Mama Needs a Minute - February (Boston, MA)
6:30AM flight out of Atlanta - Let me just say that getting up at 2:40AM was pretty tough! We had almost 12 hours to see Boston. After a ride from the airport and breakfast of Belgium waffles, bacon, and a $6.00 soda, we were off to see the sights.
Most of my decision-making bandwidth was focused on Iceland, so all I knew about Boston was I wanted to see as much as I could in just a day. Luckily, Boston is not an extremely big city. We opted for a bus tour with Old Town Trolley Tours (shout out to Papa Jim - our driver and tour guide), which lasted just over an hour - we did not hop off. After making a full loop of 14 stops, it was 12PM and we needed lunch.
The hubby wanted Italian from the North End - very close to the trolley drop off. We were able to walk through BLAH BLAH park, which was decorated for Valentine’s Day with wooden “conversation hearts” - we even stopped and added our Valentine message on tiny wooden hearts that were hanging up in the park with red sharpies. I couldn’t help but check out a small playground in the park as a place to bring g the girls when we bring them to Boston. It looked perfect for them now: picnic tables, smaller and bigger slides, hanging bars, and a sandbox. Plus, it was fenced in - huge plus in a city! I did not see a public restroom - huge drawback, but there was a building that backed up to the playground. It was not open today, so there may have been a restroom there.
After walking just a bit, we stopped at a restaurant with a good review. My usual at an Italian restaurant is Chicken Parmesan because the girls usually share from the plate. So, today I chose the Gnocchi. The service was great and fast! We couldn’t help but notice that there were quite a few kids at the restaurant- three of which were seated right next to us. The children were enjoying buttered pasta while their parents ate Mussels Diablo.
After lunch, we went across the street to Mike’s Pastry. They did not have cannoli, but Papa Jim said the Boston Creme Donut was a “must have” while in Boston, so we purchased one of those, a chocolate croissant, and a couple of almond cookies. They had donuts with strawberry icing and sprinkles - totally something the girls would have picked.
From Mike’s Pastry, we headed to the Tea Party Museum. There were about 15 of us on the 2:30PM tour. We were led into a small meeting room and were part of the meeting held to discuss the outrage on tea taxes, which ultimately concluded with our angry mob storming the ship and throwing boxes of tea overboard! In the museum below, we were able to see a surviving tea box!
Then it was off to the airport to check in for the next leg of our flight.
