Back from Boston

before we head to the beach this weekend I wanted to update my faithful two readers (MawMaw and Hallie) on the Boston adventure.
Since I was in Boston a full 7 days, I feel I can now make some general sterotypes and comments on the entire northern population. So here they are:
1. Turn signals are simply an accessory and do not serve a useful purpose.
2. The lines in the middle of the roads are also optional. If it looks like you can make the off ramp a three lane, by all means, go for it. Same principal on roundabouts. Just get on and spread out.
3. There is NOT a Walgreens on every corner, but there is a Dunkin Donuts on every corner. In fact at one point we saw two Dunkin Donuts across the street from each other- just makes it more handy when you are headed both into and out of the city- no need to turn across two lanes of traffic.
4. No sweet tea. I knew this going in, but come on, sugar after the fact is NOT sweet tea. I would have thrown the tea overboard too. You only think the settlers were mad about taxing, but the Boston Tea Party is a result of no sweet tea.
Those are my 4 comments on the overall trip, now to the details.

We got there Monday late afternoon and picked up our rental car, a nice blueish, purple Ford Focus. Although I have to say, not a bad car and AWESOME gas mileage, we are talking about 30 miles to the gallon! We headed to our hotel and found it without getting lost- whoohoo!
Tuesday morning we were up and at 'em pretty early as we planned to do the entire Freedom Trail that day. We took the hotel shuttle to the airport subway station and then rode that into the city. We had no trouble finding our way - red line to green line, or something like that. I grabbed my map and we were off. We got majority of the trail done before lunch, and stopped for lunch at Cheers 2 in Quincy Marketplace. Then it was a walk through the North End (little Italy) and over to Bunker Hill Monument. The monument is this tall tower thing that you can walk up and look out. They said 264 steps to the top. I didn't think it would be that bad, but after about 50 steps I was breathing hard- hello, out of shape! There is no air movement inside the tower and the staircase wasn't wide enought for two people which was fun when someone was coming down and you were going up. Once we FINALLY made it to the top, I just sat on the little bench while Nick took a few pictures, then it was back down. It had started raining while we were climbing, so we walked back to the harbor in the rain. The rain stopped just in time to take the ferry back to the city. Once back in the city since we finished the freedom trail and it was barely mid afternoon, we decided to get back on the subway and go find the flagship store for Life is Good. Life is Good was founded in Boston, so I was excited to see the store! After Life is Good, we sat in Boston Commons deciding where to eat. We decided on Ye Ole Seafood, which is the oldest eatery in the country. As we were walking back to the subway station, it started to POUR. We had to RUN to get to the station before the bottom fell out. We made it to the resturaunt semi dry, and I had my first offical bowl of New England Clam Chowder. I have to say I loved it! Now my shrimp, take it or leave it. We walked back to the subway station and back to the airport for our shuttle back to our hotel. I just knew my legs would be sore from all that walking and climbing, man was I right!
Stay tuned for Day Two highlights!