We had already been told to not plan on going into Boston on a weekday. The weather was suppose to be great on Saturday so we planned a trip into Boston. I have been to Boston before and walked the Freedom Trail both times before. It was awesome and they have a map to show you where all the historic sites are on the trail and either some history about the site on the map or you can find out the history of the site at the site. Did that just make sense?
The other 2 couples we are traveling with are some what older than we are and have numerous health issues, so both are very limited in what kind of physical activity they can do. So, even though Mr. W and I would have loved to walk the Freedom Trail again, we settled for a hop on/hop off trolley ride.
We actually got a really good tour driver. He told you right from the start to turn off your cell phones. He would not allow you to talk on your cell phone. He also would not allow you to talk amongst yourselves unless it was a short whisper. He called a couple of people down for not following those directions. But as it turned out, I was glad he did. He gave us a lot of good information and it was really easy to hear him since no one else was talking. If you didn't like his rules, you could get off his trolley and wait for the next one which was about 5 minutes behind us.
We did the entire tour and then decided to get off at Faneuil Hall. There is a big market place there and lots of food vendors. We ate lunch and then went into the Hall to take a look. This Hall is often called the Cradle of Liberty. Faneuil Hall hosted America’s first town meeting and played an influential role in the politics of the American Revolution. It is the site of many speeches by Samuel Adams and James Otis, among others, who encouraged independence from Great Britain. It was also the place where Americans first protested the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and later the Townshend Acts and Tea Acts, following the idea of “no taxation without representation.” An interesting fact, there is a grasshopper on the weather vane on top of the building. During the Revolutionary times, the king's spies would try to infiltrate and learn which colonials were leading the revolt. When someone new tried to come into the fold, the colonials would ask them what was on the weather vane on top of Faneuil Hall. Most people would think it was a chicken or a bird or a horse. However, only those who were true colonials knew it was a grasshopper.
After Faneuil Hall, we walked several blocks and went through the cemetery where Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Paine are buried. All were signers of the Declaration of Independence. Just as a side note, Benjamin Franklin's parents are buried there too. I love these really old cemeteries. The headstones are wearing away and the dates are back to the 1700s. Some of the epitaphs are written in old English and some you wish you knew the story behind.
After leaving the cemetery, we walked through a garden and went to the trolley stop to ride one stop to where our car was parked. We got on and there were 2 small children that were screaming and crying and fighting. They were also hanging out the window in the back. Their parents ignored them and did nothing. I never can quite wrap my head around that. Anyway, no one in the back around those children could hear a thing the driver was saying. It made me appreciate our driver. Fortunately, one stop and we were off.
It never fails when I see statues of those Patriots and hear the stories of what they put on the line to make our country free, it makes me want to stop at a flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Star Spangled Banner. I'm not sure there would ever be that kind of selflessness again in a generation of men or women. Thank God these people were.
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| Neat bridge |
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| Faneuil Hall |
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| Faneuil Hall |
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| The old is mixed in with the new |
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