We headed up north for Columbus Day weekend and true to how we tend to do our vacations, we did the most with the time we had. Our adventure led us through Boston & Salem Massachusetts, Newport Rhode Island, New Haven Connecticut, New Jersey and Philadelphia. 3.5 days of exploring.
Let’s revisit our fun trip. First off, Boston!
We flew out Thursday night and apparently, everyone near Atlanta was also flying that day. All terminal parking lots were full so we ended up having to do hourly parking for our trip. Not an inexpensive consequence. We then get into the line for security (thank goodness we all had TSA Pre-Check because we were still in line for 45 minutes!) and I overheard someone say there were 65,000 people currently in the airport. How nuts is that!? We got to the gate with just a little bit of time before boarding and luckily it was a pretty uneventful flight. We rented a car in Boston and when we went to go check in for it, Matt noticed this guy next to us that looked super familiar to him. He finally placed him and said he looked a lot like the man who played Van Gogh in an episode of Doctor Who. Matt got the perfect opportunity to ask him and turns out, it was him, Tony Curran!
Pretty cool start to our trip! We also got a free upgrade on the car and had a bit of a fun time choosing which one we wanted. Once we got to the hotel and settled a bit into our room, we decided it was time for dinner. So we head down and start walking to The Union Oyster House to suddenly be hit by hurricane force winds and glacier temperatures. Ok, a bit exaggerated but OMG we were like “what in the world are we experiencing?” It was cold but it made for a fun trip there. The Union Oyster House did not disappoint. Oldest restaurant in the US, amazing fresh oysters and the most delicious cornbread and lobster ravioli I’ve ever had. This place was super cool!
Lillian even tried raw oysters for the first time!
We filled our bellies, made it through round two of us against the arctic winds and excitedly awaited waking up to explore. Boston welcomed us the next day with drizzling rain and cold temperatures but we made the most of it and stuck to our plan of getting out and about to see the city. We walked through their cemetery and was able to see a monument for Ben Franklin and where John Wilkes Booth, Paul Revere and John Hancock were buried. Even placed a penny on John Wilkes Booth’s stone.
We kept on walking and went through Boston Common (their city park). I was hoping that this trip I would be able to see more Fall colors, but alas, that wasn’t in the cards for us. The weather being so warm lately delayed the color changing. Oh well. More reasons to come back! ;)
Two must-do things on our walk this day were to look at the homes on Newberry Street and to check out the building that inspired the TV show Cheers! Both were a treat to see.
On the way back from sightseeing, we went through Boston Public Garden. This place was breathtaking. What a beautiful place to be able to spend some time. Also, the squirrels here are extremely friendly and eager to get up close and personal which we loved.
A bit more interesting views on our way back to the hotel.
We got back to the hotel with enough time to put some stuff down, use the rest room and head back down to make our way to our side trip while in Boston; visiting Salem!
Salem, is best known for it’s history around the witch trials. However, it’s also the location of the most amazing Halloween movie ever made, Hocus Pocus! It was still rainy when we got there, but again, that didn’t deter us from looking around. Plus, the gloomy scene set the stage nicely for this town in October!
Nice little honor to Bewitched!
There were plenty of witch/voodoo inspired shops to see!
Even a shop that was made to replicate the wand shop from Harry Potter. This place was really cool.
Town Hall where the witch trials were held (also where the town party for Hocus Pocus was filmed) as well as the witch house and the cemetery of the witches that were found guilty. A bit somber to think these people were killed because they were different.
Hocus Pocus ALERT! School the Max & Allison went to, Max & Dani’s house, the village from the opening scene where Thackery Binx lived (this was closed when we went) and finally Allison’s house! So fun!
On our scavenger hunt to see the Hocus Pocus landmarks, the Pioneer Village (Thackery Binx village) had a spectacular view of the coast. So we parked and took a look. Again, we must have forgot that it’s super windy and they were having gale forced winds. Not an exaggeration this time they had a weather alert! It was windy and it was gloomy and it was surreal. You can’t really see all the boats in the distance but they were everywhere. We walked back a bit colder, wetter and definitely saltier than when we arrived!
A worthwhile side trip for sure, but it was time to head back.
After a super late lunch at the hotel, we convinced the kids to go out one more time as we had still to see Paul Revere’s home. We didn’t think we’d have time to see it before we headed out in the morning. So, reluctantly, they obliged and once again we made our way through the city on foot. The North End of Boston is the oldest part of the city and you can really tell how much history is there. Paul Revere’s street is still all cobble stones! So freakin’ cool! We came, we saw and then we crashed. I think we all went to bed around 8!
