Boston Trip - Part Two

Friday morning we went on a guided tour that included parts of Boston, but also the Cambridge, Lexington, and Concord areas - we basically followed the route that Paul Revere took on his famous ride.

Looking back at Boston from our tour bus:



Our first stop was Harvard Yard in Cambridge. We were so glad we had spent a lot of time on our own there the night before, because the tour stop was only a few minutes - just long enough for me to get a picture at the Harvard Library:



After that we headed out toward Lexington. On our way we drove through some of the super wealthy areas around Boston. We drove past one high school where the tuition is $47,000 per year. I couldn't believe that. That is more expensive than Harvard.

Anyway, here is the Minuteman statue at Lexington (where the British troops first met up with the minute-men who had gathered after Paul Revere's warning):



Lexington Green. We stopped and walked around for a little bit (and got ice-cream at a little candy shop). It was weird to think about all that had happened there - I remember learning about "Lexington and Concord" and the start of the Revolutionary War, but I never really thought about where that was.



After that we were on our way to Concord. I didn't realize how many famous people are from the Concord area (Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott). We drove past the Alcott's home. It made me want to read "Little Women" again:



Our next stop was the Minute Man National Park in Concord. This is where the North Bridge is, and the where the "shot heard round the world" was.





At the end of our tour we were dropped off at the Boston Harbor. We walked around for awhile enjoying the sun, water, boats, etc. I think I want to live by the sea someday. Or maybe I just want to live in Boston someday.



Harbor pics:

As we were heading back toward downtown, we stopped and watched some kids playing in a little splash park, because we knew our kids would have had so much fun doing the same thing. Not that we were missing our kids or thinking about them at all.



We then walked over to Faneuil Hall, which is pretty much the place to hang out if you are a tourist in Boston. It is kind of a huge marketplace/outdoor mall/food court/street performer hangout.

We watched these guys for a little while:



And then we began the next portion of our day: The Freedom Trail.

The Freedom Trail is a 2 1/2 mile path that goes through downtown Boston, leading to different significant historic sites along the way (site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, etc.) It starts in the Boston Common and ends up at the Bunker Hill Monument in Charleston (across the Charles River from Boston).

Faneuil Hall is one of the stops along the trail, so we just started up from there (we did the other section later). I thought we would have to refer to some sort of map or guidebook to find all the stops, but they actually have a red line painted on the ground to follow, which was kind of fun. There were lots of other people following it at the same time, but because it was a self-guided tour, we were able to just go at our own pace, and spend time at whatever stops we wanted to.

One of my favorite stops was the Old North Church - that's where the two lanterns were hung to alert Paul Revere that the British were coming across the water ("one if by land, two if by sea").

The Freedom Trail continued on a bridge across the Charles River and into Charlestown. We walked all the way to the Bunker Hill Monument, and then climbed the 294 steps up to the top. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. My legs were sore the rest of the trip. The view was really neat at the top, though.

Freedom Trail pics:


After we walked back across the bridge into Boston, we headed back to Faneuil Hall to meet some friends of ours who used to live in our ward here in Texas, but now live in Connecticut. They had driven up to Boston for the day. We ate dinner and talked for awhile and it made me wish we still lived close.



After our friends left we just walked around Boston for awhile. I love what it looks like at night. Kind of like this, only not as blurry:



We walked up to the North End where all the famous Italian restaurants and bakeries are. The streets were filled with little food booths and lights and live music and tons of people walking around.



After hanging out there for awhile we walked back to our hotel and had some Boston Cream Pie (our hotel, the Omni Parker House, was where Boston Cream pie was created).

End of day two.