New England States - Day 6 (Boston, MA) 8-28-19

Before coming on our trip, Russ bought 3-day Go City Boston card's on Costco's website. Costco's price beat the actual Go City Boston card website. The card includes admission to over 40+ of Boston's best attractions and tours you can fit into 3-days.  

The Spot Hero app worked great for finding parking for our first stop of the day, Fenway Park. The spot was a block from the ballpark and Russ reserved it for two hours starting at 11:00 am. 

We were out the door at 10:30 am, giving us 30 minutes to get to Fenway, only 6.5 miles from our Airbnb. As Russ put the soft cooler in the back seat, his phone slipped through his fingers and landed face down on the gravel driveway. As he surveyed the damage of the shattered screen, fine pieces of glass rubbed off with every swipe. With the clock ticking, he took it in stride and made the best of a fairly disappointing situation. 

Before we arrived at Fenway, Alecia had planned what we would be doing as soon as we were done. She was pretty determined to make sure we paid Blackbird Doughnuts a visit. This was another one of her Instagram finds she was excited about. 

Navigating the streets and alleys, where the reserved parking was located, turned out to be a bit tricky but we managed to locate the spot after going around the block a couple of times. The short walk to Fenway was enjoyable and our Go City Boston cards worked without a problem. 

Check out LIVENATION for shows at Fenway Park here.

Frequently Asked Questions about Fenway Farms are answered here.

Check out Boston's all-time retired numbers here and find out why one number is blue.

Read The Hidden Story Behind 'The Red Seat' At Fenway Park here.

The tour lasted about an hour and it was fascinating learning about the oldest major league ballpark in the United States. Now to go find us a Blackbird. 

And there you have it folks, the doughnut to end all doughnuts. We've never tasted a better one and just looking at the photo makes us salivate. Beyond words this one is.

A quick drive to New England Aquarium Parking to park for the rest of the day. We used our Go City Boston cards and took advantage of the Hop-on Hop-off  Boston Tours with Old Town Trolley.  An hour loop tour around Boston's historic sights which includes nine stops where you can get on and off at your convenience. Our driver, Sandy, was AMAZING!!! She's witty and knowledgable and to quote her, "You can't make this stuff up".  

Learn about Mary Dyre here. Hung for being a Quaker, Mary Dyre was a friend to Alecia's 10th Great Grandmother Anne Marbury Hutchinson. Both women were banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600's for their beliefs. Mary supported Anne in her belief that "God 'spoke directly to individuals' rather than only through the clergy." Anne's views were viewed as a direct threat to the political and clerical leaders of the community. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree on this one as Alecia has a deep belief in personal revelation and personal responsibility to God.

Curious about the Giant Tea Kettle that produces real steam and was manufactured in 1873? Read about it here. And if you're thinking you'll get your Been There mug here, because let's face it how cool would that be, forget it, they don't have them. :(

We stayed on the Trolley for all nine stops, returning to stop 2: Paul Revere House / "Little Italy". As we stepped onto the sidewalk we heard a man yell, "You're in the bike lane, this is the bike lane, get out of the bike lane!" At first we were all like, "What?" Then we were all like, "We're going to be road kill." Haha! As we began walking it started to sprinkle and with every step the rain picked up until we found ourselves completely soaked and trying to building hop our way to dinner.  

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts marked by these red bricks.

As we walked on, we just kept getting wetter and wetter, we stopped in the Quincy Market.  After a little while in there we decided to make our way down to the original Green Dragon Tavern. 

We ordered Onion Rings, Clam Chowder, and a Cobb Salad. The Onion Rings were the best we’ve ever had and Alecia wished she ordered a bowl of the Clam Chowder.

After dinner it was back out into the rain for a wet walk back to the car followed by a 40 minute drive back to the apartment with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Everyone took hot showers and got cozy hoping for better weather tomorrow.  

New England States - Day 5 (Barre, VT through Boston, MA) 8-27-19

Leaving Barre, Vermont, we stopped at a few covered bridges a few miles away. The Upper Cox Brook and Northfield Falls Covered Bridges. Both are operating, redwood, one-lane bridges.  As Russ scoped out a place for us to pull off the road to take a photo, there was a car from the other side beginning to come through the bridge. With one-lane, we stopped to allow them passage. A man, in a truck behind us, seemed to think we stopped to take a photo because he impatiently tried to go around us and then had to pull back when he realized we'd stopped for a car. Fortunately, we knew the locals can be sensitive to photo-takers who hold up traffic to get their photos so we took extra care to make sure we parked and walked to visit these beautiful bridges.  

