Boston 2019 - Part 2 Boston Common, Cream Pie, and Quincy Market

We had clear, blue sky on our second day in Boston. After breakfast and a quick stop at Walgreens, we strolled to Boston Common in hopes of starting our Freedom Trail walk. On the way there, we saw the Granary Burying Ground and we stopped to have a look. Boston has a lot of history to tell, and they are doing a pretty good job in promoting it.

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History is who we are and why we are the way we are. -David McCullough #boston #usa #freedomtrail #history #america #massachusetts #travel #travelblogger
A post shared by Nat (@n4t4c4) on Jul 5, 2019 at 9:13pm PDT

When we reached Boston Common, we stopped for a few minutes to study the map and did some reading on the post. That was when an elderly gentleman approached us and offered assistance with a tour. We gently declined and started walking towards the nearest spot of interest: The Massachusetts State House. We didn't enter the building but we did take some pictures outside it.

As we followed the red Freedom Trail path on the sidewalk, I spotted the Omni Parker Hotel. I nudged DH and convinced him to stop there for early dessert. The Omni Parker Hotel's Boston Cream Pie is the original after all!

So we entered the hotel and were impressed that even though it was clearly an old hotel it didn't have any old musky smell to it at all!

We went to the restaurant and informed the hostess that we were there to have the Boston Cream Pie. We sat and ordered, and waited for a while.

And the famous cake finally arrived!

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Boston Cream Pie was a dessert I was introduced to during my university days in Canada. This time I got to try it at not only the birth city that it was named after but also at the original hotel that created the recipe! Well let me tell you... it was delicious. #boston #america #usa #dessert #cake #bostoncreampie #omniparkerhouse #omniparkerhousehotel #originalrecipe #historical
A post shared by Nat (@n4t4c4) on Jul 6, 2019 at 2:46pm PDT

Possibly one of the few remaining gaslights

We gobbled our delicious cake up and licked the plate. From there, we traced back to the red mark on the sidewalk and resumed following the Freedom Trail. Along the path we spotted what we thought as used-to-be-gaslight-houses and took some pictures as a collection. Later on I found out that Boston actually still have quite a few gaslights still running (on gas!). Apparently, the gaslights in Boston are on 24/7 and requires a lot of maintenance. In my pictures you can see some of the lights were on even on a bright, sunny day.

Freedom trail

We walked and walked and arrived at Faneuil Hall that happened to be under maintenance. When I was planning for this trip, I got a little confused with Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. They both seemed to be markets and are located in the same area. I even speculated that maybe the Quincy Market was the market area of Faneuil Hall!

It turned out that I wasn't too far off the mark. There's the Faneuil Hall Marketplace that consists of four historical buildings. One of the buildings is the Faneuil Hall, and the rest are Quincy Market, North Market, and South Market. We didn't go in Faneuil Hall but instead went straight into the Quincy Market and walked through it. It was very busy and was full of food vendors. We weren't hungry after the cream pie so we walked past and exited. On the outer area of the building they have different stalls selling souvenirs and such. You can also find the Cheers bar (from the TV show) here.