Sorry I've been MIA for the last week or so! Things have been a little bit busy these past few weeks and I haven't had much time to sit down and write! I also haven't been able to do any baking, cooking, or shopping lately, so things here on the blog have been a bit slow. I do have some fun posts planned for the near future though, so please stay tuned! :)
This weekend my boyfriend and I went on a little weekend getaway to Boston! I've always wanted to go and we recently celebrated our two year anniversary together, so we thought it would be a nice treat to go somewhere fun to get away for a few days! We live in Southern New Jersey, so it was quite a drive to Boston, MA! We left around 9AM Friday morning, and it took us about 6 1/2 hours to get there! I drove for the first 2 1/2 hours, but going through some of the winding roads near the Hudson River did me in! I was basically just short of having a full on panic attack! From that point on, I let Tim take over! LOL! We only stopped once on the way and only for a quick bathroom break, and after a long stretch through most of Connecticut, we finally arrived at our destination around 3:15pm!
We checked in and relaxed for a little bit before heading into the city for a Celtics game that night! The Celtics game was so much fun! Coming from South Jersey where we cheer on our Philly teams like the 76ers, going to a basketball game in Boston was a much different experience than we are used to! :) People there actually
like basketball and got really into the game! The Celtics were actually pretty good, and ended up
winning the game (the Sixers always lose whenever we go). It was a close game too, so it was pretty exciting to watch!
The next morning, we found a little place to have breakfast in the town we were staying in (Bedford, MA) and then headed into the city! Our first stop was the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum! For anyone who knows me, I am a HUGE Kennedy family fanatic! I'm just obsessed with their whole story and history. For a long time the museum was in my top 5 of places I wanted to visit! and I was so excited to finally be there!
When we got to the museum, we entered a theater where they show a 15 minute film giving the background story of the Kennedy family. After the film, you are able to wander around the exhibits and explore historic items and some of their belongings.
Here are some of the things that fascinated me
(because I'm a geek and I don't care):
- JFK's presidential golf balls, still with grass stains and dirt on them.
- The famous golf cart (the one I always saw in pictures with children riding along side of JFK and hanging onto the back) which I loved seeing because it has always been on of my favorite photographs.
- Doodles and notes written by JFK during meetings regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Jewelry and furniture gifted to Jackie from other rulers and diplomats.
- Jackie's dresses and belongings from her childhood
- Artwork that Jackie drew and painted.
- The Attorney General's Office and RFK's desk replicated.
- A piece of the Berlin Wall- which totally blew my mind to see in person!
It was really neat to see all of these things in person. I've seen so many photos over the years, but there was something about actually physically standing in front of them that was really moving and exciting! Their story is so fascinating to me, full of history, glamour, and most of all, tragedy. I can't help but be sucked in by all of it and standing among these things just made it all the more real for me.
In addition to the contents of the museum being amazing, the architecture of the building was outstanding as well. We were able to get some really great pictures in the pavilion and outside overlooking the harbor and bay area. It was so beautiful!
The whole museum was definitely my favorite stop on our trip and I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the Boston area!
After the museum, we traveled back to the city area to do more site seeing! We spent most of the afternoon walking along the Freedom Trail and stopping at various spots around the city! We stopped at the Paul Revere House, which, I'll be honest, didn't really do much for me... pretty much just a few rooms, and all things I've seen in historic locations in Jersey and Philly.
While we were walking around, we ended up in the Paul Revere Mall, which is sort of like a court yard. While we were there we saw a display of dog tags. Each dog tag represented a service member lost during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Seeing this, you can't help but be moved and get a little choked up. It's mind boggling to see so many tags hanging there, but despite it being a sad site to see, it's nice to see our fallen service members honored and memorialized in such a nice way.
We continued on the trail and stopped to check out the Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying ground. Both really neat places to see a ton of old history. After that we kind of abandoned the trail and went down to the Charles River docks and toured the USS Constitution and a WWII destroyer ship (that I now forget the name of). Both were pretty cool to see, and I now know I would not last longer than a day confined to a boat like that. Lol!
Later that night we went out to a fancy dinner at the Capital Grille to celebrate our last night in Boston and two great years together! The food was amazing and it was really nice to treat ourselves to a fancy meal since it's not a place we would go to very often!
That pretty much sums up our fun weekend getaway in Boston! Other than the driving portion of the trip, it was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we went! I know this post is a little outside of my normal realm of baking and beauty, but Boston really is such a great city, that I had to share with you! It also explains why I've been a bit out of my normal routine and haven't been writing as much, but I promise I'm getting back into the swing of things this week and have some fun posts planned for you!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading about our little trip!
♥ Nichole
JFK Presidential Library & Museum
The Freedom Trail
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