Boston Day Trip

This post in incredibly long. Gold star for the sticker chart if you make it all the way to the end.

My college had these glorious two weeks between the end of finals and graduation and one day in the middle of this largely uncalled-for, yet delightful, break from reality a few of my friends and I decided to take a quick trip into Boston to be tourists for a day. Elena, Amelia, and I drove in and after a couple of phone calls and "hi I don't actually know exxxaaaactly where we are right now and oh! we are definitely walking in the wrong direction," we met up with Martha, who was already there.

My friends

are pretty.

Elena is too but she didn't want a pic by herself.

openyoureyes

Every picture, Chey, really?

Pull it together.

The weather was b-e-a-utiful.

 and everything was blooming and we all died a thousand deaths of happiness.

And I declared that I could definitely live here.

 Elena, Amelia, Martha, and moi

Amelia is the master at getting strangers to snap pics for you.

Here are her tricks:

Plan A

1. Find other obvious tourists who seem to be struggling with their selfies.

2. Kindly offer to take their picture.

3. Upon returning their camera, ohsokindly ask if they would mind taking your picture.

They now have no say in the matter 

because not returning the favor would make them terrible human beings.

Bingo.

We employed this tactic on multiple occasions.

If there are no struggling selfie-taking tourists to be spotted, resort to

Plan B

1. Search for someone toting a camera. (If you're in a touristy area this should not be difficult).

Hopefully there are numerous people toting cameras so that you have your selection, which leads to...

2. Be choosy with your selection of temporary photographer, if at all possible.

3. Try to avoid people who are walking with a purpose.

Nobody likes to be interrupted by annoying tourists when they have places to be.

Similarly, you'll probably want to avoid people 

who appear to be lugging cumbersome objects and/or/including children.

Ain't nobody got time fuh dat [pitchur takin'].

Or people who really look like they will not be nice human beings. Trust your gut on that one. 

4. Do try to find someone who is toting a nicer looking camera.

We all know that flaunting a fancy DSLR does not equate to being a good photographer

but odds are good that if they are willing to shell out the big bucks for a camera

they are probably at least care a little bit about taking photos.

5. Also try to find someone who seems like they will be kind.

After a few minutes of searching we weren't sure we would find someone to take a pic for us.

But then...

We utilized Plan B for the above photo and

behold!

hit the jackpot because the kind lady toting the fancy camera took not just the one,

not two,

but three group shots
of her own volition.

Thanks, kind stranger with a nice camera! May karma serve you well.

(These were clearly not from aforementioned nice camera).

(and they were nabbed from the 'book hence their extra high quality).

 We employed Plan A here.

When Amelia offered to take the kind couple's picture, per step 2,

The woman enthusiastically exclaimed, "Yes!"

while simultaneously the man shot down the offer.

She gave him the "what are you, crazy?" look.

A little marital strife was totally worth it for a group shot.

Oh vell.

We unintentionally ended up sort-of walking the Freedom Trail in its entirety, and then some.

Didn't hate it.

 lunch at Quincy Market

 and a stop at Mike's Pastry (duh).

We were innocently meandering around when we stumbled upon Clark Street! 

As four soon-to-be Clark alumnae

we were convinced this screamed "photo op"

and blocked all pedestrian traffic on this side of the street to capture our little discovery.

Possibly my favorite:

 We took a brief sitting break in this little...alley?(no) ...plaza?(maybe)

before Elena left to go visit some of her family.

Whatever you want to call it, it also served as a playground of sorts for a school

that happened to be dismissing as we got arrived.

We sat in the shade here

while small children ran about

partaking in their antics

as small children do.

Stealing each other's toys

and then tattling

and running circles around one another.

It made us very happy

that we were not small children

or responsible for them

or in school (two weeks of freedom, we loved you).

Did I mention that this was the most gloriously beautiful day?

We employed Plan A to grab this one

and we're pretty sure it involved less marital strife.

win-win.

After Elena left, Martha, Amelia and I headed over to Charlestown to meet up with Martha & Lauren's (sidenote: Martha and Lauren are sisters and we love them a whole lot. Lauren opted to stay in Worcester on this particular day, hence the lack of pictures/ previous mentions of her) mom, and then headed back to their home for a very generous and delicious dinner and a walk around their incredibly cute hometown. Not before stopping in front of the USS Constitution for some more pics, though!

 Another one of my personal favorite pictures of some of my personal favorite people. 

All in all this was one of my happiest days, potentially of all time. I would blissfully relive it over and over again. 

-Cheryl