Trails and Whales

We took off for Boston about 7:30am to allow us time to check-in to our hotel and  catch the train downtown. We stayed in a  southwest suburb called Dedham. After our parking experience in Philadelphia, we decided to be smart and stick to public transit. There was a train station only a few minutes from the hotel.

We headed into town around 10am and had plans to take a tour of the Freedom Trail. The Trail consists of various historical buildings, monuments, etc. throughout downtown Boston. Almost all of the trail is dedicated to the Revolutionary War and our Founding Fathers. We had a great tour guide who dressed up as a person from the era and spoke as if she was telling a big story and had no problem telling us how the history book were wrong or left out parts. Very fascinating and even Hillary enjoyed the tour and history lesson. The only downside was that we had a huge tour group and only got to see the southern part of the trail. I had hoped to go back and tour the northern side, but never foot the chance. Sounds like a good excuse to go back to Boston again! 

We also had reserved a spot through Boston Harbor Cruises to go out on a whale watch. Only 30-40 miles off the coast of Boston, there's a feeding ground for whales that make the 3-4 thousand mile trip up from the Caribbean in the summer to feed. 

I was told to inturupt this blog to let everyone know that Hillary was excited because she got to wear her new "cute boat shoes" on the boat.

Now back to important things....

We got to see one whale and it was a pretty cool experience. The guide had identified the whale as one they have been tracking for about 6 years and had all kinds of data. We didn't get to see her jump or show off her tail. Nonetheless, we can still say that we have seen a whale outside of SeaWorld. We got some great video that I will edit when we get back and post back into this blog. You will have to deal with a few "ok" pictures for now.

After we docked back in the harbor, we went over to Legal Seafood for dinner. Upon planning this trip, I had learned this was "the place" to eat and they had built a brand new location right on the water.

We met up with my Aunt Janis who lives in Boston and is a Linguistics Professor at MIT. We usually get to see her once a year when she comes back to Maquoketa to visit but it was fun to visit her for a change. I meant to get a picture of us at dinner but regretfully forgot.

Hillary ordered lobster and was surprised to get a WHOLE LOBSTER. Not just the tail. She was a little freaked out to have to cut into it.

After dinner, Janis was nice enough to give us a ride back to our hotel and save us the train ride. 

After a long day in the sun, We fell asleep pretty fast.

Next up....more of Boston on Independence Day!