Boston Harbor Islands, Lunch in the North End & Boston Common

Longfellow House and Seaport Sunset

Lowell Factory Tour & Mount Auburn Cemetery

Capitol Building Tour, Beacon Hill and Red Sox Game

On Thursday, May 16th I flew from Salt Lake City to Boston on a red eye flight.  I went to visit my sister Rachel one last time while she lived in Boston, and to help her pack and clean and then drive across the country as she moved back to Washington.  I was really happy that she would be back in Seattle, but will miss being able to visit her in Boston so much.  I love this city, and area and have loved all of the trips and things that I have been able to do while visiting her there.  And I will miss being able to live vicariously through her as she explored the area.

I got in at 8:30 on Friday morning and Rachel picked me up from the airport and took me back to her apartment.  We talked for a while, then I slept for a few hours.  When I got up I did laundry and helped her clean and pack and we took one last trip over to the beautiful cemetery by her house.

On Saturday, May 25th, we went into Boston and took a ferry into the Boston Harbor Islands to Georges Island.  It has an old fort on it, that we toured and wandered around.  It had the prettiest lilac bush that was so enormous and had so many blooms.  You get a great view of the Boston skyline as the ferry leaves and returns.  After we took the ferry back we wandered through Christopher Columbus Park and up to the North End where we had a late lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant in Boston, Carmelina’s.  We picked up some Mike’s pastries on our way out as we walked to Boston common to see all the little memorial day flags.  Rachel has been wanting to do this, and it was the first time she made it, right before she moved.  🙂  We went over to the Public Garden and laid down in the grass for a while, it was a beautiful day.  We then ate our pastries before heading home and doing some more cleaning and packing.

On Sunday, May 26th, we went to church for Rachel’s last time in her ward.  The church building she met in is right across the street from the Longfellow House, so we went over there afterwards to see their lilacs.  Unfortunately for me, most of them were past blooming, but there were still a few hanging in there.  I have never seen one place with so many lilac bushes, I think there were about 100, they would have been amazing in full bloom.  Rachel showed me some of her pictures from a week earlier and I was so sad I had missed it.  It was a really hot day, and Rachel doesn’t have any air conditioning so after church I just laid down next to the fan and listened to an audiobook and took a nap.  That night we went to Seaport for the sunset.  It was such a pretty location for the sunset, with the water and skyline.

On Monday the 27th, Memorial Day, we picked up a mandatory Boyce family Dunkin’ Donut on our way out as we drove up to Lowell and took a tour of the factory there.  It was so interesting to see and learn more about the industrial revolution and the part that the town played in it.  I loved all of the red brink and green accents and mint walls.  There are a number of canals running through the city that were really important for the factories and we took a boat tour on the canals after seeing the buildings.  It was a really cute little town.  After that we headed back to Boston and went to Mount Auburn Cemetery.  It is huge and to me felt more like a park, with the pretty little gardens and ponds and there is an observatory tower that you can climb to get a view of Boston.  We once again headed back to Rachel’s to do some more packing.

On Tuesday, the 28th, Rachel worked from home so the movers could come pick everything up and I went into Boston on my own.  I went to the Capitol building and took an actual guided tour this time.   I love the stained glass windows, and mosaic and marble floors and the white marble and wrought iron stairway.  I picked up some lunch at Sweetgreen, which had the longest line but was so worth it, then wandered around Beacon Hill one last time.  It had started to rain while I got lunch so after Beacon Hill I took my last T ride back to Rachel’s.  That night we went to the Red Sox baseball game and had tickets on top of the Green Monster.  We were looking forward to this game so much, to sit on the green monster, and then it rained.  We got through the first 1 1/2 innings with just a lighter drizzle before it started to come down more and they stopped playing.  There was about an hour delay while we waited inside before they started it back up again.  It was still raining and we were freezing and sadly we ended up leaving in the 8th inning.  I still had a fun experience though.

Wednesday was our last day in Boston and we did some last few errands and cleaning and packed up the car, and Rachel worked before getting on the road in the late afternoon.  I have really loved being able to visit Boston these last 4 years and all of the things that I have been able to do because Rachel lived there.