Best of: Boston

After seeing all the awesomeness of Connecticut and Rhode Island, I had visions of Boston being a let down.  Boston was going to be the big destination, and I assumed, it wouldn't live up to the hype.  And to be honest, it didn't...on the first day.  The first day we were there was a total washout.  It poured buckets!  There's only so much food you can eat in so many restaurants before you get really bored and really grumpy.  We were finally able to duck into a trolley that at least let us see the city without getting too drenched, but even that was wrought with issues since we bought the wrong ticket for the dumb trolley that took us nowhere we wanted to go.  By 7:00 in the evening, I was bored, wet, grumpy and not overly optimistic.

But 12 hours later, it was bright, sunshiney and the start to a beautiful day. After that, it was smooth sailing.  The city was walkable.  Our hotel was right in the middle of everything we wanted to see.   The weather was gorgeous.  And there was so much to see just laid out all over the city waiting to be seen.  It was much quieter than NYC and much cleaner.  And I think I may have loved everything about it! It's the perfect city for kids, and pets and grown-ups too.  I have to say it definitely ranks up there in some of my top 5 cities and i just know I'll be going back again one day.

My most favorite thing of the trip and the one thing I was most looking forward to was the Whale Watching cruise sponsored by the Boston Aquarium.  The boat took you 3 hours out into the ocean, and made a guarantee that you will see whales or you'll get a rain-check for another cruise.  For the first 1.5 hours we saw nothing, so I was a bit worried.   But they just started appearing everywhere.  We didn't get the money shot that you see in all the nature films (whales leaping out of the water!) but we did get some serious tale shots which was awesome.  To top it all off, they were humpback whales which aren't always seen in those waters.  Pretty amazing to see!

After the cruise, we just wandered the city which I have to admit was pretty much the best way to see Boston.  There is literally so much to see, it may be overwhelming to plan to see it all.  But the city is laid out so that you literally just happen upon these amazing historical landmarks, like the site of the Boston Massacre, or Ben Franklin's family tomb or the Duckling statue in Boston Commons.  Boston Common was my favorite that we happened upon.  The swan boats that had been around for years, were super cute and fountain for the children (and adults too) to play in, was the perfect way to cool off after a long day walking.  

Then of course there was the food.  As much as I love Italian food, the North End was of course my favorite place to eat.  After a Sfogliatelli as big as my head on the first day, I had high expectations for our last night's meal.  After wandering for a few minutes, we grabbed a seat at the first place we saw that had seats.  I'm not even sure I remember the name but the gnocchi and the tortellini we had were some of the best I've ever gotten in a restaurant. Hands down!  Though the atmosphere at Cheers was pretty fun too!

I don't have the same urge to move to Boston as I do to London, but if needed be, I think I could be very happy there - given enough sfogliatelli : )

Best of: Nantucket & Salem

Like most people, I was a big fan of Wings when I was little.  So since that time, I've been wanting to go to Nantucket.  Of course, the only thing I really knew of on the little island was Tom Nevers field i.e. the airport : )  Since then I learned a bit more but not much.  I knew the island was incredibly expensive to get to and was full of beautiful houses. After finding the ferry, I learned it wasn't too expensive, but the houses are exactly as I'd hoped.  They're all the grey washed siding and are covered in flowers galore.  (The gardeners must be quite well paid - and deserve every penny!)

What I learned on the island, is that it's most definitely just like the small little towns you read about.  There's a main street and some great restaurants.  And all sorts of cottages. They even have a small trolley system that stands as their public transport system. In other words, it's perfect!  So, I suppose I'm saying, the island itself is the best of Nantucket. Everything there from the beautiful beach, to the grey-washed cottages, to ice cream shop at the dock to the hundreds of dogs enjoying the summer with their owners. It was everything I had hoped.  The only thing that could have made it better was landing at Nevers field via small plane.

 For those who care, about 10 seconds after this photo was taken, I caught a rogue wave and was drenched...and quite chilly

Then there was Salem.  Unlike Nantucket, it's very much a working town.  People live there and work there. But boy do they talk up the witches.  Even the town paper has a witch logo. Like Nantucket, I knew a lot of Salem from watching Hocus Pocus and reading The Scarlet Letter.  

If you're into the witch thing, basically all you have to do is walk around the town to see all sorts of monuments to the trials.  But you can also check out the witch museum.  Museums aren't really my thing but sitting in the park was quite nice.  While it's a great little town, all you really need is a day to look around.  We got there about 10:30 then left about 4.  It was perfect. 

 Now I know I talk a lot about the food and I feel terrible saying "my favorite part was the food!" so much, but in this case it was absolutely true.  We had a delicious lunch at Turner's Seafood.  I had the shrimp tacos which were probably the best I've ever had.  A little spicy, but to die for!  And they were even one of only 2 places that had normal iced tea.  Then off to dessert at the Salem Screamery (get it?  witches, scream?)  Nothing like Dark Chocolate Ice Cream to make me all giddy!