With fall weather upon us, Jim and I decided to head to the East Coast to tour five historical cities: Boston, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, Charlestown, and Savanna. With a final stop in Miami to join Jim’s brother’s, Doug, family for Thanksgiving.
We arrived Boston during a cold snap. Sunny and 39 degrees didn’t sound bad. But you add 20 mph winds to the equation and things get quite frigid. We spent our 3-days walking around in everything we brought. Thankfully we both had gloves and I had a scarf. Jim had to stop and buy the first beanie he could find. It was at a 7-11. Obviously we were not the first ill prepared tourists.
I was able to get a good deal on a hotel in the historical district, a 5 minute walk to the Northend and an unlimited supply of Italian food. The Freedom Trail ran right in front of our hotel. It does pay to visit in the off season.
After checking into our room, we bundled up and headed off to see Paul Revere’s house and the Old North Church. Paul Revere’s home was closed for the day but the Old North Church was open for visitors and meetings.
The ground floor of the church has private pew boxes. A family purchases the pew box and then decorated it however they wanted. There was one family that purchased 2 adjoining pews, tore the wall between them down, and decorated the entire thing with red velvet. The second floor had regular church pews for the common folks.
After enjoying pizza by the slice in the Northend, we headed for the indoor market. It was far too cold to keep walking around outside. The first thing we saw was wine tasting. Not the first thing you think of while visiting Massachusetts.
We spent the next hour sampling Massachusetts wine and cider. They grow whites and light red grapes. Our host was a Boston native. We talked until closing time. We love the Boston accent. Jim spent most of the trip trying to duplicate it.
The next day started with a walking tour on the Freedom Trail. Our guide was a character and his accent was so strong. It made it very easy to follow him around for 2 hours. He was quite passionate about our founding fathers. He got me to cry a couple of times.
We met in the Boston Common Park (the first park in America) directly across from Park St Station (the first subway in America). To set the pre-revolution stage, he talked about a flag created by Benjamin Franklin encouraging the colonies to unite. It was a snake divide and labeled by the colonies. The slogan at the bottom was “Join or Die”.
We then began our walk through the events leading up to the revolution. Our first stop was the Massachusetts State House, the oldest running capital building in America.
Pre-revolution, this land was the homestead of John Hancock. He was one of the richest men in Boston. He had everything to lose in denouncing the British Crown including his life. Yet he believed so heavily in the Declaration of Independence that he signed his name large and in the middle that way the king would certainly see it.
After which he had to leave Boston and hid out in Concord with several of the other Declaration of Independence signers including Samual Adams. I never knew that Paul Revere’s ride “the British are coming” was to warn John Hancock and Samual Adams that the British were coming for them. Fun fact, this day marked the beginning of the revolution with the battle in Lexington. The people of Boston celebrate this day as a public holiday, “Patriot’s Day”, and they hold the Boston Marathon. New fact for me, at least.
As our guide talked about these men, I began to cry. These people had no idea what the future would bring yet they stood up for what they dreamed of.
As our guide pointed out, it did help that the Bostonians in those days spent a lot of the time drunk on rum. The water in the area had a tendency to be bad so they drank fermented things instead. Beans were readily available so they made rum. Hence the name “Bean Town”.
We walked along the trail past the Park St church, home of the first Sunday school in America and the first place our national anthem was sung.
This brought us to Granary Burial Ground and Samual Adams headstone.
Our guide jumped into Samual Adams impact in the revolution. Adams graduated Harvard at a very young age. Although a brilliant man, he sucked at business. He was more of a philosopher and an amazing public speaker. His gift was getting people riled up. It is said that he was behind the Boston Tea Party.
Other sites along the tour was Boston Latin School (the first school in America) and Old South Meeting Hall (one of the meeting places for the Son’s of Liberty). Then we stopped at the Old State House where I started to cry again.
The Declaration of Independence was read for the first time from the balcony. Every 4th of July at 10am, the Declaration of Independence is read from the balcony. What moving experience that would be.
By the time our tour released, Jim and I were completely frozen (just like everyone else on