I'm Back: Boston / New Hampshire

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I'm back from my trip to New Hampshire / Boston! Actually, I was back last Wednesday, this is just the first chance I've had to get back to blogging. :) This may be a long post. I'll try not to go on too much.

View from hotel balcony.

The trip was so much fun! We arrived late Friday night and stayed at my aunt's house through Monday morning. Sunday we attended the Nascar race in Loudon. So much fun! Monday we were on to Boston for 3 days!

Travel was an absolute nightmare. My sister and I arrived Friday, and our husbands arrived on Saturdays. Flights delayed, canceled. Horrible customer service. It's a really long story - but basically from now on we'll be avoiding Newark airport and Continental whenever we fly.

If you've never been to a Nascar race, I really recommend it. If you like to have fun, meet new people, tailgate - this place is for you. The people who attend Nascar races are so nice! People share food, beer. You never hear fighting over whose driver is better, unless it's just light-hearted bantering. It's an experience, for sure!

Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Monday we headed to Boston and stayed in the Radisson - just a block away from Boston Common. The hotel was really nice and we had a great view of the city.

Once we got checked in we headed to Emerson Cafe for breakfast. Great fresh bagels and really good coffee! It's a good place for a good, quick, cheap breakfast.

We then headed over to Quincy Market (on their excellent subway system) and booked a trolley tour that stopped at about 14 different places. This is an excellent way to see the city and learn some history. You have the option of getting off the trolley at any of the 14 stops. They run about every 15 minutes, so you won't be stranded! We saw Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere's House, Old North Church, USS Constitution, USS Cassin Young (WWII Destroyer), Fenway Park, Granary Burial Ground... and more that I know I'm forgetting. You can easily spread this trolley tour into 2 days. We only got off on a few stops due to time constraints.

USS Constitution
Faneuil Hall
Paul Revere's Statue - outside the Old North Church
Old North Church
Boston Common

That night we headed to the Union Oyster House for dinner. Wow, was this seafood good!! My sister and I got the American Bouillabaisse - lobster, steamers, mussels, shrimp, fish, littlenecks and scallops poached in a seasoned broth, served with garlic bread. Mmmm... YUM!!!

Mmmm... how delicious does that look?

Oh yeah... it was good!

After dinner we headed over to the Bell-in-Hand Tavern. The oldest bar to have a consistent liquor license. They make their own beer, which was excellent. Then we went to the Green Dragon - actually the oldest bar, but there was a period where it was something (maybe a meeting house?). Monday night was amateur comedy night - they had a few good people come in.

Tuesday we got up and we found this great 50s diner called the South Street Diner. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. I love the diner food and atmosphere!

After breakfast we headed over to Sam Adams Brewery, for a tour and some free beer - doesn't get much better! :) It was a really interesting tour. And the two brewmasters, from the commercials, were actually on-site working!

Brewing area (with one of the brewmasters at work) and the tasting room.

We got to sample the Boston Lager, Cherry Wheat, Brick Red (made only for Boston, never bottled and sold only within city limits as a draught beer), and Summer Ale. Gotta love fresh brewed beer! We also got to take the 7 ou. tasting glass as a souvenir. :)

Next we went to Doyle's Cafe - the first bar to ever sell Sam Adams beer. None of us were dissappointed with our food! They have a great menu, and lots of good beer on tap!

After lunch we all needed a nap to re-energize for the evening. So we headed back to the hotel.

That night we hit up Dick's Last Resort for dinner. If you've ever been here, you know it's not your typical restaurant. Prepare yourself to be the butt of a joke a few times over throughout the night. Oh, and they may put a hat on your head with what could be considered slightly offensive (but all in good humor) phrase written on it. :) But... the food's good! I had the crab cakes and my sister had the fried scallops. Delish!

That night we decided to do a Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley Tour. I highly recommend this to everyone. It's not overly scary - lots of humor is thrown into the mix throughout the night. The tour last about 1 hour, 45 minutes. We had a blast, and our tourguide was wonderful! He really got into it, which makes it so much better. We stopped and walked through the Granary Burial Ground, Boston Common and Copp's Hill Burial Ground. We heard stories about the Boston Strangler, Jolly Jane Tobin, hangings in Boston Common, and much more. (Oh, and I just realized our tourguide is on the website - in the video link here - the link is to the left of the page - he's the still photo.)

Our scary tourguide.

Wednesday we unfortunately had to come home. But if you've never been to Boston - GO! We could've easily spent another 3-5 days there to really see and do everything the city has to offer.