Hop on Hop off, Paul Revere, Boston, Massachesettes – 3/30/2017

March 30, 2017 (Thursday)

Woke up to SUNSHINE! It’s been so long since we’ve seen sunshine, we had almost forgot what it looked like. BEAUTIFUL! We were both anxious to get out into it we decided to get our breakfast on the way to Boston. We stopped at a McDonald’s a few miles away and got our usual – egg white McMuffins, coffee, and we split an orange juice.

The sunny day we have been waiting for.

The drive into Boston (about 70 miles) was slow due to horrible traffic. I’m guessing everyone else was excited to see the nicer weather and they all decided to take advantage and head into Boston. We didn’t get to our Spothero.com parking spot until about 11:30 AM. (We had gone online the night before and gotten the parking for $20.00. It hurt me to pay the $30.00 yesterday for only about an hour of parking.) Decided to get parking ahead and pay less. We had also gone onto Groupon and gotten a discount hop on hop off tour ($16.00 per person). We walked the short distance from the parking garage to the hop on hop off booth.

We talked about going around the whole route before getting off but decided to get off at the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides.” We walked around and saw how beautiful she was, mostly due to the copper on her bow. Lovely. The free tour to go on her and view her didn’t start until 2:30 PM, so we decided to walk back to the hop on hop off.

Our driver was a fun character and a speed talker as well as a font.
A beautiful seeing eye dog that it is so hard to leave alone as we ride the hop on hop off bus.
USS Constitution AKA Old Ironsides. Being refurbished. The British thought she was made of iron because their cannon balls were bouncing off. The wood is a particular species that is very dense and the cannon balls did bounce off.
Paul Revere covered the hull with copper to extend the life of the ship, and part of the refurbishment is to replace the copper plates.
We went in but did not stay, wanted to see more.

This time we went all the way around and saw so many things we wouldn’t have seen on our own – Chinatown, the Holocaust Memorial, statues, Bunker Hill, buildings, so much. After going all the way around, we got off near Paul Revere’s home and toured it.

Boston’s Holocaust Memorial.
Samuel Adams.
Parker Hotel on the right, home of Parker House Rolls.
Woman in period costume.
Fellow in period costume.
Narrow streets around here.
I think the building in the center is leaning to the right.
Woman holding a pig.
Commander Shaw with the men of the 54th regiment. An all black regiment of the Union Army.
Bunker Hill Monument.
You’d have to be here, so much gold lettering around here.
State House again.
Grain commodities trading building.

We learned he lived in it for around thirty years. His first wife died in childbirth of the eighth child, and that child died a month or so later. He remarried quickly and had eight more children.

Edie loved the copper patina on this building’s windows.
Entrance to Revere house.
It was a crowded place and he was a busy man. Made silver items, false teeth, was an editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper. Ship fitter and father of 16.
I still use these.

We also got to walk part of the “Freedom Trail” – mostly we followed the trail to a nearby bakery called “Mike’s Pastry.” We had seen many people carrying around boxes of Mike’s Pastry with big smiles on their faces, we just had to see what it was all about. The place was packed and had all sorts of things but I guess they’re most famous for their cannoli. I got a piece of carrot cake and Michael got a peanut butter cookie. Really good. We ate them in the car on the way home to Newport, Rhode Island.

Freedom Trail. Two and a half miles long and it runs by most major exhibits where most major revolutionary events took place in Boston.
First rate.

After we left Paul Revere’s home, we got hungry so we went to a nearby Italian restaurant and had a really good lunch. Michael and I were the only ones in the restaurant and weren’t sure about it but it turned out fine and the food was excellent. Michael had lasagna and I had a broccoli/chicken penne dish with lemon, garlic, and butter. Yummy. Couldn’t eat all mine so had it put in a to go box and will have it for dinner.

My lasagna, pretty good.
Edie’s chicken, broccoli, pasta dinner.
Wonderful rolls.

We walked back to the car, which was interesting in itself in that we got to see more things we hadn’t noticed. Also, we got lost but it was fun finding our way back.

Turns out this is a very similar but different garage from the one we actually parked in.

Michael wanted to drive home because the traffic was so bad, the streets so narrow, and I get ugly and short tempered. We try to avoid the Ugly Edie as much as possible when driving. I even got to sleep on the way home, which was nice.

We are now home snug as bugs. It’s supposed to get 3” of snow in Boston tomorrow so we’ll be avoiding it for a few days and stay home. Michael ended up eating my leftover lunch. That was our day. Hope yours was great!