IN BOSTON . . .

Yo, Boston! 

Dude, give me a Freedom Trail and some period-specific costumes and a group of people wearing fanny packs to walk behind and I am not gonna argue with you. Add in a mother effing feather quill pen plus every period-specific craft project ya sell and BLAM. Heaaaaavennnnn!

All the good stuff lives behind the break, shall we clicky click click?

On account of the various hobbies + interests of those in attendance herewith, our Boston involved a lot of gift shop shopping and delightful lingers at every historical sign in the city. I don't know how your family runs things, but in mine it's all "sleep in late" then "GO GO GO!" Plus "ducking into the CVS to replenish the Diet Pepsi," yes.

(For my mother, I Pepsi.)

Guess what, walking the Freedom Trail is super exhausting, yo.

Poor puppy! But luckily The Old North Church smells super good inside and manages to get a nice cross draft going, all good things. 

Eep! Flag addiction trigger! 

Huck charmed that duck whistle off a tour guide even though we weren't actually on his tour. That's my stinker! Ask me if it got annoying. 

Oh New England, New England, New England! Your pretty architecture! I like you, I do! Though I caught myself thinking to myself that there was way too much red brick going on, and then I laughed at myself, to myself, for a couple of blocks.

"Yeah, I like the Grand Canyon but there are too many rocks."

OK NOW HOLD UP RILL FAST.

Look. Ricotta is a cheese. It is not a dessert. I mean this quite somberly, it goes against the laws of nature. HOWEVER. When in Rome. And so, cannoli. And hence, Mike's. Now that we've explained that, I want you to know that the the line outside of Mike's is easily twenty hours long and takes up the entire sidewalk, and this is how I feel about crowds:

Well you'll just have to picture it. It looks like getting stepped on because I am too short.

And then you have your classic either / or ? situation because Mike's and Modern are within eye shot of each other and you can't help but notice that the line over there is waayyyy so much shorter . . . and then you wonder if there's really much of a difference? And lo, my family falling pretty heavily on the dork side, it was a challenge issued! Gauntlet thrown! Preferred scientific methods discussed!

One diabetic coma later and here's how it falls down.

Yes, the line at Modern Pastry is shorter, because no, they do not have the superior cannoli. I am so sorry for your loss, Modern Pastry. And yes, the line at Mike's is atrocious and insulting, but it has to happen because OHMUHGUSH. And I don't even like cannoli.

Modern does have an impressively fattening array of perfect non-cannoli desserts (we tried, like, many), and so I am sorry to tell you this but you really do need to go to both bakeries. This requires losing an entire afternoon to waiting on line. Sorry. 

(Nope. Still don't understand Boston Baked Beans.)

Hey Paul Revere, where can I buy your bedding??

Benny the Frank (famously pervy) says hi. Hi, hi. He also winked at me rather suggestively, so, I got my two bucks worth.

QUICK SIDE THOUGHT HEY, COME WITH ME! So I've been dinking around with photoshop on my phone to take innocent bystanders out of my photos these days (had to wile away the hours spent driving between places somehow!). It is fun and a little relaxing and also potentially addictive, as all good hobbies are. Sometimes I'll look at a perfectly good photo and start to wonder whether a light pole is distracting enough to warrant a little sumthin (please please!), and oh look there's a speck of garbage on the street! Maybe I should just smooth that up a little bit . . . Anyway, here + there I've started to feel like maybe these random people who aren't related to me + just happen to be standing nearby when my phone goes off shouldn't have to be included on my blog if they didn't want to be (Though why wouldn't they, really). Protect the innocent! So do pardon if some of my photos from around the city have a certain air of funkiness to them. Technology!

Will I be consistent with this one? Mmmm . . . when have I ever been consistent with anything. 

I suppose once I'm in Idaho I might edit out a non-consenting cow from time to time? Should I ever meet one.

(Oh my gosh this has gone on long enough but that idea is delightful.)

We made it to the fireworks show on the Esplanade the night of the Fourth and enjoyed a wonderful walk through the Beacon Hill area to get there and oh, it was just lovely thank you for asking. 

Other thoughts: 

Elephant Ears are usually never worth it. 

All of us pulling out our phones the minute the fireworks got started?

At one point my mom had on three Statue of Liberty hats with two mini flags sticking out the sides. 

Home of the Brave!

Boston crowd control > New York crowd control. 

Not that I'm judging you, New York.

PS We stayed in an Airbnb in the North End of Boston which turned out to be the best thing ever. Yay  to Brandon! You should have heard his frustrated cussing as he downloaded the app and tried to get us all signed up. Technology!

Silly hats for the win! 

The fireworks show was nice enough. This turkey slept straight through it. I mean, I do not mean to downplay the effort, it's not like I could do any better. 

The Boston Pops played the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and there was a moment. 

Aww cute!

Right. Boston! Good work, us! Solid effort. :)