I had booked a harbor cruise the month before, so we needed to be down at the pier by 10:30. We left the house with plenty of time to stop at a few sites along the way, much to my kids' dismay. Okay, I admit that it was cold and windy. But it wasn't THAT bad while we were in the cemeteries. I had been colder over the last few days. (Walking by the city building, with that big, open brick space? Holy cow, I thought Tess and I were going to blow away and freeze to death!) And also, I guess a cemetery is probably not high on the list of fun things to do in the mind of a kid.
But. I had felt I had been doing A LOT of things for the kids over the past couple of days, and all I was asking for was a measly few minutes at each spot.
Plus, I like really old cemeteries. I think they're interesting.
First we stopped at King's Chapel burying ground. Some of the kids perked up a little at how the headstones were tilted and such - it looks like something out of a movie. This headstone was from the 1600's!
This is the oldest cemetery in the city, and where Mary Chilton - the first woman to step off of the Mayflower - is buried. I thought that was really, really cool. Mary Chilton is cool! My kids did not agree. My kids are punks.
Then, because I love to torture my family and I love, love, love to hear them whine and complain, we stopped at the Granary Burying Ground, which has all sorts of famous people buried there. A guy at the front was handing out folders with the history and descriptions of the famous dead people in the cemetery; I have no idea what his affiliation to the cemetery is, but I figured it was worth the $1 donation I gave him at the end.
During our walk around the cemetery we talked about some of the people, who they were and what they did, what a Patriot was, and why they were important. I don't know how much my kids really listened, but I enjoyed it. Tess and Josh and Cole liked to look for the next grave and find the important names; Spencer played on his phone. Growl.
Here they are with John Hancock.
And here's Paul Revere. The kids were pretty interested in his story.
Actually, HERE'S Paul Revere - the other one is just a memorial.
And here's Samuel Adams...
... and victims of the Boston Massacre. I walked by the site of the massacre several times and never had a chance to go up close to see the circle thingy on the ground that shows where it happened. Dang.
We also saw the graves of Peter Faneuil (of Faneuil Hall fame), the big ol' monument and graves of Benjamin Franklin's parents (the man knew how to treat his parents!), James Otis (Patriot during the war), and Robert T. Paine (Declaration signer). I could have happily spent an hour there, reading all of their histories, but the kids would have none of it.
So we eventually made it down to the harbor and got onto our boat. Where snacks and electronics were promptly brought out. I was okay with the snacks, but not the electronics! We had paid a bit of money for this excursion! I won out for a bit, but not the entire trip. Dang.
The cruise took us around the harbor and out around some of the islands and up the Charles River a bit. We had some spectacular views! Although is was really cold out, and least it was clear.
Here's some old fort out on the edge of the harbor. I couldn't really hear our guide that well while I was out there. Our guide was an old Irish gentleman who had the most lovely, soothing voice ever. I loved it. I wished he talked more. No really, this was booked as a Boston History tour, but I didn't feel like I got a lot of history out of it. (I mean, I learned a lot, but I wanted more!) ((Queue Lance rolling his eyes at me and suggesting I go read a book. Maybe I will.))
As I said. Electronic. Gah! But rather than fight with them I just went outside and ignored them missing out on this cool tour.
After the cruise we headed over the Quincy Market for lunch, mainly because there's this famous Japanese restaurant that is only in Boston and New York, and I had wanted to go to it the day before but knew it'd be a bad idea with Tess, but also realized they had a location at the Market and while there we could get something for the kids as well. Score!
And what did my precious children choose to order? MACARONI AND CHEESE of course.
What the what!? I mean, seriously. Well, the boys each gobbled there's all up and Tess ate probably 1/3 of hers, and Spencer finished the rest, so I guess it was okay. But still.
We had to eat outside because there was just no room inside. Fortunately, the sun was out and we were protected from the wind in this spot!
While I waited for what felt like forever for the 4 orders of mac and cheese to be done (and I will say this - it was pretty dang good mac and cheese), Lance got our orders from Wagamama. We started with a couple of pork belly buns that were DIVINE. I didn't get a picture because they were too dang good. If I ever get a chance, I'm making a meal out of those, that's how good they were. I had the chicken ramen, and it was delicious! The perfect thing on a cold day in Boston! I know it sounds silly to eat Japanese food in Boston, but it really was awesome and I'd totally do it again if given the chance.
