Here is the next instalment, of our Boston adventure from 2023. After fabulous Autumn (Fall) weather on our first full day in Boston, we were again going to be blessed with fabulous weather as we hit some serious sightseeing a rather fun ‘Duck Tour’.

27 October….. morning wanders from Cambridge across the Charles River

We were all a lot less jet-lagged and everyone managed to sleep until around 7am. We awoke to again some pretty mild Autumn weather, and were glad we’d chucked a couple of extra T-shirts into our luggage. Our puffer coats and beanies, still got a workout later in the trip!

Our plan for the day was to do plenty of exploring on foot, while the weather was nice, and to get in our Boston Duck Tour – A historical tour of the city of Boston, using replica World War II amphibious DUKW vehicles. The tour is part land-based and then takes to the water as you cruise around the Charles River.

Given the mild temperatures we set out on foot from our Airbnb apartment in Cambridge and head towards Boston, first tracking past the famous MIT.

Next up was a very scenic walk across the Charles River, via the Longfellow Bridge, which joins Cambridge to the City of Boston. We’d been back and forth across the bridge a few times already on the train, but it was great weather to slowly meander across on foot and check out the views.

The Longfellow Bridge connects the Kendall Square area of Cambridge with Beacon Hill in Boston. The bridge is 539m long, and we had laughed at Tripadvisor ‘reviews’ of the bridge claiming it was lovely but a bit too long! We weren’t sure how you could get across the river and make the bridge shorter at the same time.

We were heading from Cambridge, across to the Boston side of the Bridge and then over to the Museum of Science, the brown and white buildings in the centre of the photo below, sitting on the edge of the Charles River.

While we planned to visit the Museum of Science another day during the trip, the Duck Tours left from outside the Museum so we got a scenic walk in before the tour.

The Longfellow Bridge, previously known as the Cambridge Bridge, opened in 1906, and it’s predecessor bridge – the West Boston Bridge was a toll road constructed in 1793. These days it carries approximately 30,000 cars and 90,000 public transport passengers each weekday. During our time in Boston we did a lot of trips back and forth over that bridge, mostly on the red line train….

It was a beautiful Autumn day and the colours of the trees lining the river, were impressive. The water was also nice and still, which bode well for our Duck Tour.

During our walk over the bridge we had fun watching the frequent trains crossing. They views while you are on the train are also pretty good, at least while the weather was being cooperative!

As we exited the bridge we continued down to the river’s edge to follow the bike and pedestrian path towards the museum. The trees lining the river were just as pretty up close.

The kids were back to full energy, and Soren was keen to run along the edge of the river. We couldn’t believe we’d been lucky enough to get short and T-shirt weather at the end of October!

The Boston Duck Tour…..

We arrived at the Museum of Science after a leisurely 4.5km of walking. We made it there just before 10am and managed to get spots on the 10.30am Duck Tour.

With a bit of time to kill we headed inside to the Science Museum cafe for some coffee and drinks. Anto was amused the pumpkin spiced latte sign – we’d been watching too much ‘Last Week Tonight’ with John Oliver, where they constantly make fun of pumpkin spiced lattes. No, we didn’t have one though, we weren’t that keen!

There were plenty of Duck Boats lined up out the front and soon it was our turn to board one and set off on the tour.

Friends had recommended we do the tour early in our Boston stay to get a good sightseeing overview. It definitely helped with that aspect. We returned to many of the places later during our stay, on foot, but having some background on the history of the city was great.

We are not generally big ‘tour’ people, preferring to explore things ourselves. This was one of the better tours we’ve done. The guide and driver were very knowledgeable and entertaining, and there was a good amount of detail without being too boring. There were also plenty of jokes for the kids and the adults.

We set out through the city, getting the low-down on the history of Boston and many of the buildings, roads and the geography of the area.

It was a lovely temperature so we were lucky enough to have the plastic windows up for the duration of our tour. This meant it was pretty easy to see the sights and also take some photos as we drove through the city.

We had started out heading past Quincy Market, and North End before winding our way through the city streets towards Boston Common.

