Tag Archives: Massechusetts

Tuesday in Boston (9/23/25)

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We had a typical lazy start to the day. I get rather antsy, but Dan has things he wants and probably needs to do on his iPad (photo things, maybe?) so I busy myself by playing a few games (Wordl, Sudoku, along with a few others) just to kill time) and starting today’s blog.

The weather outside looks lovely, despite the rain forecasts we’d seen earlier, and that forecast has, thankfully, changed. We can deal with rain, of course, but if we don’t have to were are just fine with that!

So here I am, at 9:12AM, dressed, things put away, and ready to go. Now I wait …

At 10:00 we did make our way to the very slow elevator. Of course the elevator that looks to be the one we should be using is out of order. I seem to recall a review criticized that which makes me think it will never be repaired. But what I assume might be the service elevator works: it’s just extremely slow.

We went to a different — and much better — place for coffee and food: Dan had a rather small muffin, and I had yogurt and fruit. I have missed our yogurt and while what I got was fine, our home made yogurt is much better and I look forward to making it when we get home!

We decided we should do the remainder of the Freedom Trail, which meant heading again past the park.

We continued to walk, and we passed a restaurant whose signs just crack me up. I thought they should at least have on item that is second best or maybe even third. But nope!


Then it was over the bridge.

And then we were in Charlestown.

With a short walk we made our way to the Bunker Hill Monument.

We could have taken the 429 stairs up to the top, but we both agreed we weren’t up for that, so we enjoyed the view from below. It’s been so interesting reading about the Revolutionary war: it’s been eons since I learned about it and I never did pay much attention to history back then.

From Bunker Hill we went to the USS Constitution. Sadly we couldn’t board the boat as it is being worked on. We’d rather counted on spending a good amount of time on that. Another more modern ship was there as well but it, too, was closed. So much for that! But we walked around and I took some record shots so I could put them up here.

Then it was lunch time. We had said it was to be a two meal day, but so much for that! I ordered a cup of corn and clam chowder so that was fairly small. Dan ordered a club sandwich and that was huge so I was a very helpful wife and ate a fourth of it.

We could have walked back over the bridge but instead we opted for taking a ferry. It took us a bit of time, along with some help from another ferry rider, to figure out how to buy tickets on my phone, and for some reason I couldn’t find the senior price there so we ended up paying full price, but I suppose we can afford the slightly over $7 it cost us.

Then it was a random ramble. We really had nothing more planned until dinner. I did tell Dan I think we could have done one less day here as we are running out of things we want to do. Maybe tomorrow we’ll investigate some museums, though.

After growing weary of walking we stopped in at a beer garden and had a beer. Mostly it was just to kill time, to be honest.

Getting near 5:00 we walked past a the City Hall (I think!).

And then over to La Famiglia Giorgio for dinner. I’m glad we went so early because by the time we left people were waiting to get in. The food was good, but oh my do they fill the plate. My dish could easily have fed a family of four and I think Dan’s could have as well. I could barely put a dent in the dish, and we both asked to have things boxed up.

We had originally thought we’d get a car home, having walked about eight miles so far, but with the food we decided we’d walk and hand the (very heavy) bag to someone who looked like they needed it. Sure enough, while on our walk, a couple who appeared to be living on the streets were sitting on the sidewalk and Dan asked if they were hungry and handed the bag to them. I do hope they enjoyed the feast.

It was a lovely evening walk!

We reached our hotel and I checked my watch: 10.18 miles today. Not bad! Of course, as I reminded Dan, if we were ever to do the Camino de Santiago we’d have about seven miles to go on some days. Hm. Can we really manage that walk? I wonder!

Oh, and about shoes: I am wearing some All Birds which I really do like, but clearly my Altra shoes are better for lengthy walks when my feet tend to swell a bit. I think I will save the All Birds for hanging out in and shorter than six mile neighborhood walks. I realize that is incredibly exciting information you couldn’t live without!

Tomorrow might be rainy. But then today was originally going to be rainy and it was a lovely, albeit somewhat humid, day. We shall see!

Hello Boston! (9/21/25)

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After packing Dan, Carolyn, and I drove to the coffee shop we’d been at on our first morning in Bennington. There we met up with Jameson and Meghan, and enjoyed muffins, coffee or tea, and conversation. I was sorry to miss out on seeing Brandon and Lia once more, but they were staying further away and couldn’t make it down.

We said our goodbyes and then got back into the rental car (since when did a Toyota Corolla go from being a compact to a midsize car?) and made our way to the Boston airport. We had chosen no toll roads so toward the end of the drive it was pretty crazy. Prior to that the drive was a wee bit colorful at times (we are thinking the color will arrive early this year but perhaps not be as stunning as some years), but really rather boring. Still, since our drive to Bennington was in the dark I enjoyed seeing the route we took albeit in the opposite direction.

We dropped Carolyn off at the terminal, filled the car with gas, returned it, and grabbed (not literally) a Lyft. I simply wasn’t up for figuring out public transportation by then. Our driver was one of those aggressive sorts who manages to squeeze in front of cars even if they don’t want to let him in. He wasn’t so kind to the cars that tried to do the same to him. Go figure!

Our hotel is in a great section of Boston: we are staying at the Copley Square Hotel. When I was planning this trip I learned that Boston is just horrifically expensive. But so it goes — it’s our first trip here and who knows, it may very well be the one and only trip, so we just decided to deal with the cost. We were told the first elevator — one that looked to me like it was for guests — was out of order. The other (service elevator perhaps?) was what we were to use. My goodness it was slow!

Getting to our room … it looks just fine. The bathroom door, however, really need work! We had to pull it VERY hard to get the door to shut!

Our room and the view from the room:

We sat in our room for a bit (thankfully it was ready well before the 3:00 check in time) and relaxed with our iPads in hand. Then it was time to start exploring!

We are just a few short blocks away from the popular Newbury street: it’s full of brownstones most of which are now stores in the lower floors. Many of the clothing stores seemed to be high end and/or boutique places. For Sunday they close off a lot of the street, although cross traffic still is allowed through. Booths are set up as well — people selling a variety of things. The street was quite full of people, many of whom looked like they were in their twenties so Dan and I fit right in.


When we had first arrived at Newbury I saw people at the corner having what looked like light snacks and drinks, so I mentioned to Dan that that looked tempting. Sure enough, we did wind up there after a bit of walking. We ordered the mezze platter for two, I had a Last Word cocktail and Dan, being the good boy that he is, had a Nanegroni (an alcohol free drink). The mezze plate turned out to be more food than we had expected and was delicious.

We had a nice chat with our server. She had asked where we were from and we told her, saying it was our first time in Boston. She told us she’d been here for three years, and came from Uraguay, a place I confess I’m totally clueless about. She was very kind, and then surprised us with this dessert as a sort of “welcome to Boston” treat! How sweet (literally and figuratively!).


From there we did more walking, heading the other direction of Newbury. When it ended we turned right and walked to the Charles river.

Then it was time to head back. We went up (or is it down?) a different street and saw more beautiful buildings.

We both agreed we hardly needed to get dinner so we wound up back in our room We did munch on some chips we had from a little goody bag Sara and Ben had gifted people who stayed at the Vervana Hotel, and that was all we really needed. (Okay, we really didn’t even need those. But they were there, and we heard them calling our names.)

I then did a few puzzles (Yeah, I know, I do too many!), and read more of the Camino book I’ve started. We are really hoping to do that in the spring of 2027 (if not the fall of 2026) and I want to know what we are in for.