Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts

Monday, September 3, 2012

Last day in Boston

On our last day in Boston we decided to go to George's Island.  We took a ferry to the island.  To the left are two views from the Ferry.  As soon as we got on the island we took a tour with a park ranger.  Turns out that since this is a historic landmark the park rangers are federal employees, opposed to regular park rangers are state employees. 

They don't actually know how George's Island got its name.  The original founder of the island named it after himself, and then a few years later it was randomly called George's Island.  They don't know if it was named after King George, or the founder's middle name was George, or George some random guy... But that's the name that stuck.

George's Island is home to Fort Warren.  Fort Warren is a well defended fort that has never fired a shot in anger nor has been fired upon in anger.  It seems like it was more of a cold war type thing.  The fort was built so well that no one wanted to try to break in.  Back in the 1800's when the fort was built it was next to the only way into the Boston Harbor.  Since then more channels have been dug (?? Perhaps?  Actually I don't know if I understand how there are more channels)  and there are more ways into the Boston Harbor, but everyone was afraid that if this Island fell to the British (or whomever) Boston would not be able to get any imports.  So they built the fort as strong as possible.  To the upper right is where soldiers would sit with guns if an intruder was coming. Basically the fort was built so you can see an intruder come from every direction.  And then the picture to the right that shows where the draw bridge used to be. 

 More pictures of the fort








After the fort we went to The JFK Library and Museum.  The museum was about his life and Jackie O's life.  It was a pretty neat museum.  We saw a bunch of items Jackie was given (purses and jeweler and whatnot) by other diplomats.  We also saw some famous dresses of Jackie's.  And then we saw a lot about JFK.  I didn't realize he almost lost the election!  If I remember correctly, JFK won in the electoral college, but lost in the popular vote. 




Sunday, September 2, 2012

More about Boston

I've been lazy the past few days.  Sorry for not posting. 

The  morning after my cousin's wedding we slept in and ate at Atlantic Fish Company.  The restaurant was very good.  We ordered crab cakes as an appetizer, clam chowder soup, I had the halibut  and C had the sashimi grade tuna.  Everyone, including my Aunt, Uncle and cousins were thrilled with the food.  While we were ordering the waiter brought out a 40 year old lobster.  It was 7.5 lbs.  I would have thought this would cost around $500.  But it was only $127 and could feed 4 people easily.  My aunt felt bad for the lobster and she said she wanted to buy it only so she could set it free.  Personally, I wanted to see how it tasted. :) haha.

After we left the restaurant we stumbled upon two REAL old churches.   We saw Old South Church which is an Epispical church or something like that.  We were able to go inside this church and it was gorgeous.  While we were inside we heard someone playing the organ.  It was pretty neat.  However, since I'm Catholic, I was more interested in seeing Catholic Churches.  We didn't stay that long at this church since the server at the Atlantic Fish Co thought the Trinity Church was Catholic.  We make our way to the Trinity Church and The Church is gorgeous.  We walk inside to see that you have to purchase TICKETS to see the church.  Needless to say, we did not go inside.  We just admired the church from the outside.  Below is a picture I took of the church in the facade of a nearby building.  I thought it was a very cool picture, sort of old world meets current world. 










We didn't really have any more plans for what we wanted to do while we were in Boston, so we went on Super Duck Tours.  If anyone has been to the Wisconsin Dells they know what the Ducks are.  Basically they are tour buses that can go on land AND water!  As a child, I thought that was SO cool. :)  The Super Ducks are the only ducks that can go in the Boston Harbor.  Apparently, the other Ducks can only go in the river or something.  First we went on a land tour.  The picture to the right is the "Ellis Island" of Boston.  Apparently if you immigrated to Boston, the chances are, you came through this building.  (Obviously it has been remodeled since the days of my ancestors)

We also were able to see the Old South Meeting Hall (Left) and the last remaining piece of the highway that used to run above ground (Right).  I guess this long ugly highway used to run along the harbor front, and it had a TON of traffic.  In order to solve the problem, Boston decided to go below ground.  So the "Big Dig" happened, and they created a highway that goes under the harbor.

