Hello, all! It's been awhile! My best friend Mary and I just arrived back from our last stop, NYC, on Friday, and I'm excited to share our three week journey across the pond and back with you. Since there is a lot to cover, these entries will be posted throughout this week and next week, so keep checking in to find the newest installment! Let's get started with our first stop along the journey: Boston, MA.

June 12, 2017

Our first real day, as we'd arrived late the afternoon before, we picked up a CharlieCard and took the "T" from Cambridge inbound to downtown. 

The first place we went was the Boston Common. This is an expansive park filled with historic statues, tranquil spots to relax, and beautiful flora. The Massachusetts State House watches over it on one side, and the public garden is across the road on the west side. 

Click on the images below to enlarge them and look through the slideshow.

Next, we headed to the Charles River Esplanade. This is another beautiful green spot in the middle of downtown Boston. The tree-lined, shaded walk is made picturesque by views of the harbor. There were steps right down to the water, which provided a perfect place to soak our feet amongst the lily pads. We saw lots of sunbathers in the park and out on the docks, despite the 90-degree temps!

Then, we stopped by Newbury Street, a historic street in Boston that is filled with cute shops and boutiques. We also got a look at the Church of the Covenant, which houses the largest, most complex, and most intact Tiffany windows in America. Ending our little walk, we went through Beacon Hill, a Bostonian neighborhood that pulses with history, comprised of narrow, uphill cobbled streets and well preserved architecture. 

Here, we decided it was time to embark on arguably the best feature of Boston: the Freedom Trail. The National Parks Association does a wonderful job making this historic walking tour accessible, fun, and as easy as stopping by Faneuil Hall, picking up a map, and heading to the next site closest to you. Most of the stops on the trail are free (which is important when you're about to spend all your money in Europe), and I loved having the information given to me, then being able to go at my own pace along the trail. 

From Faneuil Hall, we walked up towards Old North Church, where on the night of April 18, 1775, Robert Newman hung two lanterns in the steeple to warn Charlestown of incoming British soldiers. On the way, we passed the Paul Revere House, which was one of the few stops you had to pay to tour, so we just gazed upon it from the outside. However, we did decide to spend our money on a treat from Mike's Pastries here on our walk, splitting a gargantuan (and delicious) chocolate mousse cannoli. 

A long walk took us up to the Bunker Hill Monument, where we caught a few minutes of respite from the heat in the museum, then we took a $3 ferry ride from the harbor where the USS Constitution is docked to where we started at Faneuil Hall to complete the southern part of the trail. 

In front of the Old State House, Mary and were randomly asked to be a part of a promotional video (as you do) for the Blue Lab. Then, we continued past the Boston Massacre Site to where the Old Corner Bookstore should have been, and (gasp!) it had been turned into a Chipotle.

We ended our Freedom Trail experience with two graveyards. The first, King's Chapel and Burying Ground, features the tombstone that allegedly inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write the Scarlet Letter because of the large "A" that can be seen in the family crest. The second, the Granary Burying Ground, is where John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams, among other Revolutionaries, are buried. 

By then, most of the sites were closing, so we walked to Boston Harbor, where the site of the Boston Tea Party was, to sit along the waterfront and look at the historic ships. Since we were in Boston, after all, we had dinner at a seafood restaurant called the Barking Crab. The hot crab dip was so good that I was thinking about it nonstop for the next two days. 

All in all, we walked about 14 miles our first day (a good indication that I would have plantar fasciitis by the end of this trip), and had a killer sunburn (because who brings sunscreen on a trip to England and Ireland, right?) 

June 13, 2017

Our half day before flying to England was spent at Harvard University. We got there early in the morning, the campus almost completely devoid of tourists. We saw the massive steps of the Widener Library, where students were studying, tucked in the nooks between towering columns. The Houghton Library was open to visitors for an exhibit, so we perused displays created by the Archives department about President JFK's connection to the university.

One of my favorite parts about the university's campus was the fountain in front of the science building. Droplets cascaded over rocks that were perfectly spaced for children to climb and jump across. Once the tourist crowds descended, we took reprieve here by the fountain, both from the heat and the droves of people. 

For lunch, I had my first ever food truck experience at Bon Me. It served Thai food, and the basil chicken and soba noodles were delicious—made even more so by our retreat into the air conditioned science building to eat. 

We then headed over to Harvard Yard to people watch, and this is the point in the story where we almost found ourselves unsuspecting dog owners. After sitting in the shade of the trees for about five minutes, a man holding a leashed dog approached us and asked if we would watch his dog for five or ten minutes. Being the nice, dog-loving people that we are, we said yes, and the dog, named "Shafsta" or something equally strange, was ours.

But as soon as the dog's owner left, Shafsta started FREAKING out. She would not stop barking. And she wasn't friendly, either. She strained at the leash as far away from us as possible and barked. And barked.

Then, as soon as she started to calm down, I realized: wait, it's been 15 minutes.

Was the owner coming back? Had he just left his dog with strangers, never to return? Were we on some kind of prank show?

A whopping 25 minutes later, just as we were about to abandon this random dog with another poor unsuspecting group of strangers, the owner returned and Shafsta was reunited with the one person in the world whom she appeared to like. As a celebration for not becoming dog owners at Harvard, we got homemade ice cream at the Farmer's Market beside the science building before heading back to the apartment to pack and make our trek to the airport. 

Right before we were supposed to leave for the airport, it started hailing and pouring rain, the water forcing itself inside the apartment we were staying in through the open windows that were meant to let out the heat. The craziness did not end there, however, as when we arrived at our gate at Boston Logan International Airport to board our plane, we were greeted by a stagnant mass of weary travelers. The flight before ours had been delayed three hours, pending cancellation any minute, and our flight apparently contained another 1,500 people who were also waiting in the same small area. 

However, soon enough, we boarded our plane, ready to start the next leg of our journey: England!