A Beagle and A Baby: Massachusetts Day 2

Day two of my trip was spent completely in Boston.

I got up, got ready, took a very cheap Uber to North Station and met up with Cathy who brought a bus from New Hampshire into the city. Then we walked through the North End headed for brunch. I love the North End. If I am ever so lucky to live in Boston, even for just a summer, I would like to live in the North End. I also love brunch. So it was a nice morning,

This is where we went. I got this from Google images. I'm laughing that this picture is out there on the internet with the garbage can in the front.

Here's a prettier shot.

I did not take this picture, but it's similar to what I had. This is from a yelp review for the restaurant. I think it's a lobster benedict. I had a crab cake benedict. It was an absolute delight. I also had a delicious iced coffee. Why is it so hard to get a decent iced coffee at a restaurant?

After brunch we walked down to the aquarium which is where we boarded our boat for a harbor cruise.

This is the actual boat.

I told Cathy that if I were to be quizzed on the tour information at the end of the cruise, I would fail it. I was listening, but we were mostly just enjoying being together and chatting and the scenery. The actual information was a bit secondary. So with that in mind, I'm not going to label all the pictures. Because I don't remember all of them.

I do believe this is the oldest continually open restaurant in Boston.

I texted this to Nick and asked if it was a familiar site since he's worked on so many container ships. He wasn't amused.

I believe this is the island that was made out of garbage and it once caught on fire and burned for 10 years.

Windy much?

This is a hotel and they had to stop lighting the faux lighthouse because it was causing boats in the harbor to crash.

The marker for Bunker Hill. Did you know the Battle at Bunker Hill did not actually occur at Bunker Hill? It was at Breed's Hill.

One of the most interesting things we learned on the tour was about the Boston Massacre. Of course I have known what the Boston Massacre was since I was a kid and learned about it in school, but I did not know, or I had forgotten, this little nugget of trivia. I told Cathy that I was going to share this information on the blog and I'm not one to lie, so here goes. This is the one minute version.

The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts.

It was really poor timing that while the colonists were arguing with the troops on that day, an actual fire broke out in the streets. Someone yelled "FIRE" and the troops, confused by the chaos, opened fire on the crowd. Although it wasn't called this from the beginning, we in America call this incident "The Boston Massacre". The British refer to it as "The Unfortunate Incident on King Street".

Different perspectives. Fascinating.

I also checked this on several websites and it's maybe not entirely accurate, but this is how they told it on the tour, so I'm sticking to it.

After the boat cruise we walked over to Quincy Market to get a little lunch. We both had a bowl of clam chowder. Then we wandered through Quincy Market and looked at trinkets and souvenirs.

We spent a lot of time in my favorite Quincy Market Store: Christmas in Boston. I told Cathy not to let me buy anything because the last thing I need is another Boston tree ornament. I was tempted, but for the first time ever I left without buying anything.

(I took none of these pictures.)

The inside. It's two stories and like 20,000 square feet of ornaments.

We were leaving the market when I saw that since the last time I was there they have opened a Neuhaus. I have never seen a Neuhaus outside of Belgium, but apparently they have several on the East Coast. You know. Where I don't live. I made Cathy go in with me and I bought us each a truffle.

This is $4+ dollars of chocolate. Neuhaus is pricey, but oh so tasty.

We still had some time before meeting the rest of our friends, so we decided to walk part of the Freedom Trail.

Random

I've never been in the Paul Revere House. No pictures were allowed inside.

It was an interesting little tour. Did you know he had 16 kids with two wives? I didn't.

I've been inside the North church before, which is good because we got there right after it closed for the day.

We walked up the hill to the Copp's Hill Burying Ground. These old cemeteries freak me out. There is no way they're not haunted.

I wanted to go to the North Church because way back in 2005 I bought a sweatshirt at a store across the street and it has been the best sweatshirt EVER. I wear it all the time and it has held up beautifully. It still looks new, even after close to 11 years. I was going to totally buy another one from the same store.

We found it!

Oh. Knife in the heart.

After that disappointment we headed to the restaurant to meet the rest of our friends for dinner.

Left to right- Megan, Chris, me and Cathy. We all lived in the same dorm at the University of New Hampshire in 1999. Megan was my roommate. Nicole (on the right) is Chris's friend. I met her at Cathy's wedding two years ago.

Dinner was fantastic. I had a pumpkin ravioli.

Then we walked next door to Modern Bakery to pick up treats. We all left with a box to take home.

With our treat boxes in hand Cathy and I walked back to North Station. She headed back to New Hampshire and I met up with Shauna so we could head back to her house.

She was kind enough to share this scrumptiousness with me so I didn't die of sugar and alcohol poisoning. The one on the left was tiramisu and the one on the right was rum cream cake. They were both BOOZY.