To say our trip together in Boston was amazing would be an understatement! Our days were full of memorable moments and it was simply wonderful being together! Here’s a recap of the week’s events…
Thursday, December 15th
Tiff’s flight arrived a little after 7:00am after she’d taken a delayed red-eye flight from Salt Lake. Thankfully she was able to sleep a bit on the flight, but she definitely felt a little worn when she arrived in Boston! Tom, being the amazingly sweet person he is, parked the car and was actually waiting inside the airport when she arrived! Sadly she took the wrong way down to the baggage claim, so she initially missed him, but then they were “reunited and it felt so good!” It was awesome to be together in person and it was actually quite surreal after most of our interaction having been on the phone!
After they got her bags, they headed back to Tom’s place so he could jump on a conference call for work. (He wasn’t able to officially take the days off, though he did keep his schedule really clear so they could spend lots of time together, which meant a lot to Tiff!) They arrived at Tom’s Boston apartment about 8:00am and he got on his conference call while Tiff took a quick nap on his comfy red chair. After the call was over, they headed out to walk the streets of Boston and do some sight-seeing!
The first stop was Harvard, which is across the street from where Tom lives. The campus was beautiful, even though it was quiet because most of the students had gone home for the holidays. We saw many of the old historical buildings and then crossed a bridge where we saw some beautiful swans swimming! Apparently swans (and ducks) can’t feel cold, because the water was icing over! But, it sure was a pretty sight and Tiff was grateful for her new iPhone 7 Plus so she could capture these moments perfectly!
While walking through Harvard, we of course had to get a picture with Mr. John Harvard himself! (However, we’ve since learned that maybe it actually isn’t “Mr. Harvard” though we’re going to maintain that it was! Also, this picture was a little tricky to get because there was a really big tourist group that arrived at the statue the same time we did… Tom pulled it off though and it looks like it’s just us!) After walking through Harvard’s campus, we made a brief stop at the Harvard Bookstore. It was so cool and nice to step inside for a bit to get warm!
We then decided to take on the Freedom Trail, and it was really cool! Our first stop was Boston Commons, and this is probably one of our favorite pictures of the trip. 🙂 As you can tell, it was incredibly windy and bone-chilling cold, but we didn’t mind because we were together!
We then made a stop at the Massachusetts State House, which was so incredibly pretty! Tom had a book about the Freedom Trail so between his knowledge of things and the book, we were able to actually learn a lot about these sites! For example, we learned that the State House hasn’t always had a gold dome… Very interesting! It was nice to have someone take our picture, but we were also getting pretty good at our selfie game!
After the State House, we took a walk through Beacon Hill and it was beautiful! It was really cool to see all the old homes that are now owned by some of the wealthiest people in Boston! They were really beautiful and it was cool to walk down the streets that are filled with so much history! We took a walk down to the “Cheers” bar and then walked back through Boston Commons to get to the other side of town.
We then continued down the Freedom Trail and made stops at the Granary Burial Ground…
The Omni Parker House Hotel (where Boston Cream Pie and Parker House rolls originated)…
The King’s Chapel Burial Ground…
And Old City Hall…
After all this touristing, Tom had to make a stop by his office to attend a quick meeting. The building where he works is GORGEOUS and it was cool for Tiff to see where he spends his time! Though she wasn’t allowed up to his actual office (the building has pretty strict security) the lobby itself was impressive enough!
While Tom was in his meeting, Tiff went out sight-seeing a little more. Her first stop was a cupcake bakery…one of her favorite things to find whenever she’s in a new city! She then walked around Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which consisted of a few different buildings and an open market area. It was really fun and you could definitely feel the unique Boston history of the area!
Next was lunch at a place on the harbor called Legal Sea Food. Tiff thought this was a funny name, but there was nothing funny about the food! It was AMAZING and probably one of the best meals Tiff has ever had in her life! We both ordered clam chowder, which was delicious, and then we decided to split a lobster roll. However, we didn’t make this known to the waitress (or we thought we had) and so we each ended up getting our own. It was definitely a pricey meal, but it was SO INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS!
We then took a walk along the harbor, and interestingly enough, it wasn’t as cold down by the water as it was in the city! Tom explained that this is because the wind gets caught between the tall buildings and just makes things bitter cold, but down by the harbor it wasn’t bad at all! We made a stop at the Boston Tea Party museum and that was really quite fun! They were setting up for the anniversary celebration the next day, so we saw some people in costumes and it was pretty fun!
As you can see, it was a really busy day! We ended up getting over 20,000 steps each, which was awesome! It was such a fun day and even though it was very cold, the fact that we were together just made everything so wonderfully perfect!
Friday, December 16th
On Friday, we continued our touristing in the city with our first stop being Copley Square. We visited the Old South Church…
Which was incredibly beautiful inside…
The finish line of the Boston Marathon (which Tiff will probably watch Tom cross for reals someday!)…
The Boston Public Library, which was incredibly detailed and beautiful and where we toured a Shakespeare exhibit…
We then made a stop at the Copley Place Mall, where Tiff found one of her favorite stores… 🙂
We then decided to take the Prudential Tower tour, which is on the 52nd floor and has 360-degree windows where you can overlook all of Boston. It was absolutely beautiful! We listened to a tour through this little black hand-held box, and it was actually very interesting! It told about many of the historic sites, and there were even some things mentioned that Tom didn’t know about, like the 1919 Boston Molasses Disaster!