It was while we were enjoying the sunshine in Boston Common, the previous day, that we’d seen plenty of the Duck’s circumnavigating the roads surrounding the park. With their bright colours and distinctive honking, they are hard to miss. The locals probably hate them!

As we went around Boston Common we went past the golden-domed State House and looked at the steep streets of Beacon Hill. We did get a lot of information as we drove around. The kids were mostly interested in how much the Duck Boats costs each ($500,000) and how many people would quack back at us from the street.

The adults found the history and information entertaining, although it was, understandably, very American history focused. We may have missed the importance or relevance of some of the stories with our mediocre background in American History and in particular the New England area.

Finally, it got to the bit the kids had been waiting for…… when our Duck took to the water! As we drove down the boat ramp, horn blazing for safety reasons, the kids were pretty excited.

Soon we were cruising along the Charles River, and getting a different perspective on our views from the morning’s walk.

We passed a few other Duck Boats out on the water and all got to wave and ‘quack’ at each other. This never got old for the kids!

Then each of the kids got a chance to head up to the front of the Duck and have a go at driving. This was a huge hit. Thankfully they did not tip us over or run into anything!

Zinnia was last to get her go and was almost as excited as Soren was. There were a few other kids on our tour and a few of them also elected to have a go. Days were made for several families!

The beautiful Autumn day was perfect for cruising along the river and the second half of the tour passed very quickly as we got a little more history and plenty of great views.

After a lovely motor down the Charles River, it was time to exit the water and head back to our start point, at the Museum of Science. The whole tour was around 1.5 hours and definitely both informative and entertaining, and enjoyed by all members of the family. Given the level of detail of American history, locals may have gotten more out of some bits of the tour, but it was definitely a great introduction to Boston. We also had the pick of the weather. Later in our stay we noticed the Duck Boats driving around Boston with the plastic windows well and truly down, and no picture perfect blue skies!

Sunny exploring……

During our Duck Boat Tour our guide had mentioned that it was a fairly short walk to the Charlestown Navy Yard where you can visit the USS Constitution. As it happened, we had planned to just that after the our Duck Boating.

As we head off from the Museum of Science, it was a very pleasant walk along the river. Although, Zinnia was proclaiming some level of tiredness by this stage………

Exploring the Navy Yard

The Charlestown Navy Yard was one of the six original naval shipyards in the US. The Navy Yard employed officers, sailors and Marines for 174 years. There are currently 2 historic warships (the USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young), 2 museums and a number of other buildings to visit.

We wandered through the Navy Yard Visitor centre and had a very quick look at the USS Constitution Museum before heading out into the yard to check out the ships – the kids main point of interest!

The Navy Yard is part of the Freedom Trail, which we had covered parts of during the Duck Tour, that morning, but planned to walk later in our trip. First up we decided to visit the USS Constitution. The ship is free to visit, so a great activity for the travel budget!

The USS Constitution first sailed in 1797 and is the world’s oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat. She was build in the shipyard in the North End of Boston, and is most famous for capturing numerous merchant ships and defeating 5 British warships in the War of 1812.

We enjoyed wandering around the ship, although I spent less time than others actually looking in the ship as I made 3 separate trips back to the bathrooms in the museum, accompanying different children!

Next up, we went aboard the USS Cassin Young. Again, admission is free. The Cassin Young is a Fletcher-class destroyed which was named for Captain Cassin Young (who was awarded the Medal of Honour for his heroism a the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor).

The Cassin Young was launched in 1943 and served in World War II, then decomissioned but reatived during the Korean War and continued in service until 1960. You can wander through most areas of the ship, which was interesting, especially for ship obsessed Soren!

As a bonus the views from the ship of the Boston skyline were pretty impressive.

Sculptures along the Harbourwalk…

As you leave the USS Constitution Museum and Naval Yard, there are a series of 20 sculptures that form part of an outdoor art installation.

This yellow face is ‘Liquid Sunshine’ and the question mark, the kids enjoyed climbing on is ‘Questioning Mind’.

Each of the sculptures incorporates a human element, with most featuring a face.

