09/21/2009 Boston Field Notes from the Blatant Tourist
We just got back from a quick weekend trip to Boston! This trip was born out of happy impulse as we chilled on the couch a month ago and commented that it would be fun to jet off somewhere. We hopped online and found decent airfare at Southwest Airlines, (especially reasonable when you choose the cheapest flight with a 6 am departure time! ), got a hotel reservation on hotwire. com, and poof! , we had ourselves a vacation. It ended up being a very fun three days and I'll probably create a few blog posts as I go through our pictures. Boston is a good weekend destination and the city is very walkable. Right now, my legs hurt from all the walking around that we did. We reserved a Zipcar on Friday to take us out to Lexington and Concord, since there aren't good ways to see those areas without a car (and if you enjoy American history and literature, you can't skip out on that day trip- more to come on that). It was actually really convenient to take a Zipcar and saved us having to rent a car for the weekend, pay for parking, gas, etc. And one additional thing to pass along is that even if you don't have Zipcars where you live, you can still get an account and use the car sharing program when you travel to other cities that do have them. We brought our Garmin along and that friendly voice helped direct us through the Boston streets and highway with relative ease (which says a lot! ). For those of you who know me, you know that I can be (a) a nerd, and (b) an organizing and planning freak of nature. When we went to Disney World last year, not only did I read a huge guidebook cover to cover (in the middle of planning our wedding, mind you), but I even cut out and LAMINATED the park maps that came with the book so we could carry them with us. Here's how I see it- when you go on these types of trips, you can either stroll along with your hands in your pockets and risk missing everything you don't happen to stumble upon, or you can break out the guidebook and the map and walk around with your camera around your neck, stopping to reapply sunscreen every 3 hours. It is probably no real surprise which role I embraced, and my husband, who I'm sure rolled his eyes as he saw me prepping our touring artillery on the bed each morning, was actually quite impressed with everything we were able to take in during those 3 days. And yes, sometimes before proceeding through a cemetery or neighborhood we stopped so I could read aloud the descriptions from my little Boston book. And yes, we sometimes got side-tracked trying to find things like the plaque signifying Rose Fitzgerald's birthplace in the North End (we never did find that notice! ). But it was great to be in control of where we ventured and allowed us so much more freedom to explore away from the main circuit. With an organized tour we couldn't have done that. So there! But, I must admit, I was somewhat relieved by all the other tourists who seemed to stand out just as much as I did! ! Ha ha! My little book led us off the beaten path to this absolutely amazing cobblestone street buried in Beacon Hill. If you look closely, you can see a very lucky Golden Retriever relaxing beneath the American flag.
12/2/25- I knew I could find this pic!
