Tourists in Beantown

We started our journey in Boston after an all-night flight (the boys slept the whole way - yeah!). We spent the first day wandering around, taking in the sights (and looking for restrooms suitable for use by a five year old).

The minuteman talking on his cell phone pretty much sums up my impression of Boston - a juxtaposition of the old with the new. Maybe it's because I've always lived on the west coast, where we see little that's been around for more than 100 years. For some reason, I didn't expect it to be so metropolitan. I was thinking more Brownstone and less skyscraper. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful city.

We checked out the New England Aquarium. The boys certainly enjoyed all the different fish. Ben was a big fan of the ray touch pool. Ry & Tippy, not so much.

On our second day, we got smarter and took the trolley tour. We were able to get on and off all over Boston, which was really great. And, there was a terrific breeze when the trolley was moving. Most excellent. We had varying degrees of success with the guides. Billy was incredibly informative and obviously proud of his city. I suppose it helped that he was a 6th grade history teacher. Just so you know (Billy would want me to tell you), Sam Adams had nothing to do with beer.

We didn't have as much luck with the old guy at the end of the day. He'd start to tell us something and then seem to forget what he was saying. While entertaining, I'm not sure I picked up a lot from him. Here's Tippy's Pat on the trolley.

Ben got to sample his first lobster at Legal Seafoods. While good, it was nothing like what we'd devour in Maine (thank you Courtney). Just for the record, Ry says, "No me like lobster."

Boston, as part of the Big Dig, where a billion dollars has gone missing (what kind of accounting is that?), installed a really pretty cable-stayed bridge, which of course made Travis all bridge happy. Ry got into the spirit of it too, and would comment, often, "Look at that bridge!" It didn't really matter what bridge we were seeing, he liked them all. Anyway, I tried to get a couple of shots for Travis. We'll stick with the post card.

Somehow, we saved room in the schedule (and our bellies) for a trip to Little Italy. You can see Paul Revere's house here. He was a busy guy - ended up with 16 kids. I have a theory about what did in the first wife. Anyway, definitely glad we fit it in - although fitting into anything after our trip to Mike's was a bit challenging. So, so good! Tiramisu in a cup? Brilliant! Cannoli's in every flavor under the sun? Good thinking! Unfortunately, we were all so busy eating, I forgot to take any pictures. I did, however, get a picture of this sign, which for some reason I find terribly amusing.

We saw MIT and the Berklee College of Music, but didn't quite make it all the way to Harvard. Oh well. Maybe we'll visit the boys there someday.