Back on the road, we navigated main roads and back roads to the next pair of bridges in the town of Woodstock.

Woodstock Middle Bridge is another single-lane, operating, bridge, right off the center of town where you can visually soak in beautiful landscape. 

Woodstock's town center had that Stars Hollow charm found in Gilmore Girls, and also reminded us of the Courthouse Square from the Back To The Future movies. 

Back in the car, we headed to the Taftsville Covered Bridge, another operating, red-painted, wood bridge. There wasn't much room on the street to stop and park, without impeding traffic, so we drove right through, taking photos as we went by. Our next destination was the Quechee Covered bridge. En route we noticed signs for a place with freshly made cheese and homemade Vermont syrup. The signs said Sugarbush Farm and we thought we'd go ahead and follow them. 

The sign directed us up a hill and onto some side roads. The signs along the way always popped up at just the right time and kept us going with clever sayings like “Don’t give up, you're almost there”, and “Only 1 mile to go”. 

Upon arriving at the farm, three miles later, there were cows, goats, chickens, and other farm animals. Signs pointed guests in the direction of the Wedding Chapel and maple tree forest for a visit, or to the store in the house. We chose the store where we were greeted with friendly hellos and asked if we would like to sample their four different pure Vermont maple syrups that range from light to dark and are based on the time of the season they tap the trees. We learned pure maple syrup has nothing added to it and if something is added it can’t be labeled 100% pure without imposing fines or jail time for doing so. 

We also sampled over thirteen plus homemade cheeses. Jamie suggested we start with the mild and work our way up to the stronger flavors. They were all magnificent. She explained the process for packing, wrapping, and waxing the cheeses. They were currently working on smoked cheese, one of our favorites. 

In the gift shop, there were more samples of mustards, sausage, jams, preserves, cheesecake mixes....etc.. Before making our purchases, we visited the Wedding Chapel and the maple forest to see where they tap some of the trees. Tapping season is very short and usually when the sap starts to flow between mid-February or mid-March. The exact time of year depends upon the weather conditions. Sap flows when daytime temperatures rise above freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit / 0 Celsius) and nighttime temperatures fall below freezing. It ends when the bugs start coming out of the trees. We bought syrup, cheese, and a few other items and then returned to our navigation for our last covered bridge stop. 

Along the way we saw glimpses of the Quechee Golf Club's course. Perhaps, we need to take up golfing in the future! 

The Quechee Covered Bridge was just down the mountain from the farm. A two-lane bridge sitting over the Quechee Falls. It was beyond gorgeous and so picturesque. 

We would have love to have spent more time in this sleepy little town, but we hoped to lunch at King Arthur Flour Cafe & Store. 

Lunch at King Arthur Flour Cafe consisted of Grilled Cheese for Russ and a Roasted Butternut, Wheat Berry & Feta Salad for the girls. It was filling, but nothing to rave about. Alecia picked up a French Rolling Pin and some Odd Size Measuring Spoons. 

Brooklynn snagged a Brownie and Magic Bar to share on the rest of the car ride back to Boston. The brownie was so thick, dense, and utterly delicious. Check out King Arthur Flour Fudge Brownies to try out something similar. In case you've never heard of a magic bar, it's a buttery graham cracker crust, topped with chocolate chips, coconut, and chopped walnuts. It was all kinds of amazing goodness. We think King Arthur's Seven-Layer Bars are probably pretty similar.

King Arthur's Flour has also produced a magazine, "sift", it's filled with all kinds of yummy recipes and great tips!!! Annnnnnnd, if you're from the beautiful state of Washington, like we are, did ya know there's a King Arthur Flour Baking School in Burlington, Washington?!?! Check out their classes here.

Coming into Boston, Brooklynn had a scheduled appointment with the Apple Store to turn in her MacBook Pro for a battery recall. Thank goodness our youngest was reading Forbes the weekend before we left and discovered her laptop had been banned by the FFA. Everything went smoothly and Alecia had a great time talking about cameras with one of the Apple employees. 

Arriving at our Airbnb, our host, Oscar, was very welcoming. He gave us a walk-through of the apartment, made sure we knew where we could park, how the trash system worked, and pointed out a helpful list of restaurants, etc., that we might want to know about.