Day 11 - Boston

As predicted, the weather turned horrible today.

I went for coffee and breakfast to bring back to the hotel room, and strangely enough the weather was more drizzly than rainy, but it was really really mild, it must be because of the southerly wind direction. It was a bit difficult having to hold the umbrella and carry the coffees back to the hotel room.

We had a lazy morning and didn’t leave until 12 o’clock again. We were a bit unsure of what to do as we had several things we wanted to do. In the end we settled for doing the New England Aquarium first as it was indoors to get out of the rain, but actually by the time we left the hotel the rain had stopped.

Kathryn navigating the Boston transit system (top) and underground streetcar (below)

The aquarium wasn't much to look at from the outside. We were quite pleased just to get inside out of the rain. They had a really small tank with seals in out the front, which wasn't really a good start, but it got a lot better inside!

The first exhibit that was immediately opposite as you walked in is the giant main marine fish tank which is about 5 storeys tall and surrounded by a spirally walkway. At the bottom of this was divided into four quarters with different types of penguin in. We then went off and walked around the smaller fish tanks on each level. They had loads of really good things to look at, such as a piece on shark eggs with the little sacks at various stages of developments, various different types of jellyfish and also a giant pacific octopus!

Photos from the aquarium starting in top left and going clockwise; main entrance, penguins grooming each other, close up of giant turtle that has been in the aquarium over 30 years I think and view of top of main tank and man feeding fish.

Once we finished, we went on the hunt for some food. We went to a bar called the Granary Tavern. I had an America dish called a Monte Cristo which was like a ham and cheese toastie with French toast instead of bread. It was really good, but the ham was a little sweet which meant I couldn’t finish all of it. It was the dish of the day so was only $10 with a drink so that was a goodchoice I thought.

Monte Cristo

We got the subway to go check out a sneaker store called Bodega. The main reason for going was that it has a fake shop window at the front, but when we went inside, the guy directed us to a secret door that opens automatically to reveal the actual store behind it. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything I wanted so we left.

Front of Bodega shop disguised as grocery store

We stopped by the Cheescake factory to have our desert. We went into the main mall so Kathryn could buy some perfurm and make up as she had ran out. We got back to the room about 5pm, and decided we would go out in the evening as we had some money left for this part of the trip, and treat ourselves to some nice cocktails. There was a nice place called City Bar, which was about 3 blocks from the hotel.

The bar was really nice, very dark and cosy! We had table service and ordered quite a few different drinks from the money. I had a Honey Bee, which was rum, brandy and sugar mainly! Then I had a  berry thing I can’t remember the name. And lastly a Mojito. Was also had some snacks of French fries and grilled asparagus which was really nice. We went back to the hotel about 10pm. By then most people had left the bar already.

Nibbles in City Bar