Boston Day 1

On returning from Africa, I had scheduled a few days in Boston. It was my international fly point and I’d never been there, so I worked in 3 days to play before flying out. Technically, I was there 5 days but two of those days were transit days and I didn’t nothing for transfer to and from the airport to my lodging. I had three full days in Boston.

I wanted to make the most of it and I had done some minor research on the internet but hadn’t made any type of itinerary. I had a handful of places I wanted to see/do and that was about it. Luckily, I was still on Africa time, so I was wide awake at 3am in Boston on my first full day. I fought it at first, but eventually you know you aren’t going back to sleep. I grabbed my computer bag and tip toed out of my dorm room and set up in the kitchen. Made myself a sandwhich and went to work. Boston has a thing called the “Go City Pass” which offers a number of options. Normally, I don’t find these useful, as many of the offerings aren’t conveniently close to each other and its unlikely you’d hit more than one or two attractions in a day. Usually, its cheaper to do the things you want to do individually. Boston appeared different. Having a few hours to burn before daylight, I was able to google maps many of the attractions I had planned on seeing checking the reviews/websites to see how much time I should schedule for each attractions. Turned out...if I wanted to, i could buy a 3 day pass for $126 and it would give me access to over 40 attractions, including one of the premium attractions. The cost of my planned activities would have been close to $100. I coud easily fit in an additional $26 worth and thought I’d try the pass. Then I thought I would do as many things on the pass as I could fit in. I made it a challange. I would probably never be back in Boston again, so get it all done now. I looked up tour schedules and hours of operation on everything I had a bit of interest in doing. I bunched the activities into georgraphic locations and figured out where the hop-on/hop-off had stops and created a three day itinerary.

Boston Day1

New England Aquarium: I waited until 8am to get an Uber into downtown Boston. I knew most things don’t open until 9am and I wanted to hit the ground running. Uber dropped me off around the New England Aquarium and I was happy to see the booth for the New England Aquarium Whale Watching tour was already open. I talked to the girl and she informed me that all the whale watching the previous day had been canceled due to rough sees and that there was a good chance that days whale watching would also be canceled. But i hadn’t yet. Soooo...she reserved me a spot for the 12pm whale watching tour. The whale watching was one of the premium activities for my City Go Pass. There were three other options: Red Sox game (if there was a game), Blue Man Group (which I’d seen in Vegas) and Duck Boat Tours (which wasn’t high on my list, but I’d never done one before). I hoped over to the Duck Boat booth and asked about reservations....if the whale watching gets canceled, can I get in today or will it book up? They assured me that it was chilly and there is a good chance they could get me in that afternoon. I headed over to the Aquarium and was the first one in the door. The reviews had been pretty consistant about taking two hours to do the aquarium. Me, being the sign reader that I am, figured three hours would be fine. Turns out, it took me a little over two hours to visit the aquarium, even with all my sign reading. Checked with whale watching, and it hadn’t been canceled yet. Decided to see what I could fit in while I waited. Had a little breakfast and then walked to the Boston Massacre marker (which has apparently been moved twice because of road constrution). Got back to the aquarium and all whale watching had been canceled. Headed over to the Duck Boats and they put me on the 12:20 tour. Gave me enough time to go back in the aquarium and use the bathroom before we start the tour.

 Duck Boat Tours: So, for those that don’t know, a Duck Boat is a bus/boat combination that was invented during WW2. We drove around Boston and a bit outside getting both commentary of historical places along with some really bad jokes. We eventually drive into the river and they gave each of us an oportunity to drive the Duck Boat in the water. That was fun.

Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall: The Duck Tour dropped us back off near the aquarium and it was time for lunch. I had one major food goal for Boston....clam chowder at Legals Seafood. Legals had a booth over in Quincy Hall, so I headed in that direction. It was getting later in the day, but I could still catch a Freedom Trail Tour starting at Faneuil Hall if I didn’t waste time during lunch. Quincy Market is a giant marketplace that sells mostly food. There are a few other shops, such as a Cheers gift shop, but mostly its a food court and at least half of them are selling seafood. But Legals was supposed to have the best clam chowder (according to author Mary Janice Davidson) so thats where I went. Got a nice cup of chowder and a cold beverage called “Haymaker Punch” which is water, vinagar, honey and ginger root. At this stage in the day, I’m starting a pretty good cough and I’m thinking something that could supercharge my white blood cells may be a good choice. Chowder was good. Haymaker Punch was good. Onto Faneuil Hall. I got my tickets for the next walking tour at an outside kiosk and then went back into Faneuil Hall to wait in the warmth. Its getting cold out and being a traditional Florida girl, I was freezing my butt off. Plus, I was still coughing. Faneuil Hall is part of the National Park system and there is a ranger on site and gift shop and lots of information and brochures. I had wandered around quite a bit on the first and second floors but completely missed that there was a lot more to explore. I had intended on returning at some point to view the upstairs, but never did. Didn’t take any photos of this historic site as its currently covered in construction materials as its very slowly being refurbished.

Freedom Trail Walking: The walking tour doesn’t cover the entire Freedom Trail, which is about 2.5 miles long, but it does cover about 1 mile of it. Our guide was extremely knowledgable and offered fantastic perspectives on history. We covered about 10 different historical spots on Freedom Trail, starting at Faneuil Hall and ending at the Boston Commons. At the end of the tour, I was pretty cold and tired and I was still coughing. My original plan was to head over to the Museum of Science, because (only on Fridays) it was open until 9pm. Nearly everything else was closed after 5pm (museums and tours) so my options were pretty limited. I decided to head back to the hostel for an early night, but when I checked Uber...prices were high because it was a busy time. Not wanting to pay 30% more than I had been, I started walking towards the Museum. The museum wasn’t nearly as close as I thought it was and my wonky phone was periodically sending me in wrong directions, but I finally got there around 6pm, giving me 3 hours in the museum before it closed.

Boston Museum of Science: I’d probably walked close to 10 miles by the time I walked into this museum. I admit, I was hurting. My back hurt, my feet hurt and my chest was starting to hurt...cause coughing. I didn’t use all of the 3 hours here, I think I did about 90 minutes. I’ve done so many science museum before that much of what I saw was repetition. I had walked about 1/4 of the exhibits when I heard an announcment for a live animal show and bee-lined it to the other side of the museum. It was a good show, it was short, but covered a snake and a skunk and the information was interesting. At the end of this show, I checked my watch and saw that they had an electricity show starting soon, so headed back to where I had originally left off. Caught the electricity show...very interesting and fun. Watched a guy play AC-DC with Tesla Coils and that was pretty cool. After the electricity show, it was time to go back. I’d been up since 3am and I was exhausted. It had been a fantastic first day in Boston and I’d been able to see/do quite a bit. Was looking forward to my second day in Boston, but first sleep.