Since we mainly travel internationally, Bridgette’s worldschooling has mostly been focused on world history, depending which country we visit. However, being an American born citizen and having our permanent home in the U.S., we obviously cannot ignore U.S. history, so we’ve been studying it together, slowly and at our own pace.
It was perfect timing then, when we took our trip to Boston last month, because we had just finished studying the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. Getting to be in Boston, where much of what we studied took place, was great context for Bridgette to really understand the depth of the American Revolution. #worldschoolingFTW
Our trek across the U.S. was not purely for American History. We were there to attend my cousin (Bridgette’s young aunt) Celine’s graduation! Celine just finished her Master’s Degree on Occupational Therapy at Tufts University, and we were thrilled to get to celebrate with her in Boston!
Bridge and I spent 4 full days in Boston, and besides Celine’s graduation day, we got to spend the rest of our time exploring so much of what Boston has to offer. We didn’t get to walk the entire Freedom Trail, but we did hit up a couple of the museums:
BOSTON TEA PARTY MUSEUM— Bridge and I enjoyed this museum so much! We found it to be engaging, entertaining, and informative. The staff did great in reenacting the town meeting, and it was cool to tour the tea ship in the same body of water that where the Boston Tea Party took place over 200 years ago! The experience ends inside a colonial tea house where you can enjoy tea and pastries for a little break, but we decided to save our appetite for somewhere else.
OLD STATE HOUSE—Site of the Boston Massacre and now a preserved historic building that showcases and teaches “the construction and renovation of the building, as well as the functioning of the Colonial and early American governments housed here, crucial events on the road to Revolution, and the influential and ordinary lives that intersected at the Old State House.” The tour was a little boring for us, as it was lecture-style, but we did enjoy perusing around on our own after the tour, to look at some of the artifacts.
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART— This is a beautiful museum situated right by the harbor, boasting a spectacular view amongst contemporary art. We went on a Thursday evening for free admissions, which made it even better! 🙂
Being the foodies that we are, Celine took us to some delicious eats around town. We loved the bagels at Bagelsaurus, the unicorn taiyaki at Taiyaki NYC and the lamb shakshuka at Tatte, but our FAVORITE was the udon at Yume Ga Arukara. Even though we had to wait in a 45 minute line for our bowl of Niku Udon, we definitely felt it was well worth it as we finished every last bite!
Another place that we kept going back to was Magnolia Bakery, because their banana pudding was seriously to.die.for. How had we not tried this heavenly dessert before when we were in NYC? And why don’t they have a store in the Bay Area?
One notable place we ate at was the Union Oyster House, located on the Freedom Trail and is America’s oldest restaurant. It’s become a historical landmark because it is in a building that dates back to the pre-revolutionary days, and famous historical figures were frequent patrons, such as Daniel Webster. We found the food to be very average, including their famous oysters, so unless you’re truly intrigued at dining in a historical building, we probably wouldn’t recommend this place.
The Beacon Hill area was one of our favorites, and we especially loved Acorn Street, which has now become an IG hotspot. The cobblestone street, the lovely window planters, and the historical brick buildings were so beautiful to admire!
Overall, we loved our visit to Boston, and were so grateful to have my cousin Celine there to act as our tour guide. Celine is a walker, so she took us around town mainly by foot, and we definitely got our 10,000 steps in every day. Boston turned out to be a really walkable city, with a great public transportation system. We also rented bikes to get around, and especially enjoyed biking along the river by the Harvard campus.
Will we go back? Definitely! We’d love to go back during their Fall season one year, so that we can do a road trip up to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to see the Autumn leaves!
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