NYC-Boston 12-28Dec12 (Day 8)

Sinful yet hearty brekkie at this charming place 15 mins' walk from our hotel. My tossed cobb salad right there was the center of attention because of its amazing ingredients - sliced avocado, egg, ham, turkey, bacon, blue cheese, onions and ranch dressing. Fed ourselves well for the upcoming walking tour.

Name: The Paramount (website)
Location: 44 charles street, beacon hill, boston ma 02114
Expenditure: ~15usd pp

First stop - Boston common. E says everyone who comes here always has to take photos with the ducks. We wonder why.. They are simply "a set of bronze statues based on the main characters from the children's story Make Way for Ducklings" but they look so cute we had to do it too! Really pleasant park that has a minute skating rink during winter.

E then recommended that we do the famous Freedom Trail while she runs some final errands for her move back to SG. Let me warn you first to be prepared for lots of walking. I downloaded a free iPhone app that brought us on the 16-stop tour and gave brief explanations at each stop. It was quite sufficient as a guide. Find out all about the Freedom Trail on http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/. Shan't go into too much details. If you half a day to spare, do it.

Crazy windy and cold so we called for break time at trail stop #11. It's called 'Hillstones' and it's situated just beside the Faneuil Hall. Had awesome grilled artichokes for snack and some wine. This place is pretty crowded so I reckon their mains must be good. Worth a return. We then shopped around the area at Ambercrombie and Fitch, Quincy Market etc.

By this time the legs were starting to jello-up so the other 4 surrendered and went back to the hotel. S and I however decided to push on. It wasn't long before we arrived at the Union Oyster House which is hailed as America's Oldest Restaurant, est 1826. It's a designated national historic landmark and we couldn't resist having the classic steam lobster. Such a greedy pair. I was very tempted by the oyster bar but held myself back... Cool place to visit. There's a wall of fame and engraved on gold plates are names like Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, Steven Spielberg and many more who have visited the restaurant before. Thumbs up!

Name: Oyster Union House (website)
Location: 41 Union Street, Boston
Expenditure: 57usd for 2 incl. a glass of wine each

After the lobster we felt recharged to continue on our quest. It was getting dark already.. When we reached the river we had to decide whether to head back to hotel or finish the trail. At that point, we saw Residence Inn Marriott across the bridge and S said E's place was near there (we were supposed to meet for dinner at her place that night). So she suggested crossing the bridge and walking to our destination.

I was tired but I thought might as well. Little did we realize, after crossing the long bridge in the exposed cold, that E's place was nowhere in sight. Something was wrong and we were lost. Asked the hotel for directions but as luck would have it, they directed us to the wrong 3rd street. Or rather, we were on 3rd street but on the wrong side of town! Turns out E stayed in Cambridge but we searching our way in Charlestown. On hindsight we made 3 really stupid assumptions. 1) E stays across the bridge (they are actually many bridges in Boston. 2) E stays near Residence Inn Marriott (there's more than 1 in Boston). 3) E stays at 3rd street (duh, there are 3rd streets in every damn town!).

Chanced upon the USS Constitution warship (2nd last stop of the Freedom Trail) but I was already in very low spirits. We saw the Bunker Hill Monument (last stop) in a distance but it was way too far away. Tried looking for a bus or train to get to E's place but to no avail. Finally gave up, flagged for a cab and reached there in like 5 mins. Should have just done it eons ago! Grrr...