Boston, Finally!

So, we went to Boston over the 4th of July. Which, was a long time ago. However, after we went, we had visitors through July, went home for a week, and just in general, I was busy. And just kind of hate editing photos. I like taking them, it's the whole post processing that I just really could do without. Hence, it took me 800 years to get through these photos.

Anyway, so, Boston.

Alex and I went over the 4th as kind of a fun belated anniversary gift to ourselves and had a great time. We took the Bolt Bus from New York, which was highly awesome. Clean, efficient, on time, and wi-fi the whole way. So much easier then flying even actually as there's no hassle of getting the airport and such.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and found our hotel right by Boston Common. Our room was huge and had a balcony with a nice view of the city.



We spent most of Friday wandering through the park, made our way down to the water and walking along admiring the boats and enjoying the view. We made sure to stop for some New England clam chowder and a brew and had a overall relaxing time.













That night we had reservations at a place called Ten Tables a little ways out from central Boston, but easy to reach on the T. As an aside, why does every single city manage to have a clean subway system aside from NYC? I really will never understand. Ten Tables was fantastic. It was adorable little bistro, with literally only 10 tables. All the food they use was locally grown and all their meat is local, pasture raised and certified cruelty free. We also had a bottle of Portuguese wine which I'd never had before which was mighty tasty. After dinner the waiter also brought us two glasses of Port on the house. I usually am not a big fan of the stuff, but this was really nice and not too strong like others I've had.

Saturday we spent most the morning and afternoon walking along the Freedom Trail, it was the 4th of July after all, and seeing all the history Boston has to offer. I'm not big on this stuff usually, but I had fun walking around the city.













And walk we did. At the end we decided we were going to climb to the top of this monument, and we got halfway up before realizing the line was too long. After climbing back down, both Alex and realized we literally couldn't walk anymore. Our quads had cramped up something awful. Shoot.


The monument that caused the pain...

After that we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before the fireworks. We knew we had to get to the promenade early, but there were approximately 1 million people there when we arrived around 6, and the people just kept coming! We got lucky and managed to snag a spot on the grass, but I haven't seen that many people in one place in quite some time. We brought books and enjoyed the people watching until the music started later that evening.



Now, overall, the fireworks themselves were great. One of the longest fireworks displays I've ever seen. However, the other part of the show was awful! Not only were there several commercial breaks, but the Boston Pops didn't even play during the fireworks! They played awful pre-recorded country music instead! Not even good country music, in addition to other random selections like Grease Lightning. What? Alex and I were very confused. Oh well.

They still made for some pretty photos though, even if I had no tripod.








On Sunday we went over to Cambridge and enjoyed the campuses of Harvard and MIT, and then strolled back along the river.