Boston - Day 3

BOSTON - DAY 3

Today is July 4th - US Independence Day!

Today we plan to hit the Freedom Trail, the Aquarium, the Prudential Center Skywalk, and finally, see the Boston 4th of July Fireworks.

The first stop for us today was the Boston Freedom Trail - 2 1/2 miles of historic sites that retell events around America's revolutionary times. We took a cab down to Boston Common and signed up for the noon tour (I know - late start for us!)  The tour guide was almost too informative (lots of information vs hitting the highlights), but there was a significant amount we could take away.

We started with the Golden Domed Massachusetts State House and the Granary Burial Ground where several significant people are buried - John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and the five people who were killed in the Boston Massacre.

Then we saw the Old State House and Faneuil Hall.











We ate lunch at the Black Rose, near Faneuil Hall.  The Irish Bar food was some of the better food we had during the trip so far - recommended.

After lunch we headed to the New England Aquarium.  The minute we walked in there were live penguins out in the open (not behind glass like at other aquariums).  It was really cool to see them running around.

They had a lot of great other exhibits - sea lions, giant turtles, octopii, huge fish, jellyfish, and a petting zoo.






After the Aquarium we headed back to the Prudential Center for a 360 degree view of the city.  Unfortunately we got to the top right when they sold out of a limited number of tickets for the evening's big firework show.  Turns out that at 4pm on July 4th, they sell a limited number of tickets and they sold out in 27 minutes.  With 500,000 people expected to be on the ground, it would have been cool to see it from the sky, but, oh well...  The views of Boston and Cambridge and the Charles River from up top were spectacular - see the pictures!

Above: Panorama of Charles River Left:  Downtown;  Right: MIT

We went home and headed to Tasty Burger right next to the hotel - highly rated, but only Bix liked his burger - the rest of us will pass next time.  Brooke felt sick and did not want to go see the fireworks, so we watched the first hour and a half of the live TV show on CBS and then left the kids at the hotel and walked about a 1/2 mile to the riverbank nearest to Fenway.


We had the perfect spot - just a few hundred people at the eastern tip of Soldier Park - TIP: Go to Commonwealth Ave by the Kenmore Subway station.  Find Raleigh St. and go north a couple of blocks.  Cross the blocked off Storrow Dr, and you're there.  (It's really close to the huge Citgo Sign).

We could see a sweet view of the fireworks shot from the barges and from the Harvard bridge which let off lots of synchronized volleys.

It was a really good show - got tons of video and a picture of us enjoying the show!