Perhaps the best moment of the tour came at the end when, while overlooking the beautiful city of Boston, we had our first kiss! It’s debatable who kissed who, and this may never actually be settled, but it doesn’t really matter because it was just such a perfect and magical moment! (The smile on Tom’s face seems to say it all!) The middle picture is kind of dark, because we wanted to get a picture of the sights we were looking at when the kiss happened, but that didn’t work too well! 😉
After the Prudential Tower, we went to lunch at P.F. Chang’s in Copley Square Mall. When we arrived, the hostess called us lovebirds… Apparently it was obvious that we were quite smitten with each other! Our fortunes were also funny because we had joked for weeks about just being “friends” and so these seemed pretty appropriate!
We then went to the Church of Christ Scientist, which was incredibly interesting! We were able to participate in a tour of their buildings and were told about the religion, its founder and history, and the fact that it’s home to one of the largest pipe organs in the world!
After the Church tour, we went next door to the Church’s Mapparium, which was AMAZING! It’s a large glass globe that is done in stained glass to represent the world, and it was honestly one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen! The sound inside the globe too was amazing… At one point, it is perfect surround sound and it really was crazy to hear people talk from across the room and yet feel like they were behind you! Pictures weren’t allowed on the tour, but this is one from their website… It was amazing!
We then went outside and took a few more pictures of the places we visited — the Church of Christ Scientist, the Boston Public Library, the Old South Church, and our favorite, the Prudential Tower! Our selfie game was seriously on point! 🙂
We really packed the day full, so by the time we’d done all our sight-seeing, it was time to get ready for Tom’s office holiday party! The party was held at his office, Acquia, and it was awesome! It was cool for Tiff to see where Tom worked and get to meet some of his coworkers. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was so much fun! We had a good time writing on the white board walls, and the photo booth was a blast as well… We sure were glad we’d had our first kiss so we could use that as one of our poses! Tiff promptly put the photo booth pic up at Tom’s desk so he would never forget about her! 🙂
We then thought it would be fun to have a little selfie session… We seriously were having so much fun together!
After the party, we decided to walk home and again, it was incredibly cold but we were just glad to be together! We walked through Boston Commons, where the lights were beautiful, and we found another stop on the Freedom Trail — the Old South Meeting House!
Looking back through our pictures, it appears we enjoyed getting pictures in front of Christmas trees — they were everywhere! We didn’t do this intentionally, but we ended up getting quite a few pics in front of beautiful Christmas trees! It was another fabulous day and you can tell from the smiles on our faces that we were so incredibly happy to be together!
Saturday, December 17th
Saturday started off pretty chill… A HUGE snowstorm hit Boston, so we weren’t able to do much. We sat inside, talked, and made a gingerbread house together! It was actually quite nice since we’d been so busy the two days before!
Once the snow stopped, we went to lunch at a yummy place called Parish Cafe… We shared a sandwich and a wrap and they were really delicious! After lunch, we decided to go to a candlelight Christmas program at the Trinity Church in Copley Square. It was absolutely amazing and touching and it definitely helped us feel the Christmas spirit! (On an unrelated note, the Trinity Church was where we first said “I Love You” to each other! It was the perfect moment while we were holding each other, sitting and listening to the organ softly play Christmas music. It was very special and just one of many memorable moments from the trip!)
After the concert came an incredibly special part of the trip… Tom had bought us tickets to attend the Boston Ballet Nutcracker! This was absolutely a highlight of the trip and it was such an amazing night!
(There were actually some funny moments leading up to the ballet… We were all ready to go with just enough time to get there, and then we realized we’d left the tickets at Tom’s house! We called an Uber who raced us there so we could grab the tickets and then raced us back downtown to the opera house… Literally, raced! The roads were a little sketchy because of the snowstorm, so at one point we just held each others’ hands and prayed for the best! Our Uber driver was crazy, but he got us there on time and in the end, that’s all that mattered!)
The ballet was held in the Boston Opera House, which in and of itself was GORGEOUS! It was so special to experience this together in such a beautiful setting! We purchased an ornament at the ballet to commemorate the event, and it will be fun to look back on it for years to come!
After the ballet, we went to a yummy (but random!) Mexican restaurant to get some tacos, and they were surprisingly delicious! We then went home having had another absolutely wonderful and successful day!
Sunday, December 18th
Sunday was a pretty relaxing day, which was a great way to end the trip! We began the day by attending church, which was wonderful as always. It was nice to be able to attend meetings together! After church, we took the scenic route home and made a stop at the campus of MIT, which was quite lovely!
We then went back to Tom’s place for lunch, which was risotto all the way from Italy! It was delicious and the way Tom served it was especially wonderful… 🙂
We then took the opportunity to get a few final pictures together! We’d gotten pretty good at selfies and just had to take a few more! One of the greatest parts of our relationship is the fact that we laugh so much, and this afternoon was no exception!
Sadly the trip was quickly coming to a close, but we had just enough time to stop by the Boston Temple on the way to the airport. We had planned to go there on Saturday but weren’t able to because of the crazy snowstorm!
Tom then drove Tiff to the airport and after saying a teary goodbye in the car, Tom was so sweet and walked Tiff into the airport and stayed with her until she had to go through security. We were grateful for a few extra minutes together and thankfully Tiff made it on her flight just in time!
These few days together were simply wonderful and just the best way to really begin our journey together! All the magical moments will be remembered and we’re so thankful for the chance we had to spend this time with each other!
Here is a video that we put together with pictures from the trip… It truly was “Wonderful, Wonderful” in every sense of the word!
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