Recently, I visited my grandpa and told him about my frequent trips to Boston. He got excited and brought out what I found out later was his favorite hat. Turns out he found a Boston Red Socks cap and got my grandma to clean it up for him and it ended up being a conversation starter for him all over town. People would just come up to him and start talking about his hat, baseball, whatever. He suggested I take the hat and wear it with me in Boston and see where it led me.

Where to start? The plane, I suppose. Here we are just starting off on our trip to Boston, Becky, me and the hat. I think the hat looks fine in this picture and of course Becky is always cute but unfortunately I look like a maniac. I guess I was just too excited for a weekend off. We have no plans until Monday morning when I need to go to work.

After checking in to our hotel, we went out in search of food. We didn't eat at the China Pearl but I am fairly certain that I ate here with friends years ago. Something about it made me think of my grandpa (sans hat) as he wondered the streets of Tokyo at the end of WWII. He tells the story of being confused when people said "Ohio" (a form of hello in Japanese, I think) to him on the street and he'd respond with "Minnesota!" since that is where he's from. That's one of his favorite stories.

Becky, the hat and I decided to take an afternoon stroll through Boston and passed the Boylston stop on our way. According to wikipedia (and hey the internet never lies) Boylston was the first subway station in America.

Next stop was the Parkman Bandstand, which you should check out at the wikipedia link. There is mention of murder and dismemberment. All I can say though is that it's a very pretty spot to visit as the sun is setting on a Spring day.

Out path merged with the Freedom Trail after that. I'm actually a little embarrassed to say that despite traveling to Boston many times, I've never done any of the history tours. Today was no different and we walked on, taking my grandpa's hat on to see more of the sites. My grandpa likes history and I imagine he'd have enjoyed this little walk, as did his hat.

What would a trip to Boston be without visiting Sam Adams. I set up this shot and asked Becky to take the photo and I think she did a good job with the sun and all but looking at it now I'm really kicking myself for not standing with my arms crossed. Missed opportunity, huh? At least I've got this shot of my grandpa's hat with Sam Adams. My grandpa's not a beer drinking but I think he would like this photo. . . and I think he would have liked it more had I thought to cross my arms.

The next Boston landmark we passed was Paul Revere's house. Becky snapped a quick pic of me and the hat. A few weeks back I was having drinks with a few of the guys from the UK that were here in Boston and we asked them what they learned about the American Revolution period in their history classes. I suppose it wasn't surprising that they didn't learn much about it but it seems that what they did learn ended up being much confused as they were fairly certain that Paul Revere was the headless horseman. . . nice.

It doesn't matter if you're a person or a hat, you gotta stop for some Italian pastries when you head into the North End. In the background you can see Mike's Pastries, which every time I've gone by has had a huge line. I'm told though that the better place to go is Modern Pastry which is just down the street. According to my friend Matt, that's where the locals go.

Final stop was the Green Dragon Tavern for a pint. Though it's not the original building, the Green Dragon Tavern is where the Boston Tea Party was planned and I think my grandpa would have liked this as a place to end the day for his hat's tour of Boston. My grandpa is a believer in standing up for what you think is right and I can see him chuckling to think of all that tea being thrown overboard.