Hello friends!

Randy and I are home from Boston and we had the most wonderful trip!

I've been trying to figure out how to blog about it, so here's a travel guide series that gives you the scoop of what to do in Boston, food, costs, etc. while going over what we did on our trip there. Enjoy!

*Travel Tip - Randy and I used our American Express Skymiles card to get points and pay for our flights. Flights to Boston are normally around $400, we both flew for only $200! I recommend this card if you have good credit, and know how to manage your money, as this card has a pretty high interest rate.

*Travel Tip - Randy and I flew a red-eye, which I highly recommend if you're looking to save money! We got to the airport around 10:00 PM, ready for our 11:50 flight. We slept (or tried to sleep) on the way to Boston and around 5:00 AM I woke up to see this gorgeous sunset outside the window!





My brother came and picked us up from the airport and drove us to their apartment. They live in Cambridge which is really close to Boston, just a train ride away! We rested for a few minutes, saw our niece, freshened up and were off! We wandered around Harvard Square, lost, until we finally found Mike's Pastry! It was HOT and HUMID and we were dying a little bit. After locating Mike's Pastry we got a cannoli and a tiramisu - both really good! *Travel Tip - There is also a Mike's in downtown Boston that is usually BOMBED. It's fun, but if you just want the pastry without the hassle and the pushing and the rush, go to Harvard Square instead.

Randy and I then got on the T, which is the subway system in Boston. *Travel Tip - we got Charlie Cards and just loaded money onto them for the week, instead of having to buy a ticket each time. This was faster and easier than having to purchase individual tickets, and we could control how much money was on the cards!

We got downstairs in the T station and waited....and waited....and waited.....we were down there for about 45 minutes with a hundred other people. A disabled train was preventing everyone from getting into the city and lots of businessmen and women bailed - we heard that there were no Uber's or taxi's left leaving Cambridge because they were all taken! Finally after we were thoroughly hot and sweaty a train came! And we couldn't fit on it. So we waited for another train! We were squished and Randy was pushed up against the door, and it was quite the adventure.

When we finally got to Boston we went to the Boston Common. We were a little tired, hot, and I was a bit confused and lost in the city even though I'd been there before HA. So it was a bit rough. We people watched, sat on the bench that we're pretty sure is the Goodwill Hunting bench, and saw the duck statues from the book "Make Way for Ducklings" (it's adorable. If you haven't read it, go read it now.)

Then we headed off on the Freedom Trail! For those of you that don't know, Boston has a red brick trail that goes all over the city and leads you to some of the most important historical spots. It's really awesome! *Travel Tip - and it's free so basically if you go to Boston, DO IT.

The Freedom trail lead us first to the State House, which is beautiful. Then to the first Church in Boston, which is also really beautiful. It was so fun to go inside and see the memorials to all the leaders of the area, etc.


Then we went to a cemetery which was BEAUTIFUL. The headstones were all rubbed off with age, sinking into the ground. Some pretty famous people were buried there including Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock. We then went to the King's Chapel which was the first church built for the Church of England. It was a beautiful building, and again so interesting to go inside and see the organ and the pews. Then we went to one of Randy's favorite stops, the Old Corner Bookstore. It's now a Chipotle which is hilarious! But it's amazing to think that Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens both worked in that very bookstore. So much history in one little shop! We then saw the old South Church where the town meeting was held when they decided to go forward with the Boston Tea Party. It is so amazing to be in places where so much history happened! It was about this point that we were just so excited and happy to be in the city. Downtown Boston is beautiful, and Randy and I just LOVE the city, so it was awesome to have all the historical buildings right next to all the new skyscrapers.



Next we got to the State House, which is where they read the Declaration of Independence to Bostonians for the first time. Queen Elizabeth later made a speech here about how our countries are friends, no longer enemies, which I thought was really cool.





Right outside the State House is where the Boston Massacre occurred, which Randy thought was the coolest thing ever. We heard a bucket drummer at that point, so Randy raced me across the street to listen to him, he was really good! That's one thing we love about Boston, there are lots of street performers so there's no shortage of entertainment.

The last Freedom Trail stop for us on day 1 was Fanueil Hall. It used to be a big marketplace and now it's full of restaurants and stores! *Travel Tip - you can do the whole Freedom Trail in one day, we loved breaking it up so we weren't history overloaded! Randy and I had lunch at the Cheers Bar which was cool, even though neither of us are particularly crazy about the show.



Randy then spotted his all time favorite store in Japan, Uniqlo and was seriously on cloud 9! We had no idea they had one in the states, so of course we had to go and shop! Randy got lots of cool things, and it was so awesome to shop at his favorite store!



At this point, we were exhausted so we got back on the train and headed to Cambridge for a little nap. We slept and played with Candace and Ben and Kim. Then at about 5:00 we figured we needed to get back up or we would never get to bed! So we got ready and ventured out again to Harvard Square where we went to Shake Shack. Now, I love Shake Shack, and Randy had never been. He's a bit of an In N' Out crazy fan, so I wanted to see if we could convince him to convert. No such luck. Watch the video for his full explanation of why In N' Out is better haha. But Shake Shack is really good food and has AMAZING ice cream!

We wandered around Harvard Square for a bit after, then walked back through the park to Ben and Kim's apartment. The park by their place is awesome, it has the tree marked where George Washington took charge of the continental army, some stole British canons, and statues to many people who fought in different wars. It just has so much history, it's incredible! *Travel Tip - literally almost every building and house in Boston has some history behind it! Check out things as you're walking, the history is there!

We also attempted to vlog on this trip, the camera we used is blurry and weird for some reason which is lame! So here's our day 1 vlog, very weird and very scattered but still! We are trying!

Stay tuned for day 2.