Boston Day Seven

No more school for Landon! We had all-day to do whatever fun stuff we wanted and we decided to return to downtown Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. It's an actual brick and painted red trail that extends from the Boston Common, winds its way through downtown along many historic buildings and places, and then ends near Bunker Hill (though we didn't go over the bridge that far). And we technically walked the trail backwards - most people start in Boston Common - because we are able to park for free at the Coast Guard station located very conveniently in North End.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times - I love the old, densely packed brick buildings here, especially in North End. Some streets are so narrow and a reminder of how old this city is - cars were not considered then. I just had to get a picture of this steep, narrow road with the view of Old North Church's famous steeple.

Our first stop along the trail was also my favorite: The Old North Church. This is where the lanterns where lit on the night of Paul Revere's ride to inform the colonists which way the British were coming - "one if by land, two if by sea." What a beautiful church inside and a speaker gave a brief and interesting history of the church and that night in 1775. {Another bonus - it was FREE - it seems like there was a charge to do everything!}

So these pews were so interesting. There were single pews subdivided in all these cubicles with names on the doors dating to the 1700's. The pews were enclosed like this to retain heat during the church service - members would bring hot bricks or stones from home and place them in the pew box with them to keep them and the enclosed space kept them warmer longer. Members actually bought the pews and would decorate them any way they chose - richer parishioners usually bought the front pews.
Here's one of several cemeteries we stopped at-this one Copp's Hill Cemetery. Gravestones were from the 1600's and at a different cemetery we saw Samuel Adam's resting place.

Next stop: Paul Revere's Home. If it were free to walk through all these old homes I would go through every single one because I love imagining life in those days through the preserved homes and artifacts. But virtually all won't allow pictures inside, so I'll settle for at least a picture outside.

This is Fanueil Hall - once used as the main marketplace and still is in the center of a whole bunch of shopping and food markets.
Then on to the Old State House - used by the British first and also the site of the Boston Massacre.
Here's a shirt I got a kick out of and yes, this is exactly how everyone sounds here!
Old South Meeting House - a popular place for protesting back in the day by the colonists and I had to take a picture of how cool it was to see these incredibly old buildings right smack in the middle of all the shiny, modern buildings of downtown.

Then finally to Boston Common - a large grassy park that (for this weekend) a large number of 18th century British soldiers were camped on to showcase military life and remind us of the good 'ol days when we under England's rule.

After all that walking we were hungry, so we made our way back up to the North End area to eat the Union Oyster House - the oldest continually operating restaurant in America. Landon tried oysters for the first time here. He does not recommend them and will probably never eat another oyster for the rest of his life (he compared it to swallowing a raw egg. I ordered a much more tame seafood - haddock - and it was very yummy. They serve awesome cornbread with their meals and, in my experience, pretty much any place that serves cornbread with the meal has been a good place to eat.




As if there aren't already enough downtown pictures, I had to take just a few more of this particularly cool skyline shot. It was great weather that day and I love how handsome Landon looks standing in the city in the second picture!