Woke up at 6:30 after a sound sleep. Had to use the noise machine app on my phone last night, because I went to bed at 9:30, but one of my loud neighbors in an adjoining room didn’t go to bed as early.
Did my full morning routine. Washed yesterday’s clothes and hung them up to dry before heading out. I took the T to the aquarium stop to catch my whale watching excursion. The boat left at 10:00, and it was a four hour tour. I brought a little string bag with some clothes and some water.
The weather was beautiful again. Sunny and cool with no wind. So, there were almost no waves, which was great for seeing whales. Also, no rocking motion as we sailed. Elizabeth gets sea sickness, but I think she would have been fine on the boat today.
Great views of the Boston skyline as we left.
We actually had a huge dolphin pod siting on the way out to see the whales. They were Common Dolphins. About 70 of them, and the swam around the boat for 20 minutes.
Shortly after that we were at the area with whales, which was within sight of Provincetown. We saw six different humpback whales. All of them surfaced several times. It was not boring, as there always seemed to be at least one whale around.
I didn’t take any pictures of the dolphins or whales, because I was focused on watching them (that’s why they call it a “whale watch “ 😂). I will pull some pictures from the company’s blog when they post them.
About 12:45 we started back to Boston. Stopped for 10 minutes on the way back to look for a reported shark. But we didn’t see anything. We returned back to Boston a little after 2:00.
On the way back to Boston, I was thinking about what to do with my afternoon. I decided to go to Bunker Hill to climb the monument (I hate to leave something un-done). So, I changed into shorts in the bathroom on the boat. Then I caught the T to the North Station and then walked across the Charles River bridge and up to the top of Bunker Hill.
Then, more climbing up the 294 steps to the top of the monument. I was 250 steps up when my phone rang. It was my Mom, so I answered it (she’s on a short list of people whose call I would have answered. I said, “Hi”, but that’s all I could get out, because I was breathing too hard. Mom asked me if I was alright, so I had to explain where I was and what I was doing. I slowly climbed up the few remaining steps and then sat down at the top and caught my breath while talking with my Mom. No one else was at the top, so it was nice.
The views from the top were excellent. Definitely worth the effort to get up there.
Here is the view of the harbor.
And here is the view of the downtown skyline.
As I was preparing to head back down, some people came up. This one older lady came up exhausted – you could tell it was a hard effort for her, but she made it. I congratulated her for making it.
I made it down in time to hear the NPS ranger talk about the battle of Bunker Hill. It was informative and well done.
By then, it was pushing 4:00, and I was getting hungry. So on my way down, I stopped at a park and identified a restaurant for dinner. Yesterday, while on the Freedom Trail, I passed a number of Italian restaurants in the North End. I thought Italian food sounded excellent for dinner.
I walked back across the Charles River bridge and to a small restaurant called “Isabella” for dinner. It was early, but they were open. I was the only customer in the restaurant. Dinner was fabulous! A nice green salad with pears followed by mushroom ravioli.
I strolled around the downtown area after dinner to walk it off a little. Eventually, I found a T station and made my way back to my hotel.
It was another great day. Only 12K steps, as I was sitting on a boat for four hours.