After about 45 minutes of a land tour, we went to the water.  The below picture is what it looks like going into the water.  Its pretty neat.  C and I had a great view since we were in the front seats.
The picture above is the Boston Skyline from the Ducts.  


I'm a huge fan of Bridges, and I really liked this bridge.  The architect modeled the bridge off the bunker hill monument.  If you look at the below picture you can compare these towers with the bunker hill monument (which looks a lot like the Washington Monument)

 


The picture to the left shows the USS Constitution with the bunker hill monument. 







When we were done with the Super Duct tour we decided to go back to "The North End."  We had heard wonderful things about an Italian restaurant "Giacomos" and we just couldn't leave Boston without trying it.  We unknowingly walked through the St Anthony Festival. To the left is a statue of St Anthony.  For the non-Catholics, St Anthony is the Patron Saint of all things Lost.  We learned that you can put your dollar (or $20 dollars if you so chose) on St Anthony's  statue and pray to him to ask God to help you find whatever you need.  Basically since St Anothony is an expect at finding things you are asking him to talk to God on your behalf.  The festival was a dry festival (no booze) and all I have to say is Thank God!!  The festival was so crazy that I could not have imagined what it would have been like if liquor was involved.  Since everyone really wanted to try Giacomos, we did not have any of the festival food.  We pretty much just walked through the streets to get to the restaurant.  Then when we got to Giacomos we had to wait in line.  See, Giacomos is such a well known, good restaurant that they do not take reservations.  They also do not take your name down.  They just make everyone stand in line and you get seated when a table opens up. 


Since the line was like 20 people deep (I may be exaggerating) my cousin and I decided to walk to Modern Pastry (another recommendation) to get Italian Cookies.  We were not very impressed with Mike's Pastry, and all the locals said Modern was 10 times better.  Once again, we had to wait in line.  And while we were waiting in line we saw St Anthony being escorted by a marching band down the street.  (See photo to the left)  It was crazy!  We learned (from a local) that a second St Anthony statue is paraded down the streets and people can also attach money and pray for help.  We also asked the local what happens to the money.  And this is what he said "At the end of every block they take all the money off the statue.  Then a guy runs... Not walks, RUNS to the nearest bank to deposit it." I asked what they do with the money and the guy gives air quotes and says "charitable things."  When he said that, all I could think of was "Great... I just paid the Boston Mob..."  Thankfully I just gave $1, and I don't know how far that money will go now adays, I mean you can't even buy a pack of gum for that. 

Anyway, Modern Pastry did NOT disappoint.  Even though we had to deal with a rude man, (who yelled at my cousin who was holding the door open for him) it was worth the way.  We found out Local Boston-ians think Chicago is ... well... tough.  Lol.  The local Boston-ians said since we are from Chicago that guy who yelled at my cousin is lucky we didn't shoot him.  We didn't quite know what to say to that so we just laughed. 

We got back to the line at Giacomos and only had to wait like 30 more min.  But the wait, again, was worth it.  I ordered the pumpkin tortellinis.  Everyone in our group tasted the tortellinis (except for C since they were in a cream sauce and he is allergic to dairy) and they ALL loved them.  Overall, the 1 hour wait was more than worth it. 

Since we ate a ton of food, we decided to walk back to the car.  Along the way we stumbled onto some historic sights.  Including Paul Revers House (right) and the site of the Boston Massacre (bottom).  
 




After we got in the car, we drove past Fenway Park.  It wouldn't really be a trip to Boston if we didn't see Fenway Park.  We only saw it from the outside, and we never actually got out of the car, but we will see the park in more detail on the next trip.  





Thursday, August 30, 2012

Haaarvard and the wedding - Boston

On Saturday we went to Harvard.  To be 100% honest, I was NOT impressed with the campus.  I imagined an oasis campus in the middle of the city, similar to Marquette University (where I went to college.  Instead I saw a quad, and a campus that was intertwined with the town. 

To the left is Mr Harvard. 

Below are gates at Harvard that say "Enter To Grow in Wisdom"  Dad needed some Wisdom, so he went through the gates. 





















