Boston was about 45 minutes from our campsite, so we got going about 10. We decided to drive into Boston and park at Boston Commons parking garage. I had seen online that this was a relatively inexpensive place to park and it was pretty centrally located for tourists. We talked about taking the train into the city, but we couldn't figure out how much it would cost, so we decided to be brave and drive in.
We made it to Boston, but we couldn't exactly find the parking garage. Our GPS wouldn't recognize the exact address, so I made up an address that was very close to the garage address and tried that, but unfortunately that didn't work either! I ended up finding the exact address on my phone and getting there that way! But while we were driving in circles, I can see why people don't drive in Boston. The streets are narrow, buildings are 3-4 stories high, and people stop in the middle of the street! It was crazy! You even had semi-trucks along these narrow roads! It really reminded me of when Matt and I were in Paris, France on our honeymoon!
Once we got to the garage, we pulled in and parked the truck! We were going to be on our feet for the rest of the day. We were smart this time though and brought Christian's stroller!
This was our view we came up out of the parking garage- Boston Commons and the Boston skyline!
It was so neat for me to just walk through Boston Commons- this is the oldest "common" area in the country and many important things happened here! It was originally used for cattle grazing, but when the country was fighting the Revoluationary War, the British soldiers camped here and even killed people here! Yikes! It is just a very important part of Boston's history! This picture shows just a tiny portion of the park too, it was huge and and very beautiful!
While we were driving in circles, we had spotted the visitor's center, we knew that would be a great place to stop. I also knew that there were some tours that were leaving at 12 that I thought would be neat to be a part of. They were put on by the national park rangers and were free. (Most of the historical places in Boston are ran by the National Park services.) Since I didn't quite know where everything was yet, I thought we should stop by the visitor's center and get some maps and get orienated.
Little did I know how rude the people in the visitor's center were that day! It was extremely crowded and when I asked her where something was, she treated me like I actually knew where I was going! HA! I didn't have the slightest idea where I was going! I got a few maps and a few handouts and went back out to Matt. I did find out thought that the tour I wanted to get on did not leave from there, but rather from a building about 6 blocks away, so off we went.
Of course we got lost on the way to this certain building and by the time we got there, the tour had already left. :( I was a little frustrated! There were people all over the place, I didn't know where I was going, and none of us could really agree where we should start! There were so many historical palces to see, but do we take a free tour, a tour that costs, a self-guided tour, what should we do?? Do we try to see all of them in a day? How in the world am I supposed to see things with ALL these people around?? AHHH!!!
This second building that we were at also had a visitor's center, so I went and said, "I'm a little over-whelmed right now, can you help me??" The first thing the lady said was, "Take a breath, it will be ok." I'm sure she has seen others like me before. :) I told her that there was so much to do and I just needed a plan and a kid-friendly one too! She mentioned that the tour had already left, but there would be another one in an hour. She also mentioned that if I had a smart phone, I could do an audio tour of the sites and lastly, she showed us a packet that was made just for kids. By doing this packet, the kids needed to visit five sites in that area of town and fill out questions and draw some pictures. When they were done with the packet, they could return it to this same desk and they would get a badge that said, "Junior National Park Ranger-Boston." I listened to all her suggestions and also asked where we could get some lunch. It was already 12:30 and we were all hungry.
These very nice ladies said there was a place right behind the building from where were called Quincy's Place and it was a sort of a food court. The food establishments were inside, but there was general seating outside and in a common area. Before we decided what to do, we went inside to find something to eat.
Again, I was ready to pull my hair out! There were people from wall to wall and hustling back and forth and it was hard to keep up. If you know me, you know that we have certain diets we need to stick to and eating out is very hard, so I need time to look at the menu and figure things out! If I stopped, I was going to get run over! I eventually found a taco place and they were very nice and were able to cater to my diet. Megan ended up getting a $5 bacon burger and Courtney and Christian each got $5 corndogs at other places. Matt found fish and chips. Once we got our food, we needed to find a place to sit down, which was close to impossible. They did have these counters that you could stand up and eat your food, so that is what we did.
Here we are trying to eat lunch. I just sat Christian on the counter and let him eat his corndog, Megan stood, and we found a stool for Courtney to stand on. Matt and I also stood. Soon, two other ladies came and ate their lunch across from us. They were also visiting Boston, so we chatted about what we should/ should not see and just had a nice conversation. It was here that I was texting my brother about how crazy Boston was at the moment!
After we finished, we all hit the restrooms and then sat down on a bench outside to make a plan. I still didn't know where to start and it was driving me nuts! After talking to Matt and the kids about it, we decided that we would help the kids do their Junior Ranger packets and help them earn their badges. It would be a great kid-friendly way to see the sites and they were excited to do them too!
So off we went to find our first stop- the Old South Meeting House!
Its exciting following your travels, especially while you are MA! We were there a four years ago and went to Plymouth and Cape Cod. We didn't make it to Boston, but not because Ryan didn't try. We had similar issues of do we drive, take train, pay for a tour, etc, and just never made it. We went to some other places, one that stands out was a paper mill that made (or makes?) the paper for the US currency, but I don't remember where that was. The east coast (especially northern) is so much different than what we are used to because of the history, it is so cool. We stayed near Stockbridge, MA because I remember we weren't far from the Norman Rockwell museum, but can't quite remember where. How far south are you going? There is definitely some neat historical places in VA, which we discovered last year while visiting Ryan's brother. ~Denise
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