Day 6 - Ending in Boston

Early in the morning we packed up and left Tilton on the 8:30am bus. It was sad to leave my family behind. We had experienced a lot in NH, but I didn't feel like I was around my family enough for my trip. Perhaps because I usually stay two weeks in NH rather than just 4.5 days. But, life called Paul and I to go back home and back to work or getting work, in my case.

We arrived at South Station, Boston at 10:30 am and wanted to drop off our bags at the airport so we could enjoy a day of touring the other half of Boston we didn't cover the first day. We had packed two backpacks of stuff we may have needed for the flight, and my one large backpacking backpack full of stuff we weren't likely to use. When we arrived at the airport and checked in for our 6 pm flight, we weren't asked if we would like to check bags like we usually are. Come to find out, we couldn't check our bags in until 2 pm! This meant touring Boston looking like this:

Paul got the worse end of the deal. The bag he had on his back weighed 27 pounds (as measured when we were finally able to check in our bags at 4 pm). Since I had never climbed up the Bunker Hill Monument, it was our first stop. For those of you who have climbed the monument, you know how grueling the 294 steps can be, never mind carting a week's worth of clothes and tourist items up! To lighten our load a little we had the lunch we packed before going up.

Paul researched the history of the monument during lunch.

We made it...stuff and all. I was completely amazed I didn't end up passing out.

Paul shows off his load. Amazingly he can still smile after going up and down all those stairs!

Despite exhausted legs, we continued on our tour by walking the Freedom Trail backwards. Both of us had walked the trail individually, so it was nice to walk it together and not have to worry about stopping at every marker along the way. I was able to snap some shots of places I didn't get a chance to last time, and we were both able to travel off the trail a little to see other exciting buildings not specifically marked on the trail. One such place was Mike's Pastry.

The lobster tail I bought took me two days to get through. Paul's canoli was absolutely delicious. I can't wait to go back to Boston and try something else there!

We made it to the end (or beginning depending on how you look at it) of the Freedom Trail with enough time to relax on the Boston Common for an hour before we had to rush to the airport to leave. It was a nice time for the two of us to talk and reflect on the whole trip. Usually we keep so busy, we don't have time to talk about the trip before leaving, so it was extremely nice to share this time together.

When we arrived at the airport, Paul still hadn't eaten New England Clam Chowder and was looking forward to getting some at Legal Seafoods in Terminal C. So, after finally dropping off that darn bag, we made a mad dash out to terminal C and back only to have it dawn on us that chowder is a liquid and he'd have to eat it before we were allowed to go through security. We had a quick, 45 minute dinner together, ran through security, only to find our plane was already boarding. Luckily we still had time to get on, get settled, and fly back to Seattle for a day of relaxing before I had to go back home to San Diego.

I'm sad that vacation had to end so quickly, and it's always heartbreaking to say goodbye to Paul without knowing when our next adventures will bring us together again. However, life must go on and there's work to be done before we're brought back together for more happy and fun visits.