Sunday morning, we got up… well, not so early. Which was fine, because Kingston Station didn’t start serving brunch til 11am. We got there right on time, and it was delicious.
After brunch, we started off on the Freedom Trail. I’m not usually much for that kind of historical pursuit (I prefer people and nature), but it was pretty great. It was the perfect day for it, too: almost 70 degrees!
Near the Central Cemetery in Boston Common, there were a bunch of students playing Quidditch. Seriously, people are that nerdy.
I climbed through some bushes to take a picture of the Cheers bar. That’s as close as we needed to get.
Then we went to lay on the grass in Boston Common. It was really hard to want to ever leave.
After much difficulty finding an ATM, we were able to get some cash to buy water and a map of the Freedom Trail. It’s marked with a red brick line that winds through Boston, but we wanted the descriptions of the places we were seeing. We set off toward the Granary Burying Ground, where we thanked Sam Adams for his beer. And for being such a patriot. You know.
Both Mother Goose and Paul Revere’s headstones had offerings for Charon on them. There were also pebbles, mixing in an old Jewish tradition.
We made our way past many old buildings and churches to Faneuil Hall and the various marketplaces there. We bought a few souvenirs, but didn’t want to hang around long; we had a lot of ground to cover if I wanted to be able to photograph all the history before sunset at 4pm.
We saw Paul Revere’s house and went inside the Old North Church. The North End is really cute; I want to get back to see that area sometime.
Then we crossed the bridge over to see the USS Constitution. I think the bridge makes up a huge portion of the 2.5 mile walk, actually. Everything else is pretty nearby.
We got to Old Ironsides just as it was closing, but we did get to go into the museum. In the gift shop, we were approached by the manager. He was either really bored or really wanted to sell us expensive things; in the next 15 minutes or so, we learned all about the art of scrimshaw. Did you know that a person who works with scrimshaw is called a scrimshander? If you didn’t, I hope that you, too, spend the next 2 days laughing about it.
When the manager started telling us the history of the Jolly Roger, because “roger” is also a term for “doin’ it” (not his words), we knew it was time to go. We backed slowly to the register and paid up.
We got to the water taxi station and watched the sunset.
For a mere $1.70, a boat will come take you from the Constitution to a wharf very near Faneuil Hall. You will also get a fantastic view of Boston. I would highly recommend it.
We hopped on the T and headed out towards Allston. The green line is a trolley more than a subway, and is above ground once it leaves the city. When we later saw a tshirt reading “I hate the Green Line”, we kind of understood. It goes through multiple universities, and takes forever.
Via the wonder of our new phones, we found our way to Deep Ellum, another drinkboston.com recommendation. Between the truffle fries, homemade seitan burger, and very classic cocktails, I kind of wanted to live there. It was excellent. We decided we probably needed to move on after a couple of rounds, though, because there was a lot more to see.
Our next stop, after another long train ride, was Drink. We decided to go there partly because it was on the silver line, which could take us directly back to the airport and our hotel. It’s in the lower level of a fairly unnoteworthy building, in the kind of neighborhood you really don’t expect to find one of the most awesome bars ever.
We walked in and managed to find a couple seats next to a group of people sitting in front of the largest tiki glasses I’d ever seen in my life. There were also several bottles of liquor sitting in front of them. Matt noticed a particular rum and asked the bartender about it; she told us that they belonged to the guys there at the bar. They brought their own. How awesome is that?
Matt ended up talking to one of them for a while, and he told us they were a group of local bartenders and mixologists who are all about spreading the love. He was making a series of videos on how to do infusions and such, and discussed the insane amount of experimenting he went through to get them perfect (like waking up every hour to taste them). We ended up with his name, phone number, and email address, and a request to add him on Facebook.
We’d managed to wander into what they told us was their last ‘tiki Sunday’, so of course we partook.
After a while, the mixology group started packing up and heading out. I watched one of the guys roll all the giant tiki glasses into towels and shove them into a bag. I really want to start hauling my own barware around.
They were replaced by another group who we got talking to after one of the girls asked about my tattoos. They were celebrating a guy named Charles’ birthday (we later came to know him as “Charles from Haiti”). The celebration included a round of shots for the entire bar (purchased by the birthday boy) that included green chartreuse and god knows what else. Definitely the most expensive shots we’ve ever had.
We ended up talking to Charles for a very long time about our plan to own a bar in the tropics. This resulted in an even better idea: a barge that island-hopped around the Caribbean. Charles was so into planning it, I’m pretty sure he was about to go out and make it happen. It was hilarious.
By the time we were ready to go, it was again after the 1am train cutoff. The bar called a cab for us, and we said goodbye. On the way, the cabbie got detoured by road construction, and then got pulled over for speeding in a tunnel. We felt really bad for him, and were highly amused at the most stereotypical Boston cop ever, who apologized to us twice for the delay. We didn’t mind at all, because Boston is awesome.