After we were all filled up, we hoofed it up to the Paul Revere house. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was about what you'd expect: dark rooms, lots of wood, old furniture, that sort of thing. They had a few original pieces of Revere furniture that were really quite pretty. Fun fact: when Paul Revere bought this house it was already 90 years old. Also fun fact: Paul Revere had two wives, and each wife had 8 kids. SIXTEEN KIDS. And 11 survived to adulthood. They said on average there were 5-9 kids living in that house, plus other relatives, at any given time. Crowded.
Final fun fact: all the heavy carbs eaten at lunch destroyed Josh; he could hardly function. And Tess fell down the stairs in the Paul Revere visitors center and I was outside and could hear her howling (with Lance) from inside. Fun times.
As we walked from the Revere house to the famous Revere statue, we stopped at a 7-Eleven on the way and got everyone a Slurpee. It was a wise move, and everyone brightened up after a good dose of sugar! (Or caffeine, in the case of my Diet Dr. Pepper!)
A nice girl took our picture in front of the statue, and while we look great it looks as if Paul has a horse head.
The kids thought it was pretty cool, too. Okay, maybe not cool, but funny. They were in good moods and got a kick out of this odd (to them) church.
It really was quite pretty inside.
Next, we went next door to some famous chocolate shop. Well, it called itself famous, I had never heard of it. We got to see how colonists made chocolate and what they used it for, and we got to taste some of their spiced drinking chocolate and it was SO GOOD. But not $22 good, which was the price of a canister of the stuff, the size of which would last approximately one morning in my house.
Okay, so for the past month I have been teasing Josh about the Great Molasses Flood. He had been trying to come up with a topic for History Fair and I wanted him to choose that, but he just wouldn't. Well, I secretly found out where the flood actually happened and learned there was a plaque there to commemorate it. And when I realized we were only .3 miles away from it, there was no way we were not going to visit.
I didn't tell him that's where we were going, so it was fun to watch his reaction when he figured it out. Hah!
This was right on the water, so it was pretty windy and cold, but the kids really wanted to play on the playground for a bit. Then Josh HAD to go to the bathroom RIGHT THEN. But the nearby public toilet was broken. So we started trekking back to the subway.
But, for most of that day I had seen people walking around with Mike's Pastry boxes. Like, lots and lots of people. And I got the feeling that Tess and I really missed out on something the day before when we popped in for that dang cookie. Since Mike's was on the way to the station we decided to stop in for some cannoli, which is what they're famous for.
REALLY famous for. The line was out the door! But a local kid who was in front of us told us it was worth the wait and that it wouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. So we decided to stay and wait and maybe find a bathroom for Josh. Only, once we got inside we discovered there were no public bathrooms. Dang it! So Lance was sent off with Josh, Tess, and Spencer to find a bathroom, while Cole and I waited to order our cannoli. The bakery had all sorts of fabulous looking desserts and pastries, and although it was super crowded it was also fun to watch everything that was going on. All the women who worked up front had heavy Italian accents, so I'm assuming that means it was all authentic, right?
We finally got our box of 6 cannoli and met up with the rest of the gang and headed home for a little rest before dinner. We actually didn't eat the cannoli until just before bed.
Tess didn't care for hers, but everyone else liked them. I had chocolate ricotta, and it was so yummy!
For dinner that night I found a place called The Back Deck. It wasn't too far off the beaten path, they had a decent kid menu, a great looking adult menu, and it didn't look like it would break the bank. It turned out to be really good! No pictures, but it was fun inside, decorated like we were on a deck, and we sat on nice patio furniture. And guess what - they didn't even have mac and cheese on the menu and no one died without it. Hah!
That night the kids were really wound up on the way home. They had fun running through the empty tunnels on our way down to the subway.
(A bit too wild - we had to keep getting after them while on the platform. My kids don't seem to have any idea that what they do impacts others, and that they need to have consideration and respect for others while out and about. I don't know how many times I had to say "WALK ON THE RIGHT" to those children as they basically made everyone walk around them. Tess almost ran an old lady into the road doing this. My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it. Gah! I'm gonna teach them this if it kills me. It is killing me. Oy.)
We got home, changed into jammies, finished a little packing, ate dessert, and then it was off to bed because we had a super early flight to catch the next morning.
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