Boston

On Wednesday, we packed our bags and headed south to the Boston Amtrak Station to pick up my son Ryan and his wife, Veronica.  Since they had to be in NYC for work, we had discussed them hopping up here for a short visit and I was so glad they did!  It had been 8 months since we left Ga and I was getting very homesick for family.

As it turned out, Boston was only about a 90-minute drive from Kennebunkport.  We found getting down to Boston was an easy drive along the coast but OH MY WORD once we got into the city, it's a whole new ball game.  Little did we know that Boston was the most populated city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts AND in all of New England, therefore, making traffic crazy.

If you have driven in New York or DC and thought the traffic was bad there, well think again for Boston is the worst.  Come to find out in 2018 it was ranked as #1 for having the worst traffic in the nation and 8th in the world.  I for one feel that still holds!  To say driving the dually there was pure insanity is pretty much spot on.

Statue of Samuel Adams in the square

The one thing that saves Boston is that it is very easy to get around on foot.  So after picking the kids up in the middle of the road (literally), we drove around and got lucky with parking and hit the pavement.  Our destination was Faneuil Hall Marketplace near the waterfront.  The market house originally opened in 1743 and it was the site of several speeches encouraging independence from Great Britain.  Inside we found information and maps on the freedom trail and downstairs you can watch a short documentary about the building history involving slave trading on the site.  It was definitely worth the stop.

Bell-in-Hand Tavern on Union Street, Boston

If it's on a plague, it's gotta be true!

Cheers for family!!

Afterward, we did a little more shopping and then went for a drink in the oldest bar in town! The Bell-in-Hand Tavern was built in 1795 and was a very cool pub.

Got a feeling there's always a line.

Some of the pics on the walls

Afterward that, we set out to eat at THE best pizza joint in all of Boston! Regina Pizzeria was founded in 1926 and they even have there own wiki page! Come to find out it wasn't too far from the pub so we decided to walk. However, when we got close, we could see the line to be seated was out the door.  Well, you only live once, so we waited for our turn. It seems it's also popular with a few celebrities too. There are pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio, Henry Winkler, Rob Lowe, Jay Leno, just to name a few.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel for the night in order to rest up to fight the streets of Boston again.  We weren't so lucky the next day at finding a parking spot, so Dennis and Ryan decided to just ride around the block while Veronica and I jumped out to go pick up a vest I had seen the day before.  It took all of 30 minutes to purchase the vest and when we went out to met them, they were still half a block away!  It seems they had been sitting at one red light 15 times before finally making it through.

USS Constitution aka Old Ironsides

Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge

We finally said goodbye to the city center and drove out to tour the USS Constitution that we had spotted when we crossed the bridge into the city.  The USS Constitution served from 1797 to 1881 and is the the oldest and most storied commissioned warship in the U.S. Navy.  We also got to go on a destroyer called the USS Cassin Young that served from 1943-1960. She survived two Kamikaze attacks and sailed the globe.

Afterward, we headed up to our campsite in Kennebunkport, Maine.  Yahoo!  We still had 2 more days to enjoy the company of Ryan and Veronica! Yeah!