We're BACK From New England!

Yep, we finally did it!  Did the whole New England vacation in the Autumn!  Tony and I have ALWAYS wanted to do this and we finally just decided this was the year.  I'll say at the outset, it was BEAUTIFUL - just as BEAUTIFUL as I ever thought it would be!  "THEY" said it was a bit past peak foliage, and maybe it was in the northern regions, but the further south we got, the more color we saw.  And yes, some of the shops, restaurants and B&B's were closed for the season, but there were still plenty of places to shop, and places to eat, and places to stay.  Also, it meant less crowds of people to fight!  We decided it probably the ideal time for US to go to New England.  I will have to break this trip into several posts I imagine - just too long and lots of pics. I'm re-living our trip as I post.

We flew into Boston and stayed two days there.  Found a lovely hotel, Boston Park Plaza, smack dab in the middle of town and we could walk practically everywhere.  We parked our rent car and didn't pick it up until we got ready to continue onto the next leg of the journey.  Let's start with a few pics, how 'bout?

Walked thru the park on our way to Boston Commons area where the "Freedom Trail" started.  About 2 miles of really cool historical sites in our country's fight for freedom!  SOOO interesting - my husband loves history and he did some reading about this before our trip.

I see some Monet-ish paintings here, don't you?

Swans and ducks here at the park!  We got our first taste of Boston accents here at the park - we talked (rather listened) to a very friendly and informative Park employee here!  

The Park guy even offered to take our picture together!

This was a beautiful building - the State House.

Next up, we went through several burial grounds of past patriots along the Freedom Trail.  Very humbling experience to think that these folks were alive back then - some of them fought and died in the quest for freedom.

A monument for Paula Revere - this was cool!

I didn't know Samuel Adams was a patriot, but I also didn't realize he is the Samuel Adams they named the beer after!

Along the trail - I forgot the name of this church. I think this was the church where George Washington actually sat in one of the finer booths.  They used to warm the church boxes for the families with little containers of hot coals.  The boxes look quite cozy! The more money you had and the more you gave the church, the better location your family box was!

We saw and heard quite a few different street musicians in Boston.  This fellow had some really nice Latin-sounding music.  He was quite good!

Tony wanted a picture of this vendor cart.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.  :)

Quincy Market - a bustling, busy place with lots of shops, food vendors, restaurants, street musicians, etc. I would have loved to spend a little more time here - best done with another woman, I'm sure!

  

This place was pretty cool - CHEERS bar & grill - we had some huge hamburgers with swiss cheese and mushrooms.  Couldn't eat all mine they were so big.  The downstairs bar, we read, inspired the show, "Cheers".  I never was a fan, but I know folks that were.

Tony and I just loved Boston.  I had no idea that we would enjoy it so much!

This stop on the Freedom Trail was SO interesting - Paul Revere's house - It was very interesting inside - all that old period furniture, smaller people back then you know...

You know, Boston reminded us a bit of San Francisco in that there were definite areas of town that were designated as Little Italy and Chinatown.  Perhaps all big cities have that, but there were definitely even different building styles and decor - you could tell when you were in a different area... 

A monument to Paul Revere here at Quincy Market.

There were lots of places you could take pictures of Boston Harbor, but this is where we walked over the bridge to see the USS Constitution.  We also avoided an ANTI-Romney demonstration in this area.  We were the minority here and we did not linger!  They had on T-shirts all alike and were chanting and yelling and carrying signs bashing Romney/Paul and very pro- Obama!

THIS was so interesting - the USS Constitution - "Old Ironsides".  They were renovating this lady and will be launching it next summer again (I think that's what we were told).

Our feet were hurting after the 2 mile walk, and we luckily found the bus back to our hotel area.  They let us off at the Boston Commons area and we were able to cut thru the park again.  Made my feet quit hurting! Just look how beautiful it is!  Lots of people enjoying this beautiful park. I can imagine how lovely it must be in the winter with snow on it!

Just around the corner from our hotel was Maggiano's Italian restaurant.  It was delicious after a long day of sight-seeing and walking the streets of Boston.  They treated us right, we dined like kings and stuffed ourselves full of pasta and shrimp.  A great place with tablecloths.  We got to sit in a little booth, kind of a "C" shaped with our backs to the wall so we could sit together.  Felt like we should see the M*fia come in at any minute. Who knows?  Maybe they were there!  It was fabulous - nice and slow - I hate when they are rushing you to hurry and eat.  I love to just take our time and enjoy the atmosphere, linger over our food and talk without thinking about work and problems at home.  We had a great day!

Tomorrow, we would head to the Boston Museum of Art! Thanks for hanging with me!  See you soon!

PS -  Got to meet up with a blogging buddy - more to come!