Boston Day #3 (and Hingham, too)

We woke up on Sunday to a beautiful blue sky day and decided to do a little more sightseeing to take advantage of the things we could not do in the rain:

Make Way for Ducklings

On the swan boat, looking at the ducks

We walked uptown to meet our friends the Fink/Genaitis clan for brunch (Section F unite!):

After brunch we walked to the wharf to take advantage of the Harbor Cruise that came with our trolley tour:

view of Bunker Hill monument

The white steeple is the old north church

Off the boat, we walked through Quincy Market and took in this busker:

By early afternoon, we headed to Hingham to visit with Uncle Pete and Aunt Sean. Benji had fun playing with his (third!) cousins Benny and Jasper:

Boston Day #2 (or, a little fall of rain won't slow us down)

We had decided on a hop on - hop off tour as our most efficient way to see Boston in a day. We rode for a while and then hopped off at the Granary, Boston's most famous Graveyard:

Tomb of Ben Franklin's parents

Paul Revere's gravestone

An NPS ranger told us that King's Chapel actually had an older and more interesting graveyard a block away, so we went to check that out as well.  The tombs there were more intricate:

John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts

Oldest grave marker, from 1658

The NPS man also told us about a cool tour at King's Chapel called Bones and Bells, where you could see both the crypt and the bell, cast by Paul Revere. It also included a little history of the chapel, which was very interesting:

Abby in a church pew

Steps to nowhere - the steeple never got built

After this, we followed the Freedom Trail for a while and ended up in the Old State House (mostly because we had free tickets from the Trolley company and it was pouring rain):

Benji did like this exhibit where you could light up different sites

A scale model of the state house, since it was too rainy to take a picture of the real thing

Replica clock tower

replica senate hall

When we finished at the state house, we got back on the trolley and took it to the Mary Baker Eddy library Our first trolley driver had mentioned the mapparium, which has a "whisper bridge" with perfect acoustics. Benji asked to see it and was pretty determined that we get there, so we obliged. There were no pictures allowed inside, but a selfie station outside the room replicates the view almost exactly:

Benji was happy because he got to try out whispering on one end of the stained glass globe and being heard at the other.  After this, we had just enough time to finish the trolley tour and go back to the hotel for dinner.

Boston Day #1

We got up early enough to get to Boston by mid-afternoon, even with a lunch stop:

Kids were very excited to find a Friendly's en route

Fribbles all around

We made it to Boston about 3pm and decided to start our sightseeing at the JFK Library. By the time we got in, we only had about 90 minutes to see it all, but it was a great place:

Benji taking in JFK's boat, which lives here in the summer

Campaign paraphernalia

JFK's rocking chair

The boat, close up

The library is right on the harbor, which was beautiful

We ate dinner at an aptly named restaurant right next door to our hotel

And ended the evening with a sunset walk around Boston Common, which was just a block away

This was cool to find

And Benji really liked the bridge over the duck pond

Also this Edgar Allan Poe statue

New York Day 3

For our last day in New York, we headed back into the city to see Wicked. First, we met Uncle Chris at his office and took in the view:

We took a pre-show picture:

And one of the cool stage:

After the show, we ate Ethiopian food in Hell's Kitchen and then headed back for an early night so we could take off for Boston the next day.