Boston in the Fall

This year, we picked Boston for our Girls Trip!

So, the first weekend in October, I met Tash at the Long Beach Airport and we took a red-eye.  Yay Jet Blue!

 We arrived around 5:45 AM.  We found a cafe close to the airport and uber'd over for some breakfast.  Our nice Airbnb host agreed to let us check in early, so we uber'd over around 8 and checked into the cutest place in Chelsea.  It was a 3rd floor walk up in an old brick building with a rooftop patio.  We loved it!  We got all settled into our apartment and then set out to discover the city.

We started with the Freedom Trail.  It starts in Boston Common.  Its a brick trail that takes you to all of the historical sites in the city.

 The trail is marked with signs at each point of interest.

 And there's people dressed up in period clothing leading tours and answering questions.

 We lost the trail for a bit.  But got to see and learn so many things!  And the city is absolutely beautiful.  We were also blessed with mild weather.  Not too hot or cold.

 We got back on the trail at Paul Revere's house-

 And Little Italy was my first favorite neighborhood-

 And we took a tour of the USS Constitution-

The Freedom Trail ends at Bunker Hill.  We walked all the way up the 294 steps to the top!  Not going to lie, I was a little winded and dizzy when we got to the top.

 But this ended up being my favorite neighborhood.

 And look at the view!

We were pretty hungry after our little hike up the tower, so we found a little pub nearby and had ourselves a delicious dinner.  We needed some supplies for our apartment.  So, we found a Target nearby and got stocked up.  We went back to our Airbnb and got to bed early.  We were beat from our all night flight and had to be up early the next day for our next adventure!  Day 1 was fun!

Day 2!

We were up early and in Downtown by 8:00 AM for our Fall Foliage tour to New Hampshire!  I was so excited to see all the pretty colors!

We started off at Walden Pond-

 And then drove through some of the prettiest country I've ever seen-

 We made some fun and yummy stops along the way-

  And had a delicious lunch at a cute little inn...

 Our last stop before heading back to Boston was at this cute farm stand and orchard.  We had fun running around the place and taking cute pics!

I got myself some cider and then we nodded off a bit on the long drive back to the city.  We were dropped off close to the Public Gardens, so we went to check that out.  It is the most beautiful park!

 Swan Lake!

 We strolled through the whole Garden and then found this on the other side.

 This is also one of my favorite neighborhoods.

 But the highlight of the whole day and maybe trip, was meeting this family for dinner Friday night!

The Bachynskis!!!

 We got all caught up.  The boys all seem to love their new home.  Malia is still trying.  I loved that we made this happen!

Day 3 (Saturday)-

We got up even earlier (5:00 AM) and uber'd to the Marriott Long Wharf to catch a tour shuttle at 6:30 AM.  We drove over to Cape Cod and boarded a ferry to Martha's Vineyard for the day!

 We arrived at Oak Bluffs and boarded a bus that took us around the island.  This place is so beautiful!

 This is the jail.  For reals!

 We made a stop at Gay Head Lighthouse-

 It overlooks the White Cliffs-

 Back in Oak Bluffs, there are streets and streets of Gingerbread Houses!

 We wanted to get a closer look, so walked through to check them out.  There were so many!

 We walked back to the waterfront and found a place to eat for lunch.

 We wanted to be adventurous and also make sure we ate something that the locals eat.  We got ourselves lobster rolls and chowder.  And both were so yummy!

 We had time to kill before our ferry back to Cape Cod, so we went for a walk on the beach.

 My toes in the Atlantic Ocean-

 We found this cute lifeguard tower and had a little photo shoot-

 We loved Martha's Vineyard!  So much, I got a sweatshirt and a Christmas ornament.  I hope that I get to come back someday!

 We got back to Boston, just as the sun was setting.  There's a cool market set up and was all lit up with music and street entertainers, so we decided to take it all in.

We walked through all the shops and booths, got a few souvenirs and then headed back to our Airbnb for the night.  We were able to catch the Women's Session of Conference and then we hit the sack!

Day 4 (Sunday)-

We woke up to a cold, gray and very chilly day.  We decided to take a boat ride to Salem and check out the witches.

 The dock in Salem is quite a walk away from the town center.  And we were hungry.  We found this funky little cafe along the way-

 We walked to the city center and found ourselves the "Bizarre Bazaar"!

 We wanted a tour of the witch museum, but couldn't get tickets until 4:00 PM.

 We decided to do a little trolley tour around the city to pass the time.

 "Bewitched"

 There are people dressed up all along the corridor who will let you take pics with them for $$.

 We picked these cuties to have our picture taken with!

 This town is so pretty and full of so much history!  More than just the witch trials.  And I loved the coastline...

 And we were shocked that only a few homes actually get all decorated for Halloween.  But it was still early in the month.

 The "Hocus Pocus" house-

 The Salem Witch Memorial-

 It really is such a sad and tragic story...

 We toured the Witch Museum and got a full history of how it all happened.  I can't believe the hysteria and that innocent people were put to death.

It was kind of a weird feeling being here, to be honest.  But still cool.

 We walked all the way back to the boat dock for one last look at the town-

 And got ourselves a beautiful sunset before heading back to Boston.

 It was late and we were hungry.  Alot of places close early on Sunday night.  I wanted to go to the original Green Dragon Tavern, but they had stopped serving food earlier.  So we went across the street to the "Bell in the Hand", the oldest tavern in America.  The food was just ok, but the atmosphere and history of the place was totally cool!

 We walked to a famous bakery in Little Italy and got some canollis and chocolate dipped strawberries.  We took them home with us and enjoyed them up on the rooftop patio.  We needed to enjoy one last view from up there before we left the next day!

 Day 5 (Monday) - Home!

We slept in and got all packed up.  It was sad to say goodbye to our little place.  It was so great!

Funny story...We got all packed up and out of the apartment on time.  Walked out the door and realized I left my phone.  Dangit!  Luckily, our host lived close by and was able to run over and let me in to get it!  Phew!

We uber'd one last time down to the Marriott Long Wharf and stored our luggage there for the day.  Then we hopped on a Harbor Cruise for a little tour around Boston Harbor.

 I'm so glad we did this.  It was so informative.  And we passed this Irish Destroyer that was visiting.  Look at the Yoda decal!  This boat was used as a surveillance vessel during the filming of The Last Jedi on Skellig Island!  So Cool!

 Gosh I fell in love with this city!

 We made a good choice coming here!

 We still had a couple of hours before we needed to be at the airport.  We grabbed some lunch in Little Italy and went for a little swing in this cool "pawk".

 We grabbed our luggage from the Marriott and made one last uber ride to the Boston Temple.

 It was Monday, so it was closed.  But it was so peaceful to walk the grounds and check it out.

 So grateful we made this stop before heading home.

This was a magical trip!  I love history, my country, architecture, the ocean and spending time with my best friend.  I feel very blessed!  Can't wait to see where we end up next year!