I'm gonna miss Maine!

Realizing that the title of today's post is going to be a bit misleading, I'm going to preface this post by saying that the majority of this post involves a synopsis of what went down in Beantown (Boston) today. Mom and I signed up for a trolley tour of the city - this was definitely one of the best decisions we made on this trip. If you've never taken one, basically you pay for the ticket and then you can get on/off any of the company's trolleys around the city. They stop at designated spots to explain points of interest and you can enter/exit the trolley if you want to explore more on your own. I thought we would skip through our tour with only 15 points of interest, however we started around 9:30 and returned to the hotel around 2:30.

One of our favorite spots is pictured below - The State House. The balcony, located on the eastern side, is where the Declaration of Independence was first read by Samuel Adams after being signed 18 days prior. The western side of the State House is the location of the Boston Massacre - did you know that this started out with Colonists taunting British soldiers by throwing snowballs at them? It eventually escalated into a "massacre" with five colonists being killed. One other interesting point: the Boston subway (4th oldest in the world) runs below this building and you can totally hear it as it runs below!


This picture was taken just outside of the State House as mom and I waited for the trolley to return.

We stopped at the original Cheers for lunch. You can't visit Boston and not go! The original name of the bar was the Bull and Finch Pub and I'm not exactly clear on when the name got changed. The producers of the television show visited this bar with the intention of finding a bar to create a sitcom about. After visiting a number of other bars around Beantown, the producers returned to the first bar and decided that it was the one. We shared the Burger Meister burger and it was great - it had a pile o' mushrooms and Muenster cheese. A combo that I never would have created, but fit really well together.

Before leaving Boston, we stopped at Emack and Bolio's ice cream parlor which if you look closely at the ice cream cup below says "ice cream for connoissuer's." It was really good, but not as good as the blueberry ice cream in Camden! And how about this? One scoop was $3.75 times two people, equals $7.50. We totally outsmarted the system and got three scoops (for "one" person) and only paid $4.75! Okay, so it's not the most exciting thing that happened to us on our trip, but we felt pretty smart! We shared Peppermint Patty (pretty good), Beantown Crunch (coffee ice cream with chocolate covered espresso beans....yummo!), and Vanilla Bean Speck (pretty good). You obviously know what my favorite was!

We drove to Ogunquit, Maine for the evening so that we have a shorter drive to the airport tomorrow. Yet another charming town in Maine that is right on the Coast and has an abundance of super cute shops and local eateries. Boston was fun, but I have so, so enjoyed Maine. The pace of life in the small towns. The number of ice cream eateries (can I get a hallelujah?). And the quietness that has accompanied us everywhere we've been. I hope you've enjoyed reading about some of the places that we have visited and eaten at, and if you ever get the chance to visit Maine, jump at the chance!

We fly back to Arizona tomorrow. I have loved every moment of my vacation with my mom, but am ready to return. I praise God for the rest and relaxation that I have been able to enjoy in abundance. I am especially thankful for the time I was given with my mom - I am so glad that we have grown to become friends and look forward to our next trip!