The Travelers Have Returned from...Boston!

So can I tell you how happy I am to be back. Traveling is fun and all, but boy is it good to be home. I realized I have been pretty delayed with blogging so I will start out with our first adventure. BOSTON!

It was so fun to go to Boston. It was also nice because the majority of the trip was paid for by BYU. The hotel, flights, transportation, and most of the food was covered by BYU. Our excursions, of course, were not paid for but having a mostly free trip was well worth it. The reason we went to Boson was because I had a Statistics in Sports Conference that I was attending. My Master's Project was on volleyball so my professor was presenting our results at the conference. I was so glad that I didn't have to present, so basically Boston was just a vacation for Ben and I. We got there Friday night, so we pretty much had Saturday and part of Sunday to site see before we flew home.

One thing I noticed straight off the bat is that there are a TON of Dunkin' Donuts shops. I knew there would be a ton of coffee shops but I had no clue that Dunkin' Donuts was so popular out there. This is a shot of me at Dunkin' Donuts. As you can tell I am not so good with the product placement as my hand is covering the logo. This is where we ate breakfast before I headed to my conference and Ben was left to explore Harvard.

Can I just say one thing, Harvard is HUGE! It is so pretty too. I absolutely loved all the old buildings and just the Harvard environment.

After I went to a few talks of the conference I met up with Ben and we decided to explore Boston. We decided that we should go on the Freedom Trail, which basically is this walk that takes you to the historic sites in Boston. Even though it was a ton of walking, I truly enjoyed getting to see Boston and to see all the old buildings. I am sure if I was more into history that I would enjoy the significance a little bit more, but still walking around and seeing everything was fun too.

Me at the beginning of the trail!

At the cemetery most of the tombstones had a skull on it. It was kind of odd, so Ben took a picture of it.

Ben and Ben (Franklin) just like old pals :)

Me standing next to a statue of Paul Revere
Ben and I at the end of the trail

Even though this is in the middle of the Freedom Trail, this is me eating a fabulous Cannoli. A cannoli is this wonderful pastry with cream in the middle. It was scrumptious. Also, on our trip to Boston we got Boston Cream pie. How can you go to Boston without getting a Boston cream pie?

The pastry shop was in the middle of the Italian district so after our freedom walk, I went back to the conference and Ben headed back to the hotel. When I was done with the conference, we went to the Italian district to find us some authentic Italian food. So we totally spaced it that on a Saturday night in Boston you would DEFINITELY need a reservation to eat anywhere in the Italian district. We went to several restaurants and they either told us that they were not taking walk-ins or that we could eat at 9:30. I was in no mood to eat at 9:30 so we continued to walk. After being turned down by several restaurants we realized that we would not be eating in the Italian district. As we were heading back to the Subway, we passed a restaurant where had asked if they had openings and they turned us down. As we passed this restaurant, the host/owner stopped us and told us that they just had an opening. I was ecstatic. I think he recognized us because I was wearing a BRIGHT green coat as you see above. I think that is totally the reason he saw us. The Italian food was wonderful, so much better than Olive Garden.

We truly enjoyed our time in Boston, but we are glad to be home.