Visit to Boston and New Hampshire: 09/03-09/07, 2021

Blog posts are a little out of order, but I am trying to catch up!  Over Labor Day weekend we decided to go visit my friend Suzanne and her family in New Hampshire.

The plan was to fly into Boston Friday, Sept 3rd.  Stay the night in Boston. Spend Saturday running around Boston to see as much as we possibly could in one day in the city.  Saturday evening, we would take the commuter bus from Boston up to Portsmouth, NH where Suzanne would pick us up and take us back to her house.  We planned on spending Sunday and Monday with them.  Then Tuesday early morning, Suzanne would drop us back off at the bus station and we would take the bus from Portsmouth back to Logan airport to head home.  

The flight from GR to Boston was pretty uneventful.  Once we arrived at the Logan airport, we got an Uber to our hotel in downtown Boston.

The next day, we got up early, had breakfast at the hotel, then took off to see as many places as we could before we had to be on the bus heading to NH.

Large Boston sign near Quincy Market area

Granary Cemetery.  You have to visit some of these old cemeteries.  I know it seems morbid, but you have to think that Boston is one of the original cities in the US and people that founded this country are buried there.  It's kind of amazing.

This apparently the oldest stone in the cemetery,  People died in the 1600's

One of things I could never understand, is how in the heck can some of these stones be so close to each other.  I read that sometime years ago, they decided to put walkways in the cemetery so you could easily walk to the famous people. When they put the walkways in, they just MOVED THE STONES THAT WERE IN THEIR WAY. They didn't move the bodies. So, I'm guessing there are bodies under the walkways.

The stones really look like something from an old Halloween movie

Thanks Sam!  You make a fine beer! :P

John Hancock's grave

Paul Revere's grave

Pretty sure this picture was taken at Copp's hill cemetery.  Another super old cemetery in downtown Boston.

The stones are very interesting.  You are not allowed to do gave stone rubbings either.

The Old North Church.  This is the church that they hung the lanterns in.  One if by land, 2 if by sea telling everyone the British were coming.

Each family had a box to sit in to stay warm in the winter.  The poor people sat in the rafters upstairs.

Ye old skinny house.  Across the street from the Copp's hill cemetery

The old State house. You can tour through it.  It's so small compared to all the buildings surrounding it!

In front of the old state building is this landmark which marks the site of the Boston Massacre. 

Faneuil Hall - There was not a ton of stuff in here because of Covid. Things were just closed.

Quincy Market reminds me of the Chelsey Market in NYC or Pike's place in Seattle. Lots of food vendors and tourists.  Kind of fun to see.

A random park kind of near Quincy Market

Paul Revere's home.  We toured it, but you are not allowed to take pictures inside.  It's pretty interesting, but in all honesty, it looks completely different then when the Reveres lived here.  There have been a lot of changes over the years before the City took it over as a museum.  And you have to understand that even 50 years ago the way people 'restored' things would be totally different then how we restore things today.  Not a lot of original materials still exist in this house, but still very cool.

One of the oldest restaurants in Boston.  It was super packed when we went by.  I had already been there before and taken a menu. hehe.  There are several bars in this area that claim to be the oldest or the first.

The Holocaust Memorial.  There are several of these glass pillars.  Each Pillar represents a concentration camp.  On the panels of glass are the numbers of each person who was sent there.  In the below picture you can see how small the numbers are written.  It still is hard to wrap your head around how many people all these numbers represent. 

Street performers downtown.  The red brick line in front of them is the Freedom Trail. You can follow this brick trail all over the city in order to see all the important historical sights.

Beacon Hill homes all look like this.  So beautiful and what I imagine all of New England should look like

Acorn Street. One of the oldest streets in Boston.  It still has the original cobblestone. There were so many people taking pictures here it was impossible to capture it empty without people

In the Beacon Hill area of Boston, there are rows and rows of beautiful brick homes with stoops.  Some of the homes have random purple panes.  It is said that it was some kind of mistake that happened in the forming of the windows back when the homes were built.

The first time I had come to Boston some 10 years ago, this building was called Ye Old corner Book Store.  It was build in the early 1700's.  It's on the Freedom Trail.  As we were looking around, I thought, "That old bookstore is around here somewhere".  Long story short, the reason I couldn't find it is because I was looking for a bookstore and the actual bookstore is now Ye Old Chipotle Chain Restaurant.  What the heck Boston???

We found the bench in Boston Common that Robin Williams and Matt Damon sat on to film a scene in Good Will Hunting.  Gary never saw the movie of course! He wasn't as excited as I was!

A book belonging to John Hancock.  That is his signature. 

The Warren Tavern.  It's across the river in Charlestown near Bunker Hill.  There are a lot of pubs that boast being 'the oldest in Boston'. This is one of them.  It was pretty cool inside.  the food and beer were good and we got a souvenir glass.

Last stop in Boston: Bunker Hill.

The Freedom Trail ends at Bunker Hill.

After Bunker Hill, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, we got an Uber and headed back to the airport to take the commuter bus up to New Hampshire.  The buses are really nice and it's way cheaper then renting a car.  The drive to NH was maybe 2hrs total.  I think we arrived around 8pm at the bus station.  Suzanne was there to pick us up and take us back to her house.

The first day we were there, they took us up into the mountains to this ski lodge Cranmore Mountain Resort.  They have a few rides you can do in the summer.  You can also take the chair lift up to the top of the mountain for a great view!
 

Cranmore Mountain resort in Conway, NH

Owen and Samuel riding the zip line

Suzanne and Ryan

Gary and I getting ready to ride the coaster.

Beautiful view at the top of the mountain

The next day, Suzanne took us and the boys to the ocean.  First stop was at the local lobster shack to pick up lobsters and steamers for dinner,.

Then we headed off to the beach for the day.

Wallis Sands State Beach

True to form, I fell and cut my foot really bad during our beach day.  Go figure.

After the beach we stopped along the coast and got some ice cream.  Fun fact: in New England they do not call a malted milk shake a malt.  They call it a Frappe.  I'm glad Suzanne told me because I had no idea what the ice cream girl was talking about.

After ice cream, we headed back to their house for dinner.

Gary, Owen and Samuel.

Poor Mr. Lobster.  I couldn't watch him get boiled

Suzanne and I following Ryan's instructions on how to break down a lobster.  I'm a pro now!

After dinner we hung out, chatted and relaxed.  We didn't sleep much that night because we had to get up around 3am to catch the early morning bus back to Boston for our flight home.  

It was a whirlwind trip, but it was nice to see Suzanne and her family and visit with them.  We will have to plan on visiting them again soon!