I think I'll go to Boston

My wife and I are annoying.

This is a welcome admission to those that know us well. We raise our hands as though we are on a roller coaster every time we drive over train tracks in our car. And we often say "wheeeeee" in the process. It gets worse. For about a year, before we moved to Maine, we had a theme song. We would often burst into song while driving in the car. There was pretty much only one song: "Augustana's Boston (slow version, fer the kids)."

OK, we weren't moving to Boston, but we were moving somewhere. It turns out, we moved 100 miles up the road from Boston. Until yesterday, we might as well have moved to Portland, Oregon, for how often we visited Boston. Outside of a few visits to the Boston airport and a Cape Cod run in May, neither the wife nor I had stepped foot in Boston.

That run of shame came to an end this week as The Wife had spring break time on her hands. We drove down, hopped a subway north of the city and 15 minutes later were smack dab in the middle of downtown Boston at our hotel.

I'm fairly confident this guy never brewed beer.

Hmmm. What to do in Boston the day before St. Patrick's Day. As dumbfounding a choice as it is, Boston was prepared for us with a local beverage item indigenous to the area. Perhaps you've heard of it. One Irish car bomb (you're not supposed to call them that, but since the peace accord, I think it's OK) and a few other beverages later, it was sightseeing time! First up, the graveyard directly across the street.

Never heard of him.

We have a morbid sense of tourism. It's fitting. I'll just leave it at that.

We walked a few blocks to the state capitol, which was odd. It sits right on the corner of Boston Common. I couldn't stop thinking that I was walking around a place JFK used to work in. Not that I was humbled or awed or anything, but it was a topic I kept hitting on. No real point there.

We wandered through the capital in about 15 minutes. There's a killer view of the Common and downtown on the second floor. #thingsiamsureyouwillrememberforyourtrip

Then, we walked the line. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red brick or paint line that runs through downtown Boston and hits 16 official sites along the way. Many of which charge an entry fee. Which is how I got introduced to the shoe store DHM and realized I was too cheap to buy a new pair of shoes.

This is how we travel.

Then, a trip back to the hotel, a late snack and we were out the next morning. It wasn't awe-inspiring, but at least we finally took advantage of our location. Just don't expect a lot of "when in Boston" tips from me. But I can tell you where T.J. Maxx is. It's next to DHM.

Other sites:

Tee. Hee.

Walkin' the Red Mile.

The top of our hotel, looking to the Old North End.