Well its been another exciting week here at Walsh—especially for the Business and Communications Club who set off for Boston early last Monday morning to embark on their annual Business Trip to explore and discover all that Boston has to offer as we explored several Businesses as well as sites such as Harvard, the Federal Reserve Building, MIT, and the Samuel Adams Brewing Company. Along with these events we also squeezed in a Duck Tour of the city, stopped by Quincy Market for a bite to eat, and even witnessed a new movie being filmed in the park directly across the street from our hotel. In the short amount of time we had for this trip, we were able to pack as much as possible, utilizing our free time to explore the city and take advantage of all the city had to offer.

From the moment our plane landed we were busy covering as much ground as we could each day. Arriving around 9:00am on Monday morning, we checked into our hotel, the TAJ of Boston. The hotel was a true experience in itself, as we were amazed at how nice it was and thankful for the central location that we were located in. Once situated at the hotel we headed down to the T station to get our transportation passes and we headed towards Harvard University to take a tour and learn about the schools history. Little did we know we were in store for such a great tour. As we joined many others on a student led tour of the campus and surrounding area. The tour guides, while rather loud and crazy, actually put on an awesome tour and kept everyone’s attention. It was so interesting to see how the university has evolved over the years and yet has preserved so much of its historical architecture, as well as traditions. We learned interesting facts about the university, the students, and even some random fun facts such as up until the 1980’s every Harvard student had to take swimming lessons before he/she was allowed to graduate. Or how Harvard airbrushes their science building that was built during the 1970’s out of their postcards and other promotional publications because the architecture was considered an eyesore. Anyways, the tour was amazing, and the architecture was truly stunning!

We continued the day by walking throughout the city and taking it all it had to offer. One of my great friends who was on the trip with me–Erica Gibson, has a sister who lives in Boston and goes to school at Emerson College. Luckily we were able to meet up with her and she took us to her favorite places in Boston, which turned any free time we had into fun time!! We went to a great Sushi restaurant, went on a Duck Tour of the city that was not only a bus tour, but turned into a water excursion (that’s right, a bus that drove around the city and then plunged into the Charles River Basin to continue its amazing tour! I cannot tell you how much I would recommend this tour to anyone who is new to the city of Boston or simply wants to have an hour or so of complete entertainment—you surely won’t regret it!
The next day we awoke early to embark on another day of tours, this time of the Federal Reserve Building, and the Samuel Adams Brewing Company. We began with the Federal Reserve building where we were explained the importance of what each branch of the Federal Reserve does. Along with a nice presentation, we were able to tour their exhibit on history, and learn about their extensive security measures that they take.

Soon after we headed to The Sam Adams Brewing Company where we learned all about their brewery and the hard work and dedication that goes into what they do. We learned about the special ingredients used in their beer, as well as the history behind their products. It was interesting to see what a small building this all took place in, compared to the high amount of sales they produce. After the tour, those who were 21 years of age and older were permitted to sample some of the finished product. The tour itself was fascinating and I never knew so much work went into a beverage until I visited Sam Adams Brewing Company.

After this tour we were allowed to take some free time to explore the city a little more as this was our last full day in the city. A bunch of us stuck together and tried to cover as much ground as we possibly could. We even discovered a new movie being filmed, and took pictures of what we thought may be stars of the movie. It was hard to tell who and what was being filmed but it was obviously a big production as the entire park across the street from our hotel was filled with extra lighting and studio trailers. After touring the rest of the city and visiting with Anna at her college and the surrounding area we headed back to our hotel to round everyone up for dinner and our last night out on the town. We headed to Quincy market where we had our choice of several delicious places to eat, as this included one giant food court, with any kind of food you can imagine. One of my favorite places of Boston for sure J. Everyone had a nice meal and those who hadn’t met up with us prior had all gathered so we had a dinner with a good majority of our travelers. It was great to see how well everyone got along with one another—given there were many of us who knew one another prior to the trip—but there was also a whole group that didn’t that actually became good friends throughout the short trip.

Rise and shine on Wednesday, as we had to be at the airport quite early for our flight back to Akron/Canton airport. I believe it was about 60 degrees when we left Boston (not too bad) but only 49 degrees when we landed back in Ohio. As if we brought the chilly weather we had in Boston back with us—you can thank us later J. The plain was filled with groans as we landed—as some had to go right to class or had a night class to look forward to, and others simply wanted to be back in the busy city—and not confined to North Canton. Regardless, everyone could agree that they had a truly entertaining time and had so many memories to take with them from our short time in the busy city!!