Freedom in Boston

Sunday morning, Bridie headed back towards New York while Larry and I followed Charlene and her friend Rebecca to Boston. We were only in Boston for 24 hours, but we covered a lot of ground in that time! We started off going down to the harbor and walked our way around the city back to the hotel. We did lots of eating during our walks, but I'll do a whole other post of New England eatin' later!!!!!





Boston has this really cool walking tour of the city called the Freedom Trail. It's a 2.5 mile red brick walking trail (painted in some parts) that takes you past 16 national historic sights. What a great way to tour an unfamiliar city. We had a free map of the trail from the hotel that highlighted all the sights along the way. You can see the sidewalk markers inlaid into the sidewalks in this pic, so even without a map we could've still strolled along the trail. I say stroll, but we power-walked this thing! We knew we didn't have much time, so we covered as much ground as we could while still stopping to take in the history and food!





Along the trail, we passed through the Boston Common which is a surprisingly green and beautiful park right in the middle of the city. Although we sweated our tails off back in Sheffield, the weather turned overcast and cool by the time we got to Boston. Lots of flowers in bloom still, but fall was definitely in the air.





There were so many uniquely American historical sights along this trail. We saw graveyards that were the final resting place of victims of the Boston massacre, Paul Revere's home, old and new State Houses and Fuennell Hall.

The highlight of the walk however, was the USS Constitution. It was the last stop on the trail for us and we couldn't wait to get there. I had seen pictures of my friend Karla on this historic ship during a Navy CPO (Chief Petty Officer) event and wanted to experience this cornerstone of Naval history for myself. We get there, look around and try to figure out how we can board the vessel. Then I saw the sign. . . Closed on Mondays. We all kind of look at each other and my heart sinks as the realization that today IS Monday dawns on us. Not to be deterred from a great stay in Boston and pilgrimage to the Freedom Trail, we tour the USS Cassin Young docked near the USS Constitution. Having been an aviation sailor, I'm always stunned by the tight living quarters of naval ships. As I walked through the corridors and bumped my head and shins a few times, I recalled that my dad lived on similar ships and he's 6'6"!!!! Wow!

Another historic stop on our whirlwind tour of Boston was Fenway Park. Now, I'm not the biggest baseball fan, but I can certainly appreciate the history and lore tied to the oldest ball park in the U.S. Larry is a die hard fan and I thought he was going to hyperventilate when we walked through the stands and got our first glimpse of the field. A very knowledgeable tour guide took us on a one-hour tour of the stadium filling us in on all the facts and myths surrounding this historic landmark.

I think I got to view the field from every possible angle. We went up to the Budweiser bar, the Green Monster, the box seats, saw Pesky's pole, heard the story behind the lone red seat and the story of the bowling lane turned bar top wood! All in all, well worth the $12 tour fee!

After all this walking and touring, it was time to load up the rental car and head south. Even though the weather was chilly, I'm all about coast lines!! Next stop- Plymouth.