Boston, MA

We spent one day in Boston walking the Freedom Trail.

We followed the red brick trail for 2 1/2 miles as it winds its way back into history along a route traveled by Puritans, Patriots, and generations since. Each era tried to establish, reform, or interpret its own notions of freedom. In trekking the Freedom Trail, one can visualize the scenes and hear the sounds of those times. Imagine the rich tones of church bells chiming, pealing, or tolling to muster Bostonians to worship or to fight fires, to witness executions or to attend funerals, to hear stirring Revolutionary oratory or to celebrate peace or simply to mark the time of day. Today's Freedom Trail has few traces of Puritan Boston; only its old burial grounds and it labyrinth of narrow, crooked streets remain.

Jodi, Larry, Connor & Christen in front of the Paul Revere Statue and the Old North Church in the background.

Jodi in front of Paul Revere's original home.

Paul Revere owned this house in North Square from 1770 to 1800. He lived there during his active involvement in the American Revolution. The house, built in 1680, is the only wooden structure surviving from the 17th century Boston. It was 90 years old when Revere moved her with his family. His 16 children were all born here.

In 1773 Revere left this house to go to the Boston Tea Party. Then on April 18th, 1775, Paul Revere, a Boston silversmith, left his North Square home, slipped out of the city in a row-boat, borrowed a horse in Charleston, and began his famous midnight ride. His mission: to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington that British troops were marching from Boston to arrest them and to seize munitions hidden in Concord.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow memorialized Old North's role at the start of the Revolutionary War in his poem that we all memorized as kids! On the night of April 18th, 1775, sexton Robert Newman hung two lanterns in the steeple to warn Charlestown patriots of the advance of British soldiers.

Paul Revere's Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--One if by land, and two if by sea;And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm."

As you know the poem continues.......it is amazing to think that we stood in the place where this took place.

Granny, Pa, Connor & Christen
The Old North Church was so awesome! In addition to the role it played in Paul Revere's ride, Christ Church or the Old North is notable for being Boston's oldest surviving religious structure. Box pews line the Old North Church, their high sides retaining the heat from foot-warmers filled with hot bricks or coals. It still is an active Episcopal Church.

The extremely old cemeteries were so interesting!!

Bunker Hill Monument, built between 1825 and 1843, marks the site of the bloody,
American Battle of Marathon."

Jodi and Connor by the Bunker Hill Monument.
The 6,700-ton 221-foot monument is 30 feet wide at the base, tapering to 15 feet near the apex. Inside, 294 spiral steps ascend to an arched chamber commanding panoramic views of the city through four small windows. Larry, Jodi and Connor were the only ones with the courage to make the trip to the top of the monument. ( :
We toured the Charleston Navy Yard, home of the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. Built of live oak, the ship was the strongest, heaviest, and fastest of its day. The name "Old Ironsides" described how cannonballs seemed to bounce off her hull. Her 24-pound long guns had a range of 1,200 yards. The Constitution carried 36 sails towering to 220 feet above deck, almost an acre of canvas on three masts and a 160-foot bowsprint of Maine pine. The crew of about 450 included 55 marines and 30 boys. The boys carried gun powder to the cannons.
Each 4th of July, the frigate ceremonially turns around in the harbor, exchanging artillery salutes en route with the Castle Island fort and with other vessels. I remember seeing this on the news last year. I will watch for it again. What an awesome sight that must be!!


Boston was a beautiful, clean city. I would love to go back for a longer stay.

We finished out day with dinner at the official "Cheers" restaurant.
Fun!