We were even able to "hoist the sails" with the crew members. Chan, Aus, and I decided that we had to watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" when we got home.) Incredible dinner in Little Italy that night to round out a great week (don't worry, I'm dedicating another whole post to the food).

I'm not one for big cities - NYC unnerves me, Chicago is nice but I don't think I could live there, San Francisco is more my speed if it didn't cost a small child to live there. But I think I could do Boston if I had to. A car is out of the question there: parking payments are outrageous, you probably wouldn't survive if you aren't a defensive driver, and an entire day can easily be wasted, even outside rush hour. The bus is a good option, the "T" (subway system) is even better. We all used an extra measure of flexibility and tolerance (and not to be claustrophobic, especially in public transportation). Overall, it was a great trip - learned a lot, saw a lot, gained a little more appreciation for the freedom that began in that very city (more to come on that as well).