The Freedom Trail

We woke up the latest we had thus far on the trip and got up about 8:30. It was nice to sleep-in a little bit, but then again we had gone to bed quite a bit later the night before. After getting ready, we made our way to the lobby to see if they had any brochures on the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is 16 historically significant sites related to events of the Revolutionary era and beyond along a 2.5 mile urban walking trail marked with a red line on the streets of Boston. The hotel did not have any brochures, but the front desk worker printed a very small, black and white, almost illegible copy for us. He told us what T (subway) stop we needed to go to the starting point. The T is right next door to the hotel so we figured out how to buy a day pass and made our way to Boston Commons. It was not a long trip on the subway and was only 4 or so stops away. When we came up out of the subway we were right at the Visitor’s Center and the start of the Freedom Trail.

There were a ton of people around and we could see that guided tours started here as well. We went inside of the Visitor’s Center and decided not to do a guided tour and instead bought the official Walking Guide so that we could give ourselves a self-tour. As we went along the trail we were happy with the choice of doing it on our own. The groups were huge and it seemed like with that many people in tow that it would be hard to hear or find yourself at the back of the pack. At the Old South Meeting House you could go inside for a fee of $15, but we didn’t think we would do that until I overheard someone say something about a military discount. I popped in and found that it was completely free for military, so we went inside and viewed the museum pieces and the interior of the building. It was also free for us at the next stop at the Old State House. I’m glad we were able to go inside and dive a little deeper into the history of the places, people, and events of the Revolutionary War. At Faneuil Hall we decided it was time to take a break and grab lunch. The Samuel Adams Tap Room was right there so we waited in a short line for security and were seated at the bar in no time. Tom ordered a flight and I had a good ole Boston Lager. We also both ordered a panini sandwich which was just ok, but filled the space. It was nice to sit at the bar and just soak in the environment.

The next stop was the Paul Revere house which we also got in for free for being military. There was no photos allowed inside the house, but Tom was feeling rebellious and stealthily snuck a few photos. The most interesting fact about Paul Revere is that he had 16 children between two wives. Only 11 of the 16 kids made it to adulthood. In the park on the way to the Old North Church we noticed a bunch of boxes from Mike’s Pastry in the garbage. I had seen people carrying these boxes earlier in the day as well and was wondering what the deal with Mike’s Pastry was. At the Old North Church Tom asked someone carrying a box where Mike’s Pastry was and what was it. We found it was relatively close and their specialty was cannoli’s. It was at this point I also realized there were virtual geocaches along the Freedom Trail as I had not checked the app until we got to the Old North Church. I found the information I needed for the cache and Tom and I backtracked to Mike’s Pastry. The line to the counter was out-the-door and almost around the corner. I left Tom in line so I could back-track to Paul Revere’s house to get the information I needed for the virtual cache. It was only about a block away from Mike’s Pastry so I made it back to Tom before he even entered into the building. They had several different flavors of cannoli’s and I picked Mint Chocolate Chip and Tom got Caramel Pecan. The eclairs also looked good so we got one of those as well. We walked back to the park outside Old North Church to sit down and eat our cannoli. They were really good and worth the price and wait in line. I can see why they are such a popular destination.

With our belly fully of cannoli we continued on the Freedom Trail across the bridge to Charlestown and to the Bunker Hill Monument. I was surprised to see an outdoor wedding taking place outside the monument on one side, and kids running around and playing and being loud on the other. It seemed like a strange place to set up an outdoor wedding. The monument was closed for the day and with the sun setting, we booked it over to the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) to see if we could get a good picture with the sunset. The Constitution was also closed for the day, but we wondered around to get the best photo angle. We had lingered around so long that we actually caught the saluting battery firing where they shot a blank out of one of the cannons. We were in the perfect spot to watch it, yet I still jumped when the shot rang out. It was super loud! I’m glad we were in the right spot at the right time for that.

Tom had found another iconic bar in the neighborhood that he thought we should get a beer at, so we wondered to it but when we walked in and saw that it had been modernized and a tv blaring the corner of the bar, decided that we didn’t need to stop. We walked back to our hotel to drop off the éclair and re-group for the evening. I did a quick internet search of things to do and found that on Saturday nights at Democracy Brewing Company (https://www.democracybrewing.com) near Boston Commons they hold a Comedy Party with several comedians performing from 8:00-10:00. That sounded like fun so we got back on the T and got back off at the same stop that we had this morning. We had gone full circle and found it funny that we were back to where we started in what felt like days ago. We got a beer at the bar and when the doors opened, made our way into the backroom for the comedy show. The room was quite small and held no more then 50 people. In total 6 comedians performed. They were funny, but not fall out of our seat laughing funny. We were still happy with the choice to attend the show.

After the comedy show we headed to Versus Arcade Bar (https://www.versusboston.com) that was just a few blocks away. It was $5 cover charge to get in and was pretty packed with people. It didn’t have a ton of arcade games, but they had some of the classics Tom likes to play (no Tron though). I managed to score a seat at the bar and ordered a smash burger and fries that Tom and I shared. Before our food came out the guy sitting next to me left so Tom was able to sit down too. The burger was pretty good, but we were both super happy that we shared this meal. I would have been overstuffed if I ate the whole thing myself. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get on any of the games because it seemed like it was pretty busy, but by the time we were ready to play, the games were pretty vacant. Tom made it a point to get his name on the leaderboard on many of the games that he could with taking first on Asteroids. It was getting to close to midnight so it was time to go. We got back on the subway and went back to the hotel.

Stats of the Day

Cost of Freedom Trail Walking Guide Book: $8
Cost of Guided Tour: $60/person
Cost of 1 cannoli at Mike’s Pastry: $5.50
Weather: 62-67 degrees and sunny
Geocaches Found: 2 Virtual
Steps Walked: 20,509