Possibly the coolest thing I saw was at the Harvard was the Book on Demand Printer.  We got lucky and they were printing a book as we speak.  It was really cool!  Basically if you have a book, recipe book, or whatever that you want bound, you can send it to Harvard and they will bind it.  Its not even that expensive!  You can go here for prices.
 

After Harvard, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the main event.  My cousin getting married. :) Here you can see the new Mr and Mrs. 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Boston Day 2

Boston Day 2 has much more pictures. :) The first thing we did was go to Warren Tavern.  Warren Tavern is one of the oldest Taverns in Massachusetts.  George Washington's funeral speech was given here and both George Washing and Paul Revere frequently visited here. 



After that we followed the Freedom Trail to the Bunker Hill Monument.   I wrote about some of this day in a previous blog post - here.  I mistakenly said this was the Washington monument, but that is not correct.  This is the Bunker Hill Monument.  The Washington Monument is in DC.  This monument was 294 stops to the top, and we never ended up going to the top.  We got side tracked with the USS Constitution and a family dinner later that night. 






The USS Constitution was very cool.  It sailed on the 24th for the first time since 1998 (at least that's what the sailor told us)  It is the oldest navy vessel that still sails.  It got its nick-name "old iron-sides" because during the war of 1812 soldiers said that cannons would "bounce" off the ships sides.  
At one point we went down below deck to see the other levels of the ship.  Above is the barracks.  Pretty small if you ask me.  The ceiling was real low.  I would have to duck almost the entire time so I wouldn't hit my dead.  After a few minutes one of the sailors said everyone had to go upstairs because a VIP was coming aboard.  Later we found out it was the governor that was coming.
C's brother joined the Navy.  He leaves for basic in December.  So I was very confused as to how and why these sailors got the job of manning this ship.  So I asked one of them.  The conversation went like this.               ~Me - Excuse me. Do you have a minute?
~Sailor - Yes
~Me - Can you tell me what job you have in the Navy?
~Sailor - Missile Launcher (or something like that) 
~Me - But the USS Constitution doesn't have missles?
~Sailor - There's a long story that goes along with it, and I came here by choice.  *Sailor turns and then walks away*

I think I may have annoyed him.  It wasn't my intention.  I just was curious since C's brother is joining as a Corpsman.   I didn't really understand how a military man could have ended up on the USS Constitution.  C told me that I asked the sailor for a minute, and he gave me a minute and at that point I was asking for more of his time. Oh well.  If that sailor reads this - I'm sorry. 

This is another ship that was in the harbor for repair.  Unfortunately I can not remember the name of the ship. 

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

I'm back from Boston.

I had never been to Boston or any of the original 13 before this trip so I had a lot of fun.

These days I pretty much rely exclusively on my phone for pictures and the day we left started super early so I didn't get many pictures that first day.  I woke up early and drove to midway.  Met C at Boston Logan and he surprised me with Coffee, K-cups and a sandwich from Dunkin Donuts.  Later that trip we learned that Dunkin Donuts originate near Boston, but in reality C got me coffee and K-cups because he knows Dunkin Donuts is my absolute favorite coffee of all time.

We arrived at the hotel and woke up my Cousins and Aunt and Uncle.  Then we decided to go explore Boston.  Since the wedding was actually in Peabody (pronounced Pibidy) a suburb of Boston, we had to drive everywhere.  We were extremely surprised at 1 PM when there was traffic on the interstate.  Don't ask me which interstate we were on, I have no idea.  I just was shocked to see so much traffic on a Thursday.  Chicago doesn't have that much traffic in the middle of the day, and I assumed Boston would be similar.  When we got to the city of Boston we attempted to find parking and realized the parking prices were just as bad, possibly WORSE than Chicago.  It was surprising. 

Finally we found parking (only $29) and went to a graveyard that was close by.  We saw graves for Mother Goose (pictures here on C's blog) a women who is thought to have been behind the mother goose fairy tales, Sam Adam, Paul Revere, 5 victims of the Boston Massacre, Ben Franklin's parents, John Hancock and many others.  After this we went to a local coffee shop to get coffee and then walked along the Freedom Trail toward The North End.

Along the way we saw another grave and a very old church.  (I highly recommend going to C's blog to see pictures for this day.)  The only picture I have for this day is of a memorial to honor the men and women who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.  When a wind comes through it sounds like chimes. Absolutely gorgeous. 

