Beantown sight seeing and stripers!

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Our first trip to Boston was everything we expected. The food was great the people were very friendly and the history was fascinating.  We hired a personal guide for 2 days to show us the town. On the first day we took a 6 hour tour tracing the footsteps of Paul Revere and his Midnight ride. That took us through Charleston, Lexington and Concord. After lunch we toured Harvard and parts of Boston. The kids paid attention the entire tour and were eager to hear all the historical stories the tour guide told.

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The next day I took the boys fishing in the morning in Boston Harbor and the girls slept in and explored nearby on their own. The fishing was not good.  We did catch some fish but it was pretty slim pickins. The Capt. said it was due to the Saturday boat traffic. Funny thing, he also said the traffic is worse on weekdays because of the commuter traffic. So if I heard that correctly, there is no good time to fish Boston Harbor!

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That afternoon we took a 3 hour walking tour of the city. Most of it was walking on the Freedom Trail but we ventured off to other historic and interesting parts of the city. Although we were pretty tired after the walk, it was well worth it and the kids held up fine.

The next day we drove to Martha’s Vineyard. It rained the entire day so we did not see the splendor of the Island. No good views of the beaches or the harbor or the lighthouses or the neighborhoods. We drove to the southernmost town called Aquinnah and had lunch there. On a sunny day we were told your could see for miles and can see the beautiful homes and beaches surrounding the area. That day we saw “NUTTIN”. After lunch we drove back to Edgartown to shop and sightsee then back to Vineyard Haven to get onto the ferry back to the mainland. Next stop, Plymouth.

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We arrived into Plymouth in time to have a great dinner at the East Bay Grille. The boys had Scrod and I had the Chilean Sea Bass. They were both outstanding. I think one of us in the family ordered Scrod at least once a day during the week. Scrod is apparantly a local name for cod, haddock or pollack. We were told it could be any of those three whitefish and possibly a couple more. Whatever the name is, it is a fantastic fish. The next morning the boys went fishing and the girls drove to Providence RI.

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The morning was very foggy when we met the Capt. at the boat ramp. We boarded the boat and as we motored out of the harbor, Capt. Scott noticed fish boiling all over the place right in the harbor. We got our gear ready and we had fish on with in minutes from stepping foot on the boat. We were on the fish for about 2 hours when the Capt. said “lets head out to make bait that way we can get some bigger fish on live bait”. We agreed so off we went. I hated to leave the fish but it would be another experience for the boys to make bait.  The boat stopped near a large buoy and we could tell we were pretty far offshore. There were more swells and I was worried that the boys would get seasick. Well as soon as we dropped our bait jigs the fishing was fast and furious. Every drop produced at least one mackerel or herring. The boys LOVED it.  After 20 minutes our bait tank was full but the boys still wanted to jig for bait! After some convincing they agreed to go find some stripers.

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We pulled into Kingston Bay and noticed many birds working bait. As we got closer we could see the striper boils all over the place. the boys got into fish right away and since it was still cloudy and foggy, we worked that school for 3 hours! At Noon or so, the birds disappeared and so did the fish. We motored to different spots to find no fish. Finally I told Capt. Scott if the fishing is this tough, lets head back and I’ll take the boys to a nice lunch. So we headed back to the launch. Lo and behold as we idled into the harbor the stripers and birds were still working! We fished for another 90 minutes until the clouds went away and the sun came out. As soon as the sun came out the birds and the fish dissapeared. There a pic of the boys with the Mayflower II in the background. Ended the day with over 60 fish to the boat.

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We looked around Plymouth and visited the museums the rest of the day and the next morning. Melanie is a card carrying Mayflower Descendent and that makes the kids too. As we were buying T-shirts I told the cashier that the kids were Mayflower descendants and she looked at me and then the kids and didn’t say much. Looking the the kids I’d say the bloodline is thinning out quite a bit!

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We drove back to Boston to spend our last night. We stayed in the heart of “Little Italy” on Hanover St.. As  we walked outside our 2 bedroom apartment there were Italian restaurants as far as the eye could see. They were baking fresh bread 24/7 downstairs of our suite. We had to take some home, it was darn close to the best bread we’ve ever eaten. We also had to stop at Mike’s Bakery….several times. The lines in the evening and weekends are out the door. As you can see by the cannoli menu on the wall there is quite the choices.

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Our last dinner in Boston was at Bricco and it was spectacular. The next morning I had to eat my last lobster roll (I had at least one a day the whole week we were there) for breakfast. It happened to be the best one of the week. I am going to miss authentic lobster rolls for sure.

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It was a great trip but it will probably be awhile before we head that way again. There are too many other places we would like to take the kids. Now we are back in the triple digit heat wishing we were back in Beantown!

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