Our next day in Boston started out at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.
You enter through the gift shop which is magnificent! It's huge and has so many fun tea related souvenirs, which was right up my alley, I don't think the boys found it as amazing as I did.
This is a replica of the kinds of chests the was carrying the tea during the Boston Tea Party. I bought one of these to go along with my tea brick I bout at the Old State House.
Speaking of tea bricks, this store had bigger and more elaborate ones on display. The tea thrown overboard was Chinese tea, so it probably would have had Chinese images on it.
You can only board the ships if you pay for the interactive experience, which is rather expensive. So we opted just to watch the experience from the balcony, from which we were still able to learn about the event.
In the 1760s, Britain was deep in debt, so British Parliament imposed a series of taxes on American colonists to help pay those debts. The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists on virtually every piece of printed paper they used, from playing cards and business licenses to newspapers and legal documents. The Townshend Acts of 1767 went a step further, taxing essentials such as paint, paper, glass, lead and tea.
The British government felt the taxes were fair since much of its debt was earned fighting wars on the colonists’ behalf. The colonists, however, disagreed. They were furious at being taxed without having any representation in Parliament, and felt it was wrong for Britain to impose taxes on them to gain revenue.
On December 16, 1773, American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn’t take taxation and tyranny sitting down
Then it was time to have a tea party of our own. I was excited to visit Abigail's Tea Room and try the 5 historic teas present at the Boston Tea Party, as well as enjoy a pastry or two.
There were three green teas and two black teas thrown overboard at the Boston Tea Party. I got a sampler cup so I could just get a little sip of each one. It was like tasting a part of history. Honesty, I prefer herbal teas, they are much more flavorful and taste like berries or flowers, these mostly tasted ... earthy.
I got a chocolate chip scone to accompany my tea tasting.
There were different 18th century board games on each of the tables, we had a fun time trying to figure a few of them out while enjoying our treats.
After our time learning about the Boston Tea Party, the fam split into two groups and enjoyed the afternoon at two different and fun experiences. The Burtons headed over to the Boston Children's Museum and had a blast building all sorts of amazing and ginormous sculptures and exploring all the fun exhibits throughout the museum.
Mom, Dad and I took a ride on one of the famous Boston Duck Tours. I had seen these "duck"vehicles around not only Boston, but other cities I had visited as well, and was always so curious what their tours were like. So I was super excited to finally try one out!!
We had the best conDUCKtor, she was fun, she was sassy and she was super knowledgable about all things Boston, I learned so much from her tour! Her conducktor name was Peprika Double Q, as in Quack Quack ;)
First we did the "land" part of the tour, and drove all through downtown Boston. We drove passed the outside of the famous Cheers bar.
And we passed by Boston Common, Peprika would ask our group history questions and if you got one right she would pass you some special Duck Tour stickers. Mom was totally rocking all the answers, being the history major that she is. Peprika was majority impressed and I felt like I was sitting with a celebrity! Mom shared her stickers with some cute kids that were seated behind us with their dad. We later discovered they live in Arizona and the dad went to BYU. What a small world!
We made a little stop in front of the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment. It depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading members of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863 to depart the city to fight in the South. This is the first civic monument to pay homage to the heroism of African American soldiers.
Then it was time for our vehicle to magically transform from a bus to a boat! We had a loud, excited count down, led by our enthusiastic guide, and our duck driver sounded the horn the entire time we headed down the ramp and splashed into the water (not only was this a fun addition to the excitement, but they also have to do it for safety reasons.)
We gently floated around the Charles River for about 20 minutes, we got wonderful views of the Boston skyline and an unclose look at the viking-esque ornamentation on the Longfellow Bridge. the four central turreted piers of the bridge have stone figures of the prows of Viking ships carved on them, inspired by a Harvard chemistry professor’s contention that Norse sailors had visited the Massachusetts bay over a thousand years ago.
After our fun afternoons apart, we all met up for dinner at Tiki Rock for dinner. I must say, this was one of my fails when making dinner reservations. This place looked and sounded fun and it was located right across from our hotel. I even called a couple of times and asked lots of questions to make sure it would be a good fit for our family. But it basically turned out to be a loud bar where all the young professionals meet up after work. The food took forever and the portions were tiny. If the music hadn't been so loud, it would have been a fun atmosphere.
So, after "dinner," some of us headed down to Quincy market to get a snack and/or dessert. I love Quincey market, I think it is so fun and there are always too many food options to choose from, so it's fun to visit multiple times.
My treat choice was Magnolia Bakery, where I got some some of their famous banana pudding, and it was a special limited edition that had reeses's pieces mixed in. My very first experience with Manolia Bakery was when I was visiting Bethy when she lived in New York the summer after my first year in college, so 2006. We had heard about their legendary cupcakes so we stood in a long line at midnight to get some for a late night treat. When it was finally our turn, we ordered a few cupcakes and as a last minute decision decided to get a small serving of the banana pudding since it sounded like a yummy treat at 1 in the morning. We took our treats to a quiet spot to have a little picnic, we dove straight into the cupcakes and they were one of the biggest let downs of my life. Flavorless and dry. Then we tried the banana pudding and it was SO GOOD. So, no we always say thank goodness we got that banana pudding, it totally saved our whole Magnolia late-night-treat-run experience. Thus, Magnolia banana pudding will always have a special place in my heart.
I also got a chocolate dipped coconut macaroon because they are my favorite.
Then we strolled through a couple of the shops, I always find all of the lobster souvenirs hilarious.
During our last trip to Boston, Mom, Dad and I had discovered this cart at Quincy Market that sells the most beautifully painted stacking dolls. We were drawn to it during our last visit because Vienne was super in to stacking dolls and we wanted to see if they had one that would be a good souvenir to bring back for her. We found her the perfect one, it was a Wizard of Oz themed one where each doll had a different character painted on it. She was going through a Wizard of Oz phase and would ask to watch "poppies" several times a day. So it was the perfect gift for her.
This trip, we still made sure to stop by the cart just because it was so fun to look through last time, they have every theme imaginable in addition to the traditional Russian tales. This time I went home with one as a souvenir. Mom and Dad have Russian Stacking dolls that I remember loving to play with as a kid, and I have always thought they were so magical and beautiful. So they remind me of my childhood and have that nostalgia factor along with being a beautiful cultural piece.
Mine has ten dolls and tells the tale of the Firebird. It's hard to capture in photos but all the gold paint has a glittery quality to it and sparkles in the light.
The market is so fun all lit up at night! I hadn't ever been at night so I'm glad dinner was a bust so we could end up with this fun memory. (The doll cart is on the left)
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