Anyway, we continued to walk and found the North End.  We ate at Lucca's which is a restaurant someone recommended to us.  Honestly, I thought it was overpriced and not worth it.  But oh well.  We also went to Mike's Pastry and ordered an assortment of Italian Cookies to-go.  Unfortunately, this was also not worth the wait.  Later in the trip we went to a much better Italian Restaurant, and a much better Italian Bakery.

After that we went to Cheers. :) Or should I say, the bar that inspired the TV Sitcom Cheers.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize this when we first went here, so when we followed the signs that said "set bar upstairs" we thought we were actually in the set bar.  Later we learned that the actual set bar is in a storage room somewhere in LA.  Apparently people would visit the cheers bar and say things like "this doesn't even look like Cheers. Where did Norm sit?" So they built a set bar.  Oh well.  At least we got to see the bar that inspired the sitcom.  After that we walked through the Boston Commons (a big garden area) and had a few Italian cookies and called it a night.

Boston Day 2 will be posted tomorrow. 

Friday, August 24, 2012

Blogging from Boston

Well. I'm standing in line to see the USS Constitution. We just came back from eating at the oldest pub in Massachusetts.

I'm blogging from my phone right now, and I have never done this before.  So I  don't know how the pictures I've uploaded are going to be. Hopefully you can see them. Anyway.

Apparently the pub we ate at is where George Washington's funeral speech was given! The food was pretty good. I had a crab cake BLT. Yum!

Then we walked to the Washington Monument. I didn't even know Boston had a Washington Monument and it turns out this one was the original. Who knew! Unfortunately the inside of the monument was closed for a bit. I guess they were repairing a light. So we were planning on going to the USS Constitution and coming back to climb the 20 flights after we saw the ship. Unfortunately, the line for the ship is REALLY long. I'm not sure if we will have enough time to do both.

Ill post more about the ship later.


Monday, June 20, 2011

Vegas

Well, I just got back from Vegas, and what happens in Vegas....

Who am I kidding, we were all very good girls and nothing that exciting or scandalous happened.  We went to a bunch of clubs, did a ton of dancing, and saw Holly Madison in Peep Show.

Peep Show was real good. :) Although, no offense to Holly, but compared to all the other dancers on the show, well... she couldn't really dance.  The show was real cute.  I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect the show to involve fairy tales. Haha. 

I would say my favorite part of the show was Timber. :)  At one point the cast brought up 3 guys on stage.  One of the guys names was Timber. :) Timber claimed to be a random guy from the audience, but he wasn't.  I pretty much figured it out when he started feeling Holly up in the middle of the stage. Haha.  That's ok though, he was pretty to look at and he was the most entertaining part of the show.

I think my favorite part of the trip was seeing Rachael Ray. We were standing in line ready to go to the airport, and it just so happened Rachael's cars (there were 8 of them) were parked right in front of where we had to stand. The daytime Emmy's were happening on Sunday, so around 3 PM Rachael left Caesars in a beautiful blue and black evening gown.  She was absolutely gorgeous and was very down to earth.  It sounded like she was having a minor wardrobe malfunction before she went into the limo, and all she did was stand there laughing.  Anyway, Rachael, you looked beautiful.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Back to Reality

Well, I survived the trip to Alaska, and I am starting to look forward to Las Vegas in 2 weeks. :)

Alaska was a BLAST.  I saw a TON of animals, and I have a ton of stories.  I'll post them all in the weeks to come.

I think my favorite thing of the trip was hiking up to Mt Healey Overlook.  It was a 6+ mile hike and it was a lot of hard work!  I think I burned 2000 calories (haha). However, when I was done I had such a sense of accomplishment. :) Not to mention the views on the top of the mountain were AMAZING. :)

Gotta keep this one short and sweet, post more later.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Leaving for Alaska

Alright, in less than 24 hours I will be on my way to Alaska. :) Unfortunately I wont be posting while I am on vacation, so you will have to live without me.  I'll be gone for almost 2 weeks, but I'm sure I'll have a ton of stories to post about when I get home.

Bye for now Blogger. :)