Katrina and I rose bright and early at 7am (okay, not that early compared to work weeks) to make sure we could find the parking structure for our car and then actually get a couple of blocks up the road to return it on time. We went to pay our parking fee and realized we had scored - only $10 compared to the $38 the hotel wanted to charge us! Yes, parking is ridiculous here. But why use a car when it's easier to walk? The funny part is that I think it took us longer to drive there than it did to walk because a couple of blocks walking is several blocks between the one-way streets and the slow GPS mixing in a little driver error along the way. We still arrived on time and returned the car, without gassing it back up. We had over half a tank left and thought rather than trying to find a gas station and make it back to the car place, we'd pay the extra how many ever cents it cost to have them fill up the car with gas. Yeah, bad choice. For less than a 1/2 of tank of gas, it cost us about $38. I'm guessing that was somewhere around $6/gallon.
We caught a quick breakfast at Finagle a Bagel and took the subway over to North Station. I took a picture of a sign that said "right lane must turn right" and underneath a bumper sticker that said "God is watching". He even cares about the little aspects of our lives! I had to laugh. We crossed over the Washington street bridge which meant we walked over a metal grill of sorts which you could look through and see the water many feet below. I wasn't too nervous at first, but Katrina said she could tell that I was walking a little differently - mostly because I think I felt like I might slip! She even said she was nervous - we both felt better when we returned to the concrete on the bridge - something more sturdy feeling about concrete.
It certainly felt chillier this morning, my fingers were burning with pain at a few points. The weather that morning said it was 22 degrees with a feel of 11 degrees, but the car had said 32 degrees. Whatever the temp was, it was not warm. Another thing I love about Boston is that most of the women wear boots. Since I have a slight boot obsession my self, I would fit in very well here. We also noticed that there seems to be an overwhelmingly high amount of good looking men here. Maybe Boston should be my home...
We made it to the USS Constitution at the Navy Yard and waiting a few minutes for tour to begin. That was quite interesting. I love the old ships like that - and this was definitely a beautiful ship! It is actually an active ship and sailors on duty actually take you on a tour. We had a girl who was very new to the navy from Texas giving us a tour. We could tell she was nervous, but she was so likeable that Katrina made sure to give her a positive comment card. We learned about the guns (cannons) and went below to where they slept, ate and drank. Small quarters for those with higher ranks, but not too bad overall. On our way out we took some pictures and I pretended to fire some guns off so that was fun. I made some rope in the museum and then we continued on to Bunker Hill.
The houses lining the streets were so cute. I had to take more pictures of doorways...just because I like them so much. We eventually made it to the monument and the museum across the way. It is so nice to walk into a warm toasty museum! We sat and listened as a voice told us about the battle that came out of the box once you pressed the button at a miniature replica of the battlefield. They used colored lighting to show the different places of the battle. There were several artifacts from the war in the museum as well. Not the most exciting museum, but interesting none the less. We marched over and up to the monument, which looked so reminiscent of the Washington Monument. We walked around it and I made Katrina pose on the hill as if she was charging up it, and then I did the same. It was definitely a beautiful view of all the buildings surrounding the monument as well as some of the skylines in the distance. The city definitely has more of a British feel to it than I would say most of the other places I've been to in the states.
We followed the last of the red line back down to the bridge through the neighborhoods, by the cutest fire station I've ever seen next to a beautiful church with a soaring tower. We liked Charlestown but the excitement was in the city.
We crossed the bridge back into the North End and decided to eat lunch at Regina's Pizza which had been open since 1926. The cozy little place was filled with people and the waitress sat us in a booth right next to Rob Lowe, Renee Rosseau, Jay Leno, and a girl from the Grey's Anatomy. In fact, Katrina was right next to Rob Lowe, so I made sure I took a picture of her with him (no people...not the real Rob Lowe...it was just his picture!). Anyway, she posted on FB that she was eating lunch with Rob Lowe and plenty of people bought it, hook, line and sinker!
My pizza was good - I had a prosciutto with mozzarella, ricotta, and parmesan cheese. Katrina's was similar with chicken and peppers. The waitress told us that the 10" was the personal size. If we weren't really hungry, we could share, but if we were, we should order our own, so we did. Yeah....I took over half of my pizza home! Seriously? It was 10" - how could I eat the whole thing?
We walked back to the hotel instead of taking the subway when we realized that it really wasn't all that far. We walked into the middle of Boston Commons where we saw big chunks of ice for some reason. Then, I noticed the nativity scene by the fountain that squared up perfectly with the view of the state house. How appropriate! The nativity before the law. We walked back to the ice skating rink on Frog Pond (which we will hit before we leave) and found the cutest frog statues. Katrina suggested I kiss the frog, which I did willingly hoping he might turn into a prince. No such luck. We walked a little farther through the park and headed back into the hotel for a short nap. I was for this since my migraine seemed to be back squeezing my eyes and giving me a slight headache.
Well, it's off to Harvard this afternoon....
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