Boston Breakfast, Brews, and History

We woke up to rain. A gloomy morning, for sure. We decided to go out to breakfast, opting for a little place called The Paramount near Boston Common.

Established in 1937, it has a very different feel to it than most restaurants. You wait in line to place your order and get your food, and THEN you are seated at a table by the host. It's small, and there was already a long line when we arrived at 8:05 a.m. (they opened at 8:00). Somehow, we got our food and sure enough, we were seated right away. They swear their system works, and for us, it did.

They had several different kinds of pancakes. I had apple cinnamon, and we got Nora a banana pancake. After Nora slowed up on her eating, we packed up the rest of her pancake for the road. Which she dutifully ate on the walk back to the hotel, ha!

We got poured on as we walked back through Boston Common--we were glad we hadn't showered yet!--and we were nervous about what the rest of the day would hold in terms of the weather.

We dried off back in the hotel room, got ready for the day, and decided to hit up the Samuel Adams Brewery tour.

At 10:40 a.m.

You'd think we would've been the only ones, but nope--we had a full tour group. And there was actually a group or two ahead of us, too. Hey, it's vacation. I guess it's OK to indulge at 10:00 a.m.

And no, we weren't the only ones with a kid here, either. But judge if you must. :)

It was interesting to learn a bit about the beer making process, but if I'm being honest, the majority of my time here was spent trying to occupy a bored toddler. Again, iPhone apps for kids (Duck Duck Moose!) and snacks (goldfish crackers) were the lifesavers here.

After the tour, we were escorted into a sampling room. Here, our guide told us more about the three varieties of beer we were tasting, and we got to... well, taste.

Nora was really good and patient in here, thankfully. But there was one point where I was trying to get her to do something she apparently didn't want to do. At that very same moment, the guide was talking something about running out of beer, and Nora yelled out "Nooooo!" at the exact right time. She was talking to me, of course, but it sounded like she was reacting to his statement, so the entire room laughed. That's my girl.

After the tour, we went back to the hotel to try to put Nora down for a nap in an actual crib (well, pack 'n' play) since she napped on the go both Thursday and Friday. About half an hour into it, it was clear that it just WAS NOT going to happen. She knew we were in the room with her (despite being around a little corner), and would just not settle down like she does at night.

Instead, we strapped her in the stroller, reclined the seat again, and set out on foot toward Copley Square. Sure enough, she was asleep within minutes. The weather was still overcast, but it wasn't raining, so we enjoyed the walk while she slept.

After walking around this area a little bit, we decided to hop on the T back down toward Boston Common to start walking the Freedom Trail.

Here are some of the sights we saw along the way...

Once the trail led us back to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market, we decided to call it quits on the Freedom Trail for the day. We were hungry (hadn't eaten since breakfast, this was late afternoon now), so we went back to the hotel for a little rest and refresh.

Then we walked to a restaurant recommended by my mom, called Picco's. It was in a really cute area of town not too far from our hotel (but still a nice walk, and in the opposite direction of everything we had visited thus far). Michael had fish tacos and I had a wood-fired pizza. Both of our meals were delicious, I would highly recommend this place!

By the time we were done, it was time to call it another early night. We'll have the morning to explore a bit more--hopefully more of the Freedom Trail--before flying home in the afternoon.