Recently we were sitting around here in Ithaca and saying to ourselves, “The foliage here in Ithaca may be adequate, but I’m not sure it’s spectacular.” So we thought, “Where can we go to find truly spectacular foliage?” We may have been stumped forever, but, fortunately for us, our trusty AAA magazine had the answer: Boston (area)!
We piled into our Buick, and headed Eastward to Beantown, excited for a few days of fish soups, creamy desserts, and hackneyed accents.
Our first stop was Harvard University.
The campus was very nice, and it reminded us quite a bit of Cornell. We wandered about the Law Quad (it may not actually be called that) for awhile – as that’s the sort of thing that interests Jonathan – and Lincoln had fun running about and climbing the stairs.
The next day we wandered into Boston proper and enjoyed a Duck Tour of the city.
After the Duck Tour, we headed across Beacon Hill (the posh neighborhood) to the Back Bay (the formerly-underwater neighborhood). On the way, we passed through the lovely Boston Public Gardens.
We walked by the new (and old) John Hancock towers and settled down in Copley Square for a nice lunch between Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library. In addition, we took photographs (see below) of scary humanity-loving preachers outside the Church, and took a brief detour into the library.
Lincoln just couldn’t resist playing on the muddy grass (yes, that’s mud you’re seeing) and naturally sat down just before Hillary could catch him. As a result, we spent the next little while finding some appropriate replacement pants.
Oddly enough, we settled on a green adidas track suit.
Finally, we got to the Freedom trail and began our Freedom journey. First we stopped at a cemetery where several illustrious American patriots were buried, including John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and Tony Eason.
Being in Boston, we naturally enjoyed some Boston Creme Pie from the Parker House (the pie’s ostensible creator).
Further along the trail we saw, among other places, the old state house (site of the Boston Massacre) and Faneuil Hall (site of important events that we don’t remember). We also explored the markets behind Faneuil Hall and enjoyed some delicious New England clam chowder for dinner.
The next day, we decided to head out to Salem to see some witches (and foliage).
Salem was actually a charming little town, and we enjoyed a few hours there visiting graveyards, memorials, witch museums, and statues of Natty Hawthorne.
“Live long and prosper, muggles!”
Wait, you may be saying, what about famous Boston sites such as the Old North Church? Fear not, we returned to Boston later that day and continued our Freedom journey (Mel Gibson would have been so proud!). Lincoln had fun following the red brick line as we visited Paul Revere’s home, the Old North Church, and the U.S.S. Constitution.
We also ran into Mike’s Pastry along the way. Although we had never heard of the place (and our internet research had failed to mention it), we continuously ran into people carrying ‘Mike’s Pastry’ boxes, as well as others begging for directions to Mike’s Pastry. After stumbling upon the shop by happenstance, we decided it was worth a visit. It was.
We had a blast in Boston, but our brief vacation was sadly at an end. The next day, we made the somewhat long trek back to Ithaca where, it turns out, the foliage was just as good.
