Matthew & Melissa Bird: BOSTON BABY ~

Day ONE of our Boston Trip was special because of TWO reasons. ONE we were with Family and TWO it was Mom's Birthday. (Matthew's mother Lynette) Matt and I got an early start to the day because we had a rental car to pick up and some little things to do in the morning. Chris dropped us off at the Rental Car Place (THANKS CHRIS FOR WAKING UP EARLY FOR US) and we waited for a while until someone showed up. I guess we were renting from a satellite office, which means someone is only there if you make an appointment. We DID make an appointment, however somehow they thought we were going to be at the regular location. Not sure why... ANYHOW we got our rental car, a NICE discount, and we were on our way. We meet up with the family every morning at the hotel they were all staying at. Matt and I stayed at a hotel down the road because we did a priceline and got set up at Red Roof Inn. It was nice, and luckily BOTH the hotels on the trip had wonderfully working AC so the humidity only hit us when we were away! Back to the DAY, we went over to the other hotel and had a nice little Birthday Party for Mom. Then we decided to head into Boston and go on the DUCK TOUR...

We got Tattoo's before the trip. Matt put his on his KNEE CREVASSE...

and I put mine where every girl wants a high class DUCK tat...

on my ankle!!

And next to Dad Bird is our "DUCK." As you can tell it was decorated after the Boston Red Socks Baseball team... ever heard of em'? This is a W.W.II style amphibious landing vehicle. Ours was a newer model and was quite fun!! We saw ALL of Boston ~ First the Boston Public Garden, it was beautiful!

In the Boston Public Garden is the Make Way for the Ducklings bronze statues from a well loved children's book. It is about a family of Mallard Ducks that decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon of the Boston Public Garden. If you look REAL close to the picture below you can see them...

Below is the Boston State House. In 1874, the dome was gilded for the first time with 23.5 karat gold leaf. Before then, it was sheathed with a thick layer of copper, because the original design leaked and they wanted it water tight. One of the interesting facts I learned was that the highway signs indicating distance to Boston are not measuring the miles to the city limits, but to the State House Dome!

Another site on the tour was the TD Garden. Since its grand opening in 1995, more than 30 million people have come to the TD Garden to see the arena's famous tenants, the NHL's Boston Bruins, NBA's Boston Celtics, and the NLL's Boston Blazers. As you can tell... they LOVE their teams!!

Below is the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (or Zakim Bridge). The bridge and connecting tunnel were built as part of the Big Dig, the largest highway construction project in the United States. The tour guide tells us that if you ask ANY local what they think about THE BIG DIG you will get a negative response every time. You can tell that the top of the Bridge looks just like the Bunker Hill memorial.

Which leads us TO... dun dun DUNNNNN... None other than Bunker Hill. You should read up on the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was neat to see where all the early American Revolutionary War stuff took place...

We also caught a glimpse of the U.S.S. Constitution. It is the worlds oldest commissioned warship still afloat. Matt and I REALLY wanted to go and visit it, but all we got was to drive by...

But one of the highlights of the DUCK TOUR was next, we drove into the water and then toured Boston by sea... I was not aware of this but Boston is known for some of the country's most respected hospitals and clinics. One of the hospitals pictured below.

After we got out of the water we were able to drive by a four-ton piece of Cold War history on permanent display in Cambridge. This piece of the Berlin Wall was a gift from the German government, given to the EF’s (a travel and international language education and cultural exchange company) owner—“in recognition of his work in breaking down barriers through educational travel and cultural exchanges.” Cool Huh?

AND this is one of the last buildings still standing from Downtown Boston. It is a GREAT place to advertise, it had two huge billboards on each side. People still occupy this building. It was just neat because it was all alone in the middle of Boston!

And I just found this building interesting. If you look REAL close you can see the renovations being done at the top. It must be the "renovator" in me that spotted that...

And here is the reflection of the OLD John Hancock Building in the NEW John Hancock Building.

Just beautiful!

After our tour we went on a little walk in search for a place to eat for Mom's Birthday Dinner. We found this cute little Cafe and decided it would be perfect. The food was AMAZING and the company was too!

Matt took this picture of me just "taking it all in".