2025-08-06: Tea Party, Sea Life, and Illusions

We had a later start today. We got ourselves up and and had some breakfast at the hotel. At 10:30am we headed out for the day. We crossed the street and waited for the subway. It was a little behind schedule this morning. We took the train to Government Center station which is the end of the line for this train. We decided to walk over to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum to start our day. We walked by the old State House where they recited the declaration of independence to the people of Boston after it had been signed. We also made a quick stop to grab a Boston Kreme donut.

We arrived at the Boston Tea Party Museum just after Noon. We were impressed with the museum. We joined the 12:30pm tour. They have people in character that put on a bit of a show to re-enact scenes from the Boston Tea Party from a meeting of the “Sons of Liberty” where they learn that the governor won’t remove the taxes imposed on them followed by a visit to a replica of one of the ships where we got to throw some tea boxes overboard. They gave us each a card with information on one of the rebels that took part in the Tea Party. Patrick had a speaking part during the re-enactment! Then we were taken through the museum with artifacts from the Tea Party. They also had video exhibits re-enacting scenes following the Tea Party leading up to the revolution. It was really well done.

Once the tour was over, we walked towards Long Wharf. We stopped at Legal Sea Foods on Long Wharf for some lunch. It was about 2:00pm by the time we got there. Amanda and Darrell had the clam chowder to start Michael had calamari, and Patrick had a Caesar salad. We all had the crispy chicken sandwich except for Patrick who went with the fish & chips for the main course. Amanda and Michael had some cheesecake for dessert. We were going to try the lobster roll, but they wanted $46 for it which was too steep for our liking. The food was enjoyable, but the service was a little slow. One of the Boston Duck Boat Tour locations was across the street so we watched them loading the boats and departing while we enjoyed lunch.

Once lunch was done, we crossed the street and went through the New England Aquarium. It was a nice little aquarium. They don’t have many large animals. Just some seals and penguins. The rest of the sea life was smaller such as fish, turtles, lobsters, etc. They do have a large tank in the middle of the building that is 40 feet wide and 25 feet tall. There was a large sea turtle that was over 50 years old. He was huge! The penguin exhibit was quite large as well with a bunch of different penguins. We enjoyed watching the sea life. We left the aquarium around 5:00pm which is when the aquarium closed.

We made our way a couple of blocks to the Museum of Illusions. It was a neat museum full of various optical illusions. They had some areas where you can pose for pictures where you appear to be upside down, or partially invisible. There’s also exhibits that fool your eyes. They have a tunnel with spinning walls that you walk through. It makes you want to fall over because it makes your brain think you are spinning too. It was fun!

It was around 7:00pm by the time we left the Museum of Illusions. We made our way back to the hotel after a quick stop at CVS. One of Michael’s ears was bugging him so we grabbed some ear cleaning supplies. We were feeling a little peckish around 8:00pm, but not hungry enough for a big meal. There is a Taco Bell Cantina a couple of blocks away. It’s about the only fast food restaurant nearby that we’re aware of so we grabbed a bite from there. After eating, we called it a night.