Boston Travel Guide – Part One

You guys!!  I am SO excited to share this Boston Travel Guide with you!!  I was only in Boston for a few days, but I tried to experience as much of Boston as I could, during my short time there.  So this is kind of a travel guide and re-cap of my trip.  I am sharing part one with you today, which is all about where we stayed and what we did during our time in Boston!  Get ready to see all the cool places I went to in Boston and tons of pictures of course! 😉

WHERE TO STAY AND WHAT TO DO IN BOSTON

I am a serious lover of history…but I don’t want to bore you with historical facts about each and every place I visited while I was in Boston.  If you want to learn more about any of the sites I visited, just click on the links!!

DAY #1:

Day one started with Wendy picking me up at 5:00 AM to head to the airport.  We flew out of San Francisco International Airport on Virgin Airlines.  Here’s my plane ticket (made for me by my 3-year old niece, Miss G) 🙂  Don’t worry…I had a real plane ticket too hahaha.

This was a work trip for Wendy, and I was just tagging along.  Wendy gave me her airline points, so my round trip plane ticket to Boston only cost me $170!  Can you see why I couldn’t pass down this quick trip to Boston?!  I was super excited for out trip too, especially because it was rare time I would get alone with just my sister.  She is a busy, busy girl…always working!

Wendy is the airport master…she probably flies once a week on business trips.  So I already knew to make sure to pack everything into a bag I could carry-on.  Wendy does not waste time at the baggage claim hahaha.  Oh and Wendy had no idea I took that picture of her working away while we waited for our flight 😉

Virgin Airlines has these awesome interactive maps on the television screens on the back of the seats in front of you.  It shows you all the flight information, and then you could switch it to the map and airplane mode, to see where the plane was currently flying over.  Great for those asking, “Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?  Are we there yet??”  You can also order your free in-flight beverages, meals, entertainment, etc all from the mini television screens.

Our flight left on time and landed on time, and was an all around awesome flight.  We landed in Boston at 5:45 PM local time.  We quickly jumped on the bus to the rental car area, grabbed our rental car and headed to our hotel!

Wendy booked the Bostonian Hotel, which was conveniently located near The North End and Boston Harbor.  Our room had two standard sized beds, a mini fridge, a Keurig (important!) and a good sized bathroom.  This is a picture of the front of our hotel.  It was right across the street from Faneuil Hall too!  Our hotel was great.  Soft beds, friendly staff, clean rooms!  I would definitely recommend this hotel 🙂

The Bostonian Boston – 26 North Street, Boston MA

After dinner (all the yummy food will be in part two of my travel guide!!!!), we stopped by The New England Holocaust Memorial on our walk back to the hotel.  It was dark out, which made it quite ominous, with the smoke rising from the bottom of the chambers.  The smoke is a reminder of all the horrors that occurred at the death camps during World War II.

We only stopped at the memorial for a few minutes, so I ended up going back in the daytime on day #3 to look at all the inscriptions.  The Holocaust Memorial is an amazing memorial, rich in history, that you definitely need to check out.  It is somber, but somber for good reason.

New England Holocaust Memorial – 98 Union Street, Boston MA

BED TIME!!

DAY #2:

My second day in Boston was all about shopping and checking out some historical sites.  I took the “T” to Newbury Street, where all the shopping is!  The T is like the subway, and has stops ALL over the city.  To me it was kind of confusing, but I got to where I needed to go 😉

The T kind of reminded me of B.A.R.T. back home!

I shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped.  And bought…NOTHING!  Hahaha.  But, there was some serious contemplation going on at Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

It was neat to see the old architecture mixed in with the modern day buildings.

After I was done with shopping, and not buying anything, it was getting late so I met up with Wendy.  We headed over to Boston Common, which is America’s oldest park and the beginning of the Freedom Trail.

Sooooo…notice anything that looks similar in this picture (well besides me and Wendy)?  Yeah…I inadvertently bought the same Sorel boots Wendy had.  So we were both walking around with matching furry boots.  Don’t think we didn’t get a ton of sideways looks and comments.  Hahaha….my response?  “We are from California.”  Nuff said.

Wendy and I walked a portion of the Freedom Trail and stopped to take pictures of the Massachusetts State House and statues of some historical figures.  I seriously love all the history in Boston!  I love how old everything is too.

After what seemed like ten miles of walking, Wendy and I caught the T back to our hotel.  Wendy had a work dinner and meeting in nearby Worcester that night, so Wendy headed back to work, right after we got back to the hotel (I told you she works a lot!).  I was TIRED after a long day of walking, shopping and being a tourist.  I might have gone to bed at 8:30 PM.  Shhhhh 😉

BED TIME!

DAY #3

I would be lying if I said Wendy works from sun up to sun down.  Wendy works from the time her eyelids fly open at 4:00 AM, until she sends that last email before turning out the light for bed, at 10:00 PM.  So on our last day, Wendy was up and off to work early.  I slept in.  I justified sleeping in with the fact that nothing touristy opened until 10:00 AM 😉

It was a little rainy and drizzly on my last day in Boston, so I decided to stick close to the hotel and go check out Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market (full of food vendors….more in part two!).  Faneuil Hall is where they used to hold town meetings back in the day!

I checked out the “replica” Cheer’s Bar (the original is in the Beacon Hill neighborhood), which was next to Quincy Market.  I hit the Cheer’s gift shop too 😉

Off walking I went…and found this guy:

Oooooh then I was super excited about stumbling upon this statue while I was out walking!  This Paul Revere statue is iconic!  So awesome!!!

I was so in awe of the New England Holocaust Memorial that Wendy and I stopped by briefly on the first night we were in Boston, so I went back to read the inscriptions and check out the entire memorial.  If you go to Boston, this is a must-go place.  It is free to check out and very humbling…I have chills now just writing about it.  The six towers each represent one of the six main death camps, and the millions of Jews killed, during the Holocaust.  The glass walls on the towers are etched with millions of numbers, symbolizing the infamous tattoos inflicted on the arms of the victims.

One of the most infamous death camps…

Across the street from the memorial is the Boston Public Market….a must go if you are a foodie.  It is an indoor market housing more than forty local farmers, fishers and entrepreneurs.  You can buy everything from pastries, meats, flowers, honey, vegetables, etc and the market has a variety of lunch options, with something for everyone.  If you have ever been to the Ferry Building in San Francisco, the Boston Public Market is reminiscent of that!

After all that walking and picture taking, I ducked into one of the thousand Dunkin’ Donuts in Boston, for a cup of coffee while I waited for Wendy to finish up at work.  Wendy and I headed to the airport around 5:00 PM and then got on our plane back to California!  Another great flight….no delays and we got back to San Francisco a little after 10:00 PM.

Boston was amazing!  If you ever get the opportunity to go, you definitely should.  Hopefully if you are going to Boston, this little guide will give you some ideas on what to check out.  And I have to say….the people in Boston were SO NICE!  I loved my short visit to Boston and can’t wait to go back.  I still have so much to see!!

I know y’all really want to hear about the food though….so stay tuned for Boston Travel Guide – Part 2: All about the food!  Sign up for my free email subscription, so you don’t miss a thang!

Have you ever been to Boston?  What’s your your favorite place to visit??  Did you like this little travel guide I pulled together??  Lemme know! 😉

XOXO,

Kelly

PS- And don’t worry!  I will be back Monday with a yummy recipe to share with y’all…I just wanted to take a break from all the recipes to share this travel post with you 🙂

(Find the unicorn in this picture)….

 

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