Boston/Cape Cod

We decided to take a big trip this year to celebrate Jason turning 40! So a few weeks ago we boarded a plane without kids and flew to Boston. It was a hard decision deciding where to go - site seeing or lounging on a beach? I've always wanted to visit the NE although I went to NY when I was 20. Jason has never been to the NE and we decided we wanted to have a site seeing trip and learn more about our Nation's history. We thought about DC and driving up the coast to NY and then Boston but thought that would be too much and we didn't want to leave the girls for too long so we settled on Boston with a side trip to Cape Cod for a week's vacation.

We can't thank my dad and Gail enough for taking the girls AND Kolby the whole week! Especially since the girls had colds and would cough and wake up every night. We took full advantage of not having the girls with us by staying up late and sleeping in, lounging around our B&B and having late breakfasts. Sooo nice.

We stayed in 4 different bed and breakfast's during our 6 night stay. All had their own charm and perks. But we were let down that none of them had their fireplaces running yet and it did get chilly at night.

Busiest fire station in Boston.

Riding the Duck. They have one of these land/water tours in Seattle too on an old army vehicle that drives and floats. Its a nice overview of the City.

We really enjoyed the food during the whole trip. Jason cut out sweets last spring but completely splurged on desserts and baked goods! I happily joined him. :-)

Our first 2 nights in Boston we stayed near an area called Back Bay. I can't believe we didn't get a picture of the strip. Its about a mile long street of renovated brownstones that have become home to elegant stores and restaurants. Many of the restaurants have outdoor seating out front along the street which reminded of us Italy. So fun to just walk up and down, brows and people watch.

Lunch time.

I liked seeing beautiful old churches like this Trinity Church still present amongst all the new buildings.

Thought this picture was cool with the historic church reflected on the massive John Hancock building.

Arlington St. Church

 After a day of touring the city we did the Sky Walk at the top of the Prudential Center at sunset. The view reminds me of the view of Seattle at the top of the Space Needle. You can walk all the way around the building for views of the entire city!

The Red Sox were playing at Fenway Park this night.

Look at all those brownstones.

Charles River

The largest building is the John Hancock building (same one as above).

Self serve breakfast at the B&B that we carried up 4 flights of stairs to our beautiful room!

After 2 nights in Boston we rented a car and headed south to Cape Cod but stopped midway at Plymouth for a day. Here we visited Plimoth Plantation where they've recreated life from the 17th century, 7 years after the Mayflower landed. It was really fascinating. There was a Wampanoag Homesite (native people) where staff were dressed in historic clothing and would answer questions about the history and culture of the Wampanoag people.

The native people slept in huts like this on fur skin beds around the perimeter with a fire in the middle

This girl was cooking duck stew.

There was a craft center where artisans use the tools, materials and craft techniques of the 1600s and create objects for the Wampanoag Homesite and English Village.

 Next we visited the 17th century English Village with was the most fascinating. I think a detailed description of what they've created is warranted so click here for more info on their website! If you are ever visiting near here I would recommend visiting the Plimoth Plantation.

 Our final stop in the town of Plymouth was Mayflower II which is a full scale reproduction of the Mayflower. We were very surprised how small it was given that it held 102 passengers, 30 crew, livestock, furniture and many supplies at sea for 10 weeks!

 After Plymouth we headed to the cape and spent the night in Chatham. After checking into our B&B we barely made it to the coast to see this beautiful sunset.

 The next day we visited the fish pier in Chatham but weren't lucky enough to see any boats unloading fish but there were several cute sea lions playing around.

We then drove up to the tip of Cape Cod for our 4th night at a really cute B&B in Provicetown. We knew nothing about this town before arriving and had we known we would have spent 2 nights here instead of only 1. We loved it! Upon arriving our GPS lead us on a local street, rather than the state route, so we drove right up on the way one street into the heart of the commercial district. It was 1-2 miles of shops and restaurants with so little traffic we felt like we shouldn't be driving on this street! We arrived on a Sunday and it was packed with tourists because there are several ferry boats running from Boston. What we learned early upon our arrival is that "Ptown" is a main destination for gay and lesbians living and visiting here. This sure added character to Ptown!

Here is our B&B (Jason reading out front in the courtyard) in front of our room with the huge windows on the main level and the only view that looks across the street to the break in buildings to the gorgeous view of the sea. The gay :-) owners said this room was the best in the house!

I remember laying in the very comfortable bed our only morning at this B&B looking through our windows out to this view with the early morning sun glistening on the water making it look like a thousand sparkling diamonds. I took a picture but it was just too bright. We thought this B&B was perfect with the courtyard on the strip - for people watching, and the view of the water.

I had yet to eat lobster on this trip so we went to the Lobster Pot. Jason is pretty turned off by most crustaceans so he didn't partake. I've always loved crab, especially when living near Seattle, but thought lobster must be really good on the cape and I can only say that it was okay, I still like crab better. But my meal came with clams that I really enjoyed.

Jason really wanted to take his mind off of work on this trip so in between site seeing, shopping and eating he read and read - 4 books in all! I read too and we both finished the Hunger Games trilogy - loved it! 

