Boston

I was the lone traveler in our group of seven who had been to Boston before, so I was dubbed the tour guide.  After I made them walk about four miles, including all of the Freedom Trail, and accidentally had them spend two dollars too much on subway train fair, I'm pretty sure they were all ready to fire me.  However, since my services were free of charge, they got at least what they paid for out of the investment.  :)  It was a fun day, and a beautiful one!

  We began our day taking a bus/train ride to Boston Common, the oldest public park in the United States.  Incidentally, we came up out of the Park Street Station, which is one of the two oldest subway stations in the United States.  (Never say you don't learn anything new around here.)  We did not see much of Boston Common, as it was under construction in the area we were, but we walked up the edge of it to see the State House.

We then made our way around the corner to the Park Street Church, known for supporting Abolitionists causes, and the Granary Burying Ground, resting place of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, victims of the Boston Massacre, and more. 

Next was King's Chapel and King's Chapel Burying Ground. I loved how the pews, designed to keep the winter drafts from chilling the congregation, are perfect corralling young children.  Wish we'd had those about twelve years ago at our church. ;)

 

  We next walked past the Old South Meeting House, the building where the meeting beginning the Boston Tea Party was held.  

 Then, up the street to the Old State House, where, from the building's balcony, The Declaration of Independence was first read to the public.  Nearby is the sight of the Boston Massacre.

 We then headed over to Faneuil Hall (birthplace of "no taxation without representation") and Quincy Markets for some lunch and shopping.  One of the yummiest bagels I've ever had, actually.  (Can you spot the famous grasshopper weather vane?)

We then met Paul Revere for a drink (ha!) near the Green Dragon Tavern. 

And walked over to his house.  It was pretty cool.  I guess it is the oldest downtown structure still in existence.  It was fascinating to me that they decided to preserve this piece of history in 1908, making it one of the first historic house museums.

Then we visited the Old North Church.  You know, the "one if by land, two if by sea" place.

By this time of the day, it was getting pretty warm.  (Are you still with us?  This is long!)  And it was our long part of the walk...over the bridge to Charlestown.

For some reason, on this trip, we were sort of obsessed with old firehouses and kept taking pictures of them.  But, come on, isn't this one so cool?  I can't believe they can fit the big fire trucks in those little arches made so many years ago. 

It was a lovely walk up to Bunker Hill.  So lovely, that we didn't even walk up Bunker Hill.  We were too tired, and it was late in the day.  We needed to make sure we caught our boat.  So, we came, we saw it with the whites of our eyes, and left.

I talked to my kids on the phone as we walked down to the USS Constitution.  It seems that I missed them much more than they missed me.  We hadn't talked since Friday evening, and I missed them.  All was well on the home front, I was assured, and so we continued on our walk. 

Unfortunately, Old Ironsides was not open for the public, so we just got pictures outside.  It is an impressive ship, and pretty cool that Paul Revere made the copper fittings for it.

At the Navy Yard, they also had the USS Cassin Young on a dry dock there. I thought it was kind of fun to see how they clean and fix the boats without that pesky water getting in the way. 

We had to rush to catch the water ferry, so we didn't go inside Cassin Young.

Can you spot the Old North Church steeple in this picture taken from our ferry?

Custom House

The only thing left to do was catch our train(s) back to our ship. (I was very glad our boat was much, much larger than the USS Constitution.) 

We managed to navigate the T-train with no mishaps, though a few too many dollars added to our cards.  The lucky young man sitting in front of my parents on the train went home with about $12 extra train fare cards in his pocket.  It was a long day of walking, but I'd do it again.  Boston is a great city filled with so much history.  That evening, we had dinner and went to a comedy show.  It was a full, fun day.