Boston was so awesome! Here are some more pictures.
I Heart Boston
Boston was awesome! For a big city I really really liked it! Boston did a great job of not losing their history as the city grew. We spent 4 nights here but I could have stayed longer! We were able to get a mooring ball right on the city front by the aquarium so we had great access to everything. It was pretty rolly with all the ferrys going by, but for a few nights it wasn’t bad. We spent two days walking the Freedom Trail and stopping at the historical places along the way. We had an amazing lunch in Little Italy and I got the best cannolis! At night we went out to the historic Irish Pubs and listened to live music. So much to love in this city!!
It was a beautiful day as we entered Boston; we navigated our way through all the little outer islands that are park lands. I didn’t know there were these cool little islands right outside Boston. It would have been fun to stop, but they don’t allow doggies. The entrance to the harbor goes right under one of the major flight paths for Logan Airport so we saw the planes coming in and landing as we approached the city front.
Lighthouse on the outer Boston islands.
First view of the city!
The Freedom Trail was really cool. You get a map and then you follow the big painted line on the ground and weave your way through the city. We started in the middle at Quincy Market since that was the place closest to us and made our way through Little Italy.
Quincy Market
Next up we visited Paul Revere’s house. It’s this old house right in the middle of the block and it’s very well preserved. It was an old house when Paul and family moved in but quite nice for it’s time. We learned that besides his midnight ride Paul was more notorious for his propaganda. He owned the printing press and was able to entice a lot of outrage!
Paul Revere’s house nestled into Little Italy.
We went through the church where the lanterns were hung that sent Paul on his midnight ride.
One if by land, two if by…
We went into a small shop where they still operated an old printing press and got a demonstration of how it works. We learned that some of Paul Revere’s imprints had survived and could be duplicated today.
This guy told us all about it…
We walked over to the Bunker Hill monument which looks quite a lot like the Washington Monument in DC. We climbed the 294 stairs in the heat and enjoyed the view looking out over Boston.
We found it!
Made it up the stairs!
View from the top
Next up on the Freedom Walk was USS Constitution “Old Ironsides”, a wooden hulled, three masted vessel first launched in 1797. It wasn’t made of iron, but a special kind of wood that made it very strong and protected it from cannonballs so they nicknamed it Ironsides. It is still an operational warship and if called upon could go into service. Our tour was given by a real naval officer and included the captains quarters and below decks.
Old Iron Sides
After all that sightseeing we were exhausted and needed to refill, so lunch in little Italy it was! We both got pastas that were SO good. Then we went to the cannoli shop. I had been seeing people walking around with these pastry boxes all day so needed to see what all the fuss was about. The crowd outside was huge, but luckily it only took about 5 minutes. We heard that on the weekend the wait could be over an hour! Luckily these cannolis did not disappoint! I’m still thinking about them!!
mmm…mmm…..good…
The next day we got back on the freedom trail, this time headed the other way. We went by City Hall and learned about the Boston Massacre. Turns out this was another piece of propaganda by our friend Paul Revere because the “massacre” only claimed the lives of 3 people and was incited by the Bostonians! It’s so great to be relearning all this history.
City Hall
We went by some big graveyards that housed several famous people.
We ended our Freedom Trail walk at the Boston Commons, the big park in the heart of Boston. We then took a stroll through the gaslamp district which is a lot of pretty, old houses.
Gaslamp district
Needing some sustenance we made our way to the place where everybody knows your name. I was a little disappointed when no one actually yelled out our names as we entered. It’s okay though because Ryan got to hang out with some old friends. 🙂
The gang
Norm!
On our last day in Boston we picked up our new crew Brett who flew into Logan. Now the fun will really begin!
Boston! http://t.co/Pb9XzaraV3
New pawn shop acquisition w/ all stainless line! Here fishy fishy. . . http://t.co/nTuZlIMQKy
Sunset over Plymouth Harbor http://t.co/hnOQDpptI9
Plymouth and the Rock
I was excited to go to Plymouth because I wanted another dose of history! The Plymouth Rock! How exciting!!! Well, this is one of those things that are better in theory than reality… 🙂 Upon arriving in Plymouth we learned a few things about the Plymouth Rock.
- The rock was not identified as such until over 100 years after the pilgrims landed when some guy said “there, that rock is where they landed.”
- The rock used to be much larger but to encourage tourism they used to keep a hammer and chisel next to it so people could take home a piece of the rock.
- The rock was moved numerous times until it found its spot that we viewed it in Plymouth Harbor.
Makes you wonder a little doesn’t it. Well, it was still an interesting site and I enjoyed seeing it and going through the Pilgrim Museum. The portico housing the rock was more impressive than it though and it had a great view of Plymouth Harbor.
There it is
Me and the Rock
View of the harbor from the Rock
The Rock in all its glory.
View of the portico that hold the Rock. How grand!
We did have fun walking around town and seeing the old buildings and old cemeteries.
An old church.
An old mill.
We spent some time relaxing as well and Ryan pulled out the folding chairs so we could sit watching the sunset.
Stanley getting love.
Why hello there
Done with pictures.
Finally as it was time to leave we enjoyed the views of lighthouses and white sandy beaches.
Hung around folks not too much younger than ourselves, realized they were being overly respectful. . . They were treating us as elders 🙁
Trapped in the Lush Corral ( aka beer Garden) with Diana at the Newport Folk Festival http://t.co/BqyAL27zEJ
Newport RI – Mega yachts, mega mansions and folk music
After Block Island we headed to mainland Rhode Island and the city of Newport. Newport is a sailing mecca bringing huge boats from all over to it’s port. You just don’t see this concentration of mega yachts on the west coast! Newport was also home to the America’s Cup for some time and you can see the graceful boats making their way around the anchorage. Watching a fleet of the old America’s Cup boats glide by really drove it home how Larry Ellison has pretty much ruined it for everybody. Ahh…for simpler times…
To take a break from gawking at all the boats in the harbor we decided to go tour the gilded age mansions and gawk at all the fancy houses. We got to go through 5 of these “summer cottages” and take audio tours. The audio tours were really quite hilarious as they tried to describe the people who had built and lived in these homes. One was a party girl who built her home just for entertaining and when the parties dried up she went insane. Another was a crazy manipulative mother who tormented her daughter and tried to mold her into the perfect asset. At the same time this woman demanded a house of all marble and then divorced her husband just to set an example for all young women. They talked some of the business men and their life but it seemed that the hostess ruled the day in these houses. And the way these tours portrayed them they were not nice ladies. The Breakers was the fanciest of the bunch and was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt. These amazing monstrosities were really only used between 4th of July and Labor Day. Ryan and I decided they were a little too ostentatious for us, thank you very much. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take pictures of the insides of the homes but here are both of us seeing if we look at home in front of the Breakers.
The Breakers
This one is too BIG!
A smaller mansion…. Just right??!?!
We also had a lot of fun walking through town. As befits a sailing mecca there was tons to do and see. As we wandered around we also came across the tennis hall of fame. Made me think of you Thuy and John!
Can you believe I got Ryan to pose for this?!? LOL!
Pic of downtown
Tennis Hall of Fame
We rented a car one day and were able to drive along the coast and do more gawking, this time at the scenery. The rocky coastline is very pretty, I could see myself living here potentially.
Gorgeous Coastline
It was a bit rainy during our time in Newport. It was actually a nice change from the humidity and heat of Long Island. We took our umbrellas and still went out. And one day we saw a rainbow.
Where the heck is my pot of gold?!?!
We ended up staying in Newport longer than intended because a chance meeting with a fellow boater informed us of the Newport Folk Festival over the weekend. What?!?! Of course we had to stay! We got tickets for Friday which was a wet wet day. We stayed dry as best we could and Ryan marveled how no one at the festival was complaining about the weather. I guess these Rhode Islanders are a hardy breed. Old Crow Medicine Show was the last act of the day and as we stood in the crowd Ryan became agitated by all the umbrellas up. How ever would we see the show? When the band came on he started a chant of “Umbrellas Down!” that swept through the crowd until everyone had theirs down and we could see!
Folk Fest!
Crowd thinned out between shows.
Old Crow Medicine Show
More Old Crow
On Saturday, we didn’t have tickets but decided to wander over to where all the boats were anchored out and see if we could see/hear from there. Luck would have it we happened across a boat we had met in Port Washington and when they invited us aboard we happily said yes. We had a great afternoon listening to the music from their boat and then had them back to ours for dinner. Ahh….what a great time in Newport.
Oh and here’s some random sunset pictures….these never get old for me. 🙂
Rhode Island – The Ocean State
Rhode Island was never a place I’ve given much though about. I knew it was the smallest state because that is one of those trivia facts you pick up in elementary school, but when we had Ryana pointed toward Rhode Island I had no idea what to expect. Our first view of Rhode Island was Block Island which we came to as we (finally) left Long Island Sound. Block Island was by far the busiest place we’d been to. We tried to get one of their 65 mooring balls, but all of them were full! Luckily the anchorage had good holding so we squeezed ourselves in between a huge catamaran and several other boats. We had a moment of excitement when our starboard engine cut out right as we were attempting to anchor but with Ryan at the helm we did just fine. Once we got settled Ryan thought it was a little close for comfort, but we sucked it up and kept our fingers crossed. 🙂
Where did all these boats come from?
We holed up here for several days waiting out some bad weather. The skies got very interesting looking.
The sky has an eye and it’s looking at me!
For the first few days we mostly did chores, but we did walk the mile and a half into town one day to mail a package at the post office. Block Island is apparently a big tourist destination and people were flooding off the ferries when we walked by town.
Downtown BI.
We also encountered this cruising catamaran and it just goes to prove that it’s not the size of the boat but…
Weight to size ratio is amazing.
Even staying on the boat though we had plenty of entertainment. One night there was a wedding on shore and to celebrate the joyous event that evening there were fireworks! After the fireworks I got very concerned because a lot of the boats in the harbor were sounding their horns. Ryan calmed me down by telling me that is how boats applaud. Ha!
On our 3rd day on Block Island the weather turned nice so we went for a bike ride around the island. It is a very pretty place! First we went up to the north shore and checked out the beach and lighthouse there.
North Shore Lighthouse
Lighthouse up close.
View from the lighthouse.
Then we turned back through town and rode to the south shore. We checked out the lighthouse there and then found this area where you can go down off the cliffs to the shore. It was gorgeous there and we enjoyed the view.
South shore lighthouse. Which is nicer North or South?
Descending the cliffs
The other way
Rocks on a rock
Our bike ride was about 10 miles and covered a lot of the island. What a nice way to spend the day. What could make it better? How about sushi and a beer after getting cleaned up.
Beer well earned. I think Stanley wants some too!