It was now about 1.30pm and our tummies were rumbling, so we headed to a nearby well-rated, deli in Charlestown to find ourselves some lunch. The deli had plenty of interesting options but the kids devoured the gourmet toasted sandwiches before I got more than about 2 bites, let alone an photos! It was like they had done a lot of walking that morning…..

Charlestown Halloween decoration spotting….

With some food in our bellies, our next stop was a walk around the Charlestown neighbourhood. Charlestown is on the north side of thecy and on the banks of Boston Harbor. It is the oldest neighbourhood in Boston and contains a lot of beautiful houses. We had been told they have some great Halloween celebrations there too, and we immediately noticed there were some excellent decorations adorning the houses.

Halloween is getting more popular in Australia, but at least in our area, the level of house decorating is not quite this good. Zinnia and Soren were happy to pat giant fake spider, Astrid was less keen!

The Bunker Hill Monument

Charlestown is also home to The Bunker Hill Monument. The ‘Battle of Bunker Hill’ occurred on June 17, 1775, when New England soldiers faced the British army for the first time. Bloody fighting took place in the hilly landscape of pastures situated across the Charles River from Boston. The British forces claimed the field and the casualties inflicted on the provincial soldiers from Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire were large with over 1,000 British solider killed or wounded.

The monument was constructed 50 years after the battle and is a 67m granite obelisk. There are 294 stairs inside tight spiral stairway to get to the top of the monument.

The monument was under repair, which made the outside not so attractive, but we like to climb anything that’s there, so up the stairs we went! Entrance to the monument is free (another bonus!). Soren, being Soren, decided he would run up the stairs. It is a rather tight spiral and predictably about halfway up started to feel very sick!

We did all make it to the top though, most of us in a more controlled manner, and without feeling sick. Even Zinnia on her 4 year old legs….. The view down the spiral from the top was a little nauseating but fun.

Back down we had to pose for the obligatory photos in front of the ‘tall thing we climbed’ before it was time for more exploring.

More autumn colour and Halloween in Charlestown…..

We continued our wander through Charlestown, admiring the beautifully coloured trees, and goregous houses. The kids were more interested in the Halloween decorations, and we found plenty of amazing ones, much to Zinnia’s enjoyment.

Now all weary, from a big day out, and a lot of sunshine, in the 26 degree Celsius weather, we walked back across the river towards North End, figuring we’d catch the train back to our apartment in Cambridge as we’d clocked up a lot of kilometres on foot that day.

As we crossed the river, we went past TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics NBA team. Anto and Mikl had plans to go to a game later in our trip, but for today, the outside of the stadium was as close as we got. The stadium is near the entrance to the Green Line, so in our quest to cover of all the major train lines in the Boston area, we caught the Green Line to Downtown crossing and then the Red Line back to Central in Cambridge. We did find the pubic transport system easy to navigate and, while the trains often weren’t speedy, and a little crowded at peak hour, it was overall a pretty good way to get around Boston when we’d had enough walking.

By the time we made it back to Cambridge, Soren was not feeling great. We thought it was probably mostly due to his running up the stairs of the Bunker Hill monument, but we’d clocked up over 12km of walking for the day so we weren’t surpised the kids were about to flake.

With dinner supplies purchased at the supermarket in Central, the kids may have conned us into some Halloween themed dessert items, to keep them motivated for the walk back to the apartment.

It was now the night before the wedding, the event we’d flown half way around the world to attend and Anto and Mikl were off back to the city to catch up with rellies at an official pre-wedding get together. As it was most definitely a non-kid friendly event I was on kid-wrangling duty for the night. As a result there are zero photos of the shenanigans. When Anto did eventually return I was reliably informed that plenty of drinks were consumed and Mikl had decided that despite all the walking earlier in the day, he declared the Boston mass-transit system to be too inefficient for his partially inebriated self, and would prefer to walk back to Cambridge as it ‘would take the same amount of time’. Apparently Anto’s feet were less convinced on this plan but he did say that the Longfellow bridge walk we’d done that morning was also pretty in the reverse direction at close to midnight!

Up next….

A saturday morning exploring the iconic Harvard, followed by us getting into our finery and attending a wedding to remember!