Monday 14th July - The Freedom Trail

Today we did a self-guided walking tour of the Boston Freedom Trail. It was a great way to explore the historically significant sites of Boston where we learnt about important events in the American colonists' efforts to gain independence from Great Britain.  We saw graveyards, churches, a historic navy frigate, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's house, and a memorial to the Irish famine and settlement in Boston, amongst other things.  It was an easy and very interesting walk - about 4km altogether (though it was really hot and humid) and I have to say I was left with the impression that the early Bostonians were a feisty lot.  They weren't prepared to take taxes and rules imposed by the Brits and they certainly shaped what the USA of today is.  Damian is now committed to saying, "Give me liberty or give me death".

We finished the day with a trip to Harvard, so now I can say I went to Harvard (and I'm sticking to that story).  A storm hit us this afternoon so we didn't get to explore much but we did find the law school and some great t-shirts taking the mickey out of the Boston accent eg. I went to Harvahrd to make me Smartah.  

We're really enjoying a Boston - such a different place from New York - much smaller, much friendlier, and just so lovely to walk around.  It really is a very pretty place.  

Tonight we had dinner at Altantic Fish Co where Damian got his fix of Lobster. Sadly he wasn't able to have the much anticipated clam chowder (not gluten free) but he was very happy with his food. The kids had fish and chips and Em and I had salmon - all delicious.  

Paul Revere's house

If I ever move to Boston, this is my home...

All I need is a different climate, a green thumb and a fair bit of Gold lotto. 

Sunday 13th July - Boston here we come!!

We were up and at Penn Station with over an hour to spare to catch our train and nearly had a disaster. Despite the very helpful lady at the Amtrak station telling me that our electronic tickets were all we needed (and what got us to NYC from Washington on the same service), with 10 minutes left to go we were trying to get thought the crowd to the platform and were refused entrance because we didn't have a printed version!! I desperately ran to the ticket window to have a lovely but very
S-L-O-W man print the tickets one by one. I then had to bolt back to the family, throw the tickets at the lady, fly down the escalator with our luggage and run along the platform to be the very last people on the train. It also took us about 10km before we made our way though the train with all of our luggage to find a spot where we could actually sit.  A nice relaxing start to our day - not!!!

4 hours later we found ourselves in Boston, Massachusetts, and it's love at first site.  What a pretty, pretty place to be, and after the crowds and dirt and heat of NYC, it's just so peaceful and lovely.  We found our way to our hotel - a quick walk from the Back Bay train station -  dropped our bags and had a walk through the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Public Gardens, and Boston Common. Finbarr had a play in the playground there and we wandered around Beacon Hill to look at the very inexpensive real estate - gorgeous homes and tree lined avenues.  We also made our way to the Back Bay to see it, then headed home for some dinner at a casual spot in the bustling Newbury Street. First impressions of Boston are great!!

Beautiful Boston 

Times Square at Night

I loved this sign in a shop - worked for me!!

Saturday 12th July - last day in NYC - boo hoo!

I don't wish to sound ungrateful because we've been so very lucky, but there's so much more we could do here! When we woke up this morning it was a matter of deciding what we could live without seeing to decide what we should do,  so we went to check out the Highline - an elevated park and walkway on the West side which is a historic railway freight line that's been transformed into a public space and 1 mile long park. I can imagine it would be quite bleak in winter but it was wonderful in summer - flowers everywhere, lovely shady trees, great views (into people's expensive real estate), and a busy crowd of people enjoying the beautiful day.

After walking the Highline we explored Chelsea Markets - a whole ground floor of eateries and shops underneath office spaces for YouTube and Google - very cool!  We found our first and only real NY coffee here - an espresso!! We had delicious savoury crepes for the grown ups and meat pies for the kids (declared not as good as the "Rock 'n Roll Market" pies)!!

A bit of shopping for Damian, Em and I - though separately - Emily and I headed to the upper east side to find the flagship stores for Kate Spade and Ralph Lauren. To say the sales staff at Ralph were snooty would be a massive understatement.  It was as if they had the bottom floor of a building to try to intimidate people into not coming into the store by checking them out and pulling a face as though a smell had just walked in.  It was quite fun to walk past with a bag - they truly could not hide their surprise at us buying something - but they had a big sale after all.  They were however happy to hang off the customers who had the obvious big money.  Kate Spade store was just pretty and beautiful and people were nice there!
Finally we headed to Sunday Mass at the Cathedral where they presented for the first time in USA the relics of Pope John Paul II - very special- and out for our last dinner in New York at a place on Central Park South called SaraBeth's.  After dinner Emily was keen to go to the flagship Apple Store on 5th Avenue - where around 900 staff work!! They have a special room at the back where they give access to celebrity's who are shopping and need some privacy!! Not quite like that at the Carindale store!!
A last wander around Times Square to see the night lights and off to bed to make sure we'd be up and ready for for our train to Boston in the morning.

Views of the Highline

Night time...

Cool mural in Little Italy

Times Square from the Empire State Building.