This is the view from the deck of the Lobster Pot restaurant.  Gorgeous cape cod sandy beaches but too cold to play in the water.

The pier in Ptown, I think this is where the Boston ferries dock.

 We caught another beautiful sunset in Ptown.

"Moon 'buh bye'" as Skylar would say. 

We had a wonderful dinner in Ptown recommended by our B&B host. It was at an Inn quite a walk away in the other direction of the commercial area (I only mention this because we shopped a lot and didn't anticipate the restaurant to be so far away so we had a nice speed walk in the dark to arrive a few minutes past our reservation). The restaurant had just underwent a million dollar renovation and it was fabulous!

The next day we spent half the day lounging around Ptown some more then drove back to Boston for our last 2 nights spent in the Beacon Hill area.  We just wandered around that evening and enjoyed walking amongst more brownstones with gas lamp lined streets. We saw some real estate ads and were shocked at the prices! Most were for rent but one unit for sale was a mere 260 SF with a 150 SF patio and space for a small car, asking price $199,000!! That's insane! That's like the size of my bedroom for $200k. The others for rent were a minimum of $2400/mo up to $3500/mo mostly for a 1 bedroom unit and $200/month dues on top of that! We really didn't see many kids around Boston and with the units being so small they are obviously for people without kids but I can't see how there are really that many people who can afford these units when there were so many! Real estate is so drastically different in big cities.

Gas lamps

Pretty funny street performer.

The next day was Jason's birthday and our last full day in Boston. We walked the Freedom trail with the first mile led by... 

this guy. He did a great job explaining more about the history and we learned a lot!

Massachusetts State House - dome plated in 24 karat gold.

Boston Common - first public park in the US.

Old Granary Burial Ground where Paul Revere and John Hancock are buried. We learned there are actually 10,000 people buried here and only a few of the marked headstones are accurate. Apparently a long time ago this cemetery flooded and the headstones were washed to the end so the grounds keeper would just put them back where ever!

Other things we saw on the walk was the location of the first public school in the US where Ben Franklin attended, the location of the Boston Massacre (apparently only 5 people died - not quiet a massacre), they are buried in the cemetery above, the Old City Hall, State House and Meeting House where the Boston Tea Party meeting was held. We learned about the very religious Puritans who established many of these landmarks.

After our guided tour we continued on the walk which led us to this holocaust memorial. The glass panes are etched with a unique number for each person who died. As you walk through the several columns there are quotes from survivors, some bring tears.

Along the walk we were told to visit Mike's Pastry's and get a cannoli. Never had one before - many many to choose from and very packed with customers so it must be good! We tried an espresso and caramel hazelnut. Good but dense. They must have weighed a pound each! I didn't finish mine.

Statue of Paul Revere with the Old North Church steeple in the background where lanterns were hung to signal Paul Revere the British were coming.

Eating the canoli

Inside the Old North Church.

I thought these boxes were really interesting. These were customary in English churches and they had to be bought, the inside ones more expensive to be further away from drafts in the unheated church. Families would bring hot bricks or rocks and put them on the floor in the box.

Continuing on the Freedom trail across the Charlestown Bridge. Notice the red painted line? The entire 3.5 miles of the trail is delineated with a red painted line or red bricks.

Arriving at the location of Old Ironsides (notice the red brick trail in this photo).

The USS Constituion is the oldest floating warship in the world! This ship was about double the size of the Mayflower and in extremely excellent condition.

So many canons - about 50!

Next to Old Ironsides is the Charlestown Navy Yard and the oldest dry dock.

 We then walked back to Quincy Market to rest our feet after a long day. I enjoyed an appetizer of the most delicious mussels I've ever had while Jason's stomach knotted with disgust. :-)

Birthday boy wanted a little down time back in our room to read so I head out and treated myself to a mani and pedi! Then we went out for dinner but every restaurant around us was packed! We finally found a little basement Italian restaurant that was full but no wait so we took our chances and had a great meal. Our waitress even sang happy birthday to Jason and we enjoyed tiramisu for dessert.

Entrance to our Beacon Hill B&B.

More reading for the birthday boy on this super comfortable bed!

Our flight out the next day wasn't until 5:30 pm so we lounged around that morning and had a late checkout. Then we strolled through the beautiful Public Gardens next to Boston Commons.

We tried to visit the library earlier in our trip but it closed at 5 pm the day we tried to see it. So we walked over to check it out and read some more. The inside was something like you'd see in Italy, wow!

Inside the square shaped library was this beautiful courtyard where we spent a few hours reading before we caught the subway back to the airport.

This trip was such a great experience in so many ways - learning more about our nation's history, seeing new places and people (noticing the absence of west coast trends like decorative back pockets on jeans), culinary decadence, uniqueness of B&Bs, freedom to do anything at anytime, i.e. no kids (although we did miss them) and spending time together. This was our first vacation without kids since we've had them. Our last trip kid free was Italy 5 years ago. We hope to take a kid free vacation every year - that is if my parents are up for the task again!