Boston Day 4

Today was a bit more relaxed than yesterday; we didn't meet the other group until much later on. Rather than grabbing a coffee and pastry from the local Tadesci mart, we decided to see what breakfast establishment was good nearby. Nichole used Foursquare (a location based social network application on her phone) and the Grasshopper Cafe had really good reviews. After walking about 20 minutes through seemingly shady areas, nice row houses, and various shops, we came across the hole in the wall cafe. It was really nice! Super quiet and clean, and cutely decorated for Easter. Nichole, Wendy and I got coffee while Pat got some iced tea. The coffee was really good! I ordered the Towny Toast, 4 slices of cinnamon toast with a dollop of Bailey's whipped cream on top; Nichole got The Monument, 4 cinnamon pancakes covered in a cinnamon-banana sauce (imagine a banana pie filling). Holy Moses! It was delicious! This was definitely worth the walk and highly recommended!







The cafe was just a few minutes away from the Battle of Bunker Hill monument, so we made our way there. It was pretty amazing to stand atop Breed's Hill where the battle was fought (this hill was thought to have been Bunker Hill due to a cartographical mistake) where the Revolutionary War began. It is also the start of the Freedom Trial.




Nichole had wanted to go to the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, which was located southwest of Boston. So we made our way by subway to the museum, which is pretty close to North Eastern University. Isabella Stewart Gardner was an American art collector, philantropist, and one of the foremost female patron of the arts. Her home, of which she filled with works of art though out her lifetime, is now the museum. It is spectacular! Photos were not allowed, so I can't show you any, but there were amazing and breathtaking pieces from tapestries, wood carvings, stone carvings, paintings, furniture, etc. If you are ever in Boston, I highly recommend it.




(Double brick line though out Boston signifies the Freedom Trail)

From the museum, we decided to head back into town to grab some lunch. Pat had a good idea, that we eat at the original Cheers bar. On our way there, we walked through Boston Common Park.




So on a street corner on Beacon Hill, where the Hampshire House restaurant is located, there was a bar called the Bull and the Finich. I couldn't find when or how it came to be, but the name of the bar got changed to Cheers, where the TV show got its inspiration. I had the Boston Brick Red (Sam Adams Irish Red) Carla's petite burger, Nichole had a Woodchuck hard cider and Fraiser's chicken panini. It was all delicious and I would eat there again.










We made our way back towards the park, but this time we went through the Boston Public Garden, which is adjacent to the Boston Common Park. In an effort to add more public parks and level some of the hilly area, Boston undertook several landfill projects from early on in the city's history. Boston Public Garden is one of the results of this. It is said that, while in Boston, if you are on a street that is narrow and curvy, it is probably original to the founding of the city; if it is wider and straight, it is built on landfill. One of the neat things of this park is that it is where the children's beloved story, Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McClusky, takes place. To commorate this, there is a bronze statue of the ducks in the park. Also, across from this park is the State's capital building.






(State capital building)

Somehow we soon found ourselves in what I think was Boston's financial district. It was really neat seeing reall old buildings and curvy streets next to newer buildings. We also stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for an afternoon coffee. The subway station was near by so we took it to where we needed to get off so we could meet up with the rest of the group for dinner. Or so we thought. Once we got on the subway, we realized that Jude had a poopy diaper blowout. Off to the hotel! Jude was a really good sport about getting all cleaned up.

Finally we met up with the group at Boston Beer Works, a local microbrewery, near the North Station (subway stop by the TD Garden, where the Bruins and Celtics play) and where free shuttle drops us off/picks us up. I first had the Buckeye oatmeal stout. Super good! I think I prefer it over the one from the Brew House back home. For dinner, Wendy split a BBQ chicken pizza, whiich was also really good, even though it seemed it like it had an entire chicken on it. After the stout I had the Extra Special Red, which was good but a bit too hoppy for me.













Finally, we took the shuttle back to the hotel to retire for the night. Tomorrow we will meet up wit the group in the morning to head over to Salem and check out the with trial museum and site.