Braintree is the southernmost stop on the T (Boston's metro). Megan had been to Boston several times before, but the last time was 15 years ago. All she remembered was how awful the city drivers were and insisted that we get a hotel and take the T into the city to avoid the crazies. This was going to be a short 40 minute T ride to the city center and no problem. But it turns out, like all of our plans so far on this trip, it wasn't going to be smooth sailing. The T was under repair and we were shuttled to one stop then put on a bus for a few more stops (fighting traffic between them) and then finally getting back on the T to reach the stop we were looking for. This added a significant chunk of time to the trip, but at least the rain cleared while we were fooling around with public transportation.
Once we made it into the historic center, Megan had a list of NPS stamps she wanted to get. They were almost all on the Freedom Trail, but we diverted onto the Black Heritage Trail at the start to get a stamp there. It was a really neat stop. We got a ranger-led tour to the African American meeting house, much of which is still original structure.
On that stage, historic speeches were given, including rallies to get African American Bostonians to join the Civil War (they would be enslaved in the South for life if taken as POWs - scary thought!) and the first American woman to publicly address a mixed gender audience. The building served as a public meeting house and church, but unlike most other churches of the day, all people were considered equal and no one could buy a pew and have their name on it. This was a novel idea at the time - a building where the poor and rich, male and female, white and black could all sit together and have open discussion about politics and societal pressures.
From there we returned to the Freedom Trail and started the walk around Boston. We bought a book that explained each of the stops and were told to follow the red brick path all over town. It was the LGBT parade that day, so part of the red path was obscured with clouds of glitter and rainbows.
There are plenty of pictures of historic buildings, and we saw some that we didn't take pictures of - like the famous Old Corner Bookstore. It was a meeting place for authors like Longfellow, Dickens, and Emerson. Now it's a Chipotle.
It was cool to see the Old North Church, where the "2 if by sea" lanterns were hung that sent Revere off on his ride. We learned about how he didn't actually warn the people and someone else took over for him when we went to Lexington and Concord (more on that story in the next post). We also went to the place of the Boston Massacre, which set the wheels of the Revolution in motion. It turns out that history is, as always, written by the people with the best public relations team. The "massacre" was actually a nasty case of ill-equipped police fighting a gang of drunk, armed thugs threatening to riot. That version's not nearly as patriotic and stirring as the Tianamen Square version we get taught in elementary school involving peaceful Bostonian protestors and trigger happy redcoats, but no one could instagram it so Sam Adams photoshopped a pic and started a war. #wagthedog
We hit all the big sites, but at the Old South Meeting House, you had to pay to enter and get the stamp. Seriously?! We give the suggested donation at pretty much all the NPS sites, in addition to supporting them by buying things at visitor centers, but being told that we *had* to pay $5 a person just to step around the corner and stamp the passport book was too much. It's the first stamp Megan's ever knowingly skipped, though she did consider asking someone who was paying to go in and go through the exhibits to put the stamp in the book and hand it back to her just to stick it to "the man".
We walked all the way from historic Boston to the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill to get the final stamps. The monument at Bunker Hill was built by donation and fundraisers, including a bake sale. It was lamented at the time that it didn't turn out as grand as the public had hoped. If only they had known how successful silicone bracelet sales could be! (Too soon?)
The rain had cleared and left the forecast for "upper 70s" woefully incorrect as we sweated around town in the low 90s. We treated ourselves to a slice in North End and fought the crowds to Mike's Pastry.
It was important on our trip to get authentic food whenever reasonable. So that meant cheesesteaks in Philly, lobster roll in Maine, Ben and Jerry's in Vermont, and of course cream pie in Boston. Mike's is one of the best places to get cannoli and cream pie, so we stopped. The flood of people in line was crazy. It was outside and down the sidewalk. There were about 8 people filling orders (cash only) but the line never got shorter. We asked one lady if this was usual for them and she wiped the sweat off her brow and said "yeah, pretty much." Trying to get back out with our box was like salmon swimming upstream - in a stream of salmon swimming downstream. Remember that scene in "Princess Bride" when they're fighting the crowd and Fezzik (Andre the Giant) just yells "Everybody move!"? It was kind of like that. You just hold your box over your head and yell "Excuse me" as loudly as you can and people sort of squish into clusters that you can get by. But boy, it was worth it! The pastries were outstanding!
We carried our Mike's box down to Harpoon Brewery and settled in for a flight, which ended up being 3 flights in order to taste everything but the ciders. The tasting notes are already posted.
The place was loud and crowded and it had been nearly 9 miles of walking when we got there, so it might have skewed our opinions somewhat. An employee warned us that the bus for the nearby stop was unreliable and wouldn't necessarily stop unless you throw small children in front of it. So, we walked a little less than 2 miles to a T station before getting back on to repeat our T-bus-T-car process from the morning. We checked in to the hotel (Candlewood Suites), enjoyed the internet and many charging ports, a couple bites of Mike's and then crashed.
This visit to Boston really changed Megan's perspective on the city. Drivers were very polite - they didn't even honk or curse when pedestrians were jaywalking. Cyclists were safely dealt with. On the T ride in the morning, one man gave Megan his seat for the trip so she could sit down. In the subway on the way home, a guy had his ipod turned so loud we could all hear it and another guy asked him to turn it down. And he did! This city has changed dramatically for the better in the last 15-20 years and we wouldn't mind going back and spending more time there. Especially if it involves more eating in North End!
Here's a small slideshow of the pictures (but it's not mobile friendly so if you're on your iPad use the following link). You can flip through the full sized pics in the album here.
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