Fanueil Day

Boston

Day 2

October 4, 2009

We woke up with no actual plans for the day, but figured that we'd take the Metro around town, in order to avoid parking and Helen woes. After checking out of the hotel, we placed our belongings in the car, looked for my umbrella at Rustic Kitchen (they didn't have it -- it must have been left in the cab), and asked the concierge for directions to the Metro station. We had a map, too, but somehow we still had a little bit of trouble trying to find it. Once we finally found the station, we made our way to the North End and Little Italy, where we could see the Old North Church.  This trip, of course, even sans Helen, was not without its own drama.  At one stop, we had to get off of the train because it was going out of service.  Then it seemed that ALL of the trains were going out of service at that one stop. We wondered if we'd ever get on a train to our destination.  We finally did, but it took a while.

Paul Revere and the Old North Church

The Old North Church is the site of "One if by land, two if by sea". We took pictures of Paul Revere on a horse, and listened to the tour guide talk about the church, which still holds regular church services. I liked that the pews were still in boxes, and that they had Hymnal 1982. This hymnal is what I used to sing out of when I sang with the Episcopal church several years ago. It's nice to see that some things don't change.

We visited the gift shop and I bought a rifle pen for someone as well as a book with Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride", and Cindy bought not one, but two containers of tea. One of them was made by the same company that made the tea that was dumped into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party. For some reason, the merchants felt the need to tell Cindy that it wasn't the ACTUAL tea that was dumped. Because that would be really old and Eeeeeewwww. How stupid did they think we were? Whatever.

While walking about town, we passed by Paul Revere's house. We would have gone inside if 1) it didn't cost anything and 2) we had time for an actual tour and 3) they would let us take pictures. Well, maybe we would have paid if they'd let us take pictures, but no, so we just took pictures of the outside. We were hungry, and looked for a place that would serve brunch, but in Little Italy, most of the restaurants were, you guessed it, ITALIAN, and they didn't seem to have brunch-y stuff on the menu.


But then we found Vinoteca di Monica.   The menu posted indicated that they had brunch items, and I wondered if they'd have French Toast, even though they were an Italian restaurant.  Well, lo and behold, they did, but when I asked the server what he recommended between my choices, he, the man with the very Italian accent, of course, chose the Italian dish, Bruschetta con Uovo e Prosciutto.  Cindy chose the Uovo Qualsiasi Stile, which was like a regular breakfast, except for the Rustic Bread that we kept finding this weekend.  Whatever.  We very much enjoyed our meals, and were able to sit by the open window and watch people go by.  That was very pleasant.

Sher at Vinoteca di Monica

Now nice and full, we ventured out again and made our way to Faneuil Hall, where many orators spoke about the British, which led to the colonies' independence.  I told Cindy that the name of the baseball stadium is called "Fenway Park" because the Bostonians just couldn't spell "Faneuil" correctly, so they simplified it.  Yeah, I made that up.  It's wrong, according to Wiki, but I like my explanation better. :)   We also did the touristy marketplace, where Cindy somehow refrained from buying a plush lobster. I didn't find anything pewter that I really wanted & could afford, which was my shopping goal there.  Oh, well.

Inside Faneuil Hall

We walked to the harbor, and it was just a really nice day to walk around and plan our next trips to Boston. :)  Cindy talked about riding the Salem to Ferry, but I think she was confused at the moment.  Perhaps the next time I come to Boston, I can have more time to do that, because I'm really interested in that part of history, too.  Boston is just a really cool place to learn about our nation's history.  If only it wasn't so far away and cold a lot of the time, I'd visit more often. That and the fact that I won't want to go during Lakers season.  Yeah, that's what I call it.  At least in Boston I do.

Pretty Day in Boston

We walked around a lot before finding the metro station where we could catch our train back to the hotel.  Luckily for us, Helen was in a good mood from her 24-hour rest, and she led us back to Logan despite a ton of road closures.  We would have been completely lost if we had followed a regular map.  So Helen ended up redeeming herself in a big, big way, and we were on time to board our flight, even having some time to get some pizza from Wolfgang Puck's to eat on the plane. 


For Cindy's view of the day, go here. 


Our flight home was a pleasant one.  I tried to sleep a little bit, since I needed to wake up early the next morning for yet another flight to Sacramento for business.  Cindy happily watched football on the way home.


Thanks, Cindy, for accompanying me on this trip, and for our great weekend together.