The Freedom Trail is probably the #1 tourist thing to do in Boston.

The Freedom trail is a walking path designated by a red line (mostly made of, wait for it, BRICK!) that connects the historic sites around the city. Personally, I think that some guy arbitrarily playing connect the dots doesn't really qualify as a TRAIL, but it's a super famous thing in Boston so we walked it. And I am not being glib, the trail is a line that was drawn by journalist William Schofield in 1951 because he thought it would be cool to connect famous landmarks as a pedestrian path. Given its success, I would say he made a good call.

Since I love exploring cities on foot, it was a great thing to do.

(Another famous trail in Boston is the Cheers Trail, connecting famous spots from the long-running show Cheers. Boston really likes the word TRAIL.)

It would seem that these days I pretty much only wear Tom's. I have 5 pairs of various styles.

Fortunately, we had rather perfect weather for walking The Freedom Trail. It was a bit overcast, but did not rain. Along the way, I stopped to take pictures of famous buildings and the city in general (many of those city photos made their appearance in Boston Part 1).

To be real, I took as many pictures of places like Mike's Pastry as I did of monuments. What can I say, I appreciate a good pastry. Below are some pics of sites around Bahston.

Monument to Black Civil War Soldiers

New State House

Old State House

Inside Quincy Market

Mike's Pastry

Inside Mike's Pastry

Bunker Hill Monument

Colonel William Prescott Statue at Bunker Hill

Boston Park

Duck statues at the park wearing Boston Marathon Easter Bonnets

Original Cheers Bar

At Bunker Hill, the end of The Freedom Trail.

And yes, we did have a drink in the Cheers Bar. Only it was the other Cheers bar (there are now two). The original one, as pictured above in the slide show, we simply walked by and I snapped a shot. But in the "other" Cheers bar we had a drink and watched a bit of a Sox game, so I think I officially stamped my Boston card.

My timing was excellent as Boston was beginning to be in bloom. I really enjoyed seeing all of the trees come to life with vibrant colors. There were also tulips everywhere. Especially in one of the main parks, the theme of this years floral gardens was definitely tulips.

One morning we went to the farmer's market- it was the first day of the season! The Boston farmer's market has multiple parts: a food truck section where I got an AMAZING Apple and Brie Crepe from Paris Creperie, the food/produce section and an arts/crafts section. There is also an indoor vintage shop that operates year-round where I found an awesome jacket.

We also went to the New England Aquarium. It is a very nice aquarium that has a very similar layout to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. If you are like me and love animals, then these following photos are for you.

Well, that about sums it up.

We walked a lot. Ate a lot. Saw a lot of the city.

We also went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, but photographs are forbidden in there, so alas I am not able to show you how incredibly cool her old old house filled with artwork is. If you are curious, Google Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

So long Bahston. It's been real. You get high marks in my book.

I had never been to Boston.

That truth seemed absurd to me seeing as how I'm from outside of Baltimore. Boston isn't that far away. Plenty of Red Sox fans have crashed Camden Yards for the span of a single baseball game, so why hadn't I made it up there before?

Finally, after all of these years, I planned a trip up to Boston to visit my brother's lovely girlfriend, Lili, before she graduates from BU Medical School and moves back to LA.

I took a BUNCH of photographs of Boston, so I'm breaking this trip into a 2 parter.

Essentially, we ate and walked our way through the city.

Naturally, I ate pizza (not pictured, sorry- I dropped the ball of that one) and a cannoli. Boston has incredible Italian food.

We also ate Thai food and Venezuelan food. I was already a fan of Thai food, but eating at Orinoco was a first for me; I'd never had Venezuelan cuisine before. The verdict is: delicious. Seriously great cheese. Orinoco imports their cheese from Venezuela because you can't get it here. I will be dreaming about that cheese.

As an added benefit, Orinoco has a bit of the secret "locals only" look to it, which I love.

The entire city is made of brick.

Really and truly, I have never seen so much brick in a single space. The buildings are made of brick, some sidewalks are made of brick, and even a few streets are completely brick.

It's very pretty and quintessentially New England.

Lili lives in the South End, but we walked both the South End and the (more famous) North End.

The North End is the Historic side of Boston and the home to Little Italy.

According to my source (Lili), the South End used to be the rough, low-rent side of town, but in recent years it has really improved. The South End also happens to be home to the Boston Medical Center, hence why Lili lives there. As an interesting factoid, also courtesy of Lili, Boston has 70 hospitals/health centers within its limits.

In case you don't understand, that's a crap ton.

And Boston also has an incredible amount of colleges and universities.

BU, BC, Northeastern, Tufts, and Harvard to name a few. And to think, we Trojans (USC) and our rival Bruins (UCLA) like to think that LA isn't big enough for the two of us.

I got to attend BU's celebratory gala for the Class of 2014 as Lili's guest. It was a rather fancy affair complete with multi-course table service, open bar and even a silly photo booth, all held at the Taj Hotel. It was a celebration for the Medical School's class of 2014, but it was also a part of their alumni weekend, complete with a few alumnus awards and speeches.

It turned out to be a lot of fun.

As events with open bars and excellent food often are.

*I was being sincere when I referred to the photo booth as "silly." They provided props.*