Driven by our current fascination with Revolutionary War history, we decided to indulge our nerdy selves with a historical long weekend trip. And, after almost missing our flight due to a timing error, a box cutter accidently finding its way into Neil’s bag, and a fun Twitter exchange between me and @JetBlue, we arrived in Boston, MA late on a Friday night.

DAY ONE

We stayed in an Airbnb outside the city, so public transportation was definitely our friend. We started our first full day by riding the train into Boston and finding our way to the Boston Public Library for afternoon tea AKA lunch. Because if the Robinsons are going to Boston, we’re going to have a Boston Tea Party.

After stuffing ourselves on treats surrounded by old books in the library, we took the train to Harvard to fill ourselves with more old things. Harvard is technically in Cambridge so we had to head outside the city for this excursion. Thankfully, Boston’s train systems is AMAZING. Like, seriously.

After walking around the pretty campus, getting caught in the rain and exploring the campus bookstore, we took the train to Boston’s South End to eat at Giacomo’s, an awesome authentic Italian food restaurant. Finally, we slowly made our way back “home” after realizing that we hadn’t truly prepared ourselves for how much walking we’d be doing. Urban hikes did not prepare us for the number of steps we took.

DAY TWO

The second day, I awoke to discover I had sprained my foot. So we bought some Dr. Scholl’s inserts and pushed through the pain. Today was the day to walk the Freedom Trail. It’s basically just a red line built into the street that helps you trace the vast history of Boston. We started at Boston Common, saw the site of the Boston Massacre, walked by Paul Revere’s House, pointed at the Old North Church,  and hiked up Bunker Hill.

Then we made our way to the USS Constitution, an old ship that’s technically still in use, but was being renovated while we were there. We still got to climb around the decks, though, which was super fun!

Before dinner, we got a snack at a (you guessed it) bubble tea shop in China Town. It just so happened to be connected to a hipster, organic cream puff shop. Needless to say, we visited it twice on our trip. No shame. At all.

Finally, we ate dinner and headed home, wiped from yet another day of lots and lots of walking. I normally like walking, but with my bum foot, it was a trial. Still broke a record on Neil’s Apple Watch!

DAY THREE

On the final day, we took a trip that was near and dear to my heart (again, we’re nerds here). We hopped on the train and headed to Quincy, MA, to the birth and death place of both John Adams and John Quincy Adams. John Adams is my favorite U.S. President and Abigail Adams is my favorite First Lady. I won’t bore you with the details here, but ask me anytime and I’ll sing their praises…

Neil and I had watched the award-winning HBO John Adams miniseries (by Tom Hanks) before the trip and knew a lot about what we were seeing. So Neil decided to ask the tour guide if any of the series were filmed here. He said he didn’t even know there was a miniseries! HE WAS OUR TOUR GUIDE. We proceeded to tell the rest of the guests about how amazing the show was since none of them were aware of the tele-brilliance they were missing. Please note: Tom Hanks helped make a docu-film for the John Adams estate that they screened in the lobby of the museum. The guy at the ticket desk said the show “did a lot of good for this museum.” AND THE TOUR GUIDE DIDN’T KNOW IT EXISTED. I’ll end this by saying the tour was lovely and worth it and I loved it. And the tour guide had only been there two weeks, though I don’t think that’s a good excuse…

At last, we ended our day (and our Boston trip) with a slice of pizza and a game at Fenway Park. Because, you know, “when in Boston.” I hadn’t been to a baseball game in a while, but let me tell you, Boston fans are serious fans. And it was Star Wars day! There were lots of fun cos-players and some stormtroopers helped do the National Anthem.

After all was said and done, we very much enjoyed our trip to Boston. It’s a beautiful, old and storied city that has more history in one cobblestone than in most of the buildings in my hometown. We had a lot of fun frolicking around, using public transport, and trying to pretend we were locals. It was our first real trip since our honeymoon and our last trip before our epic Peruvian adventure. Can’t wait to see what else is in store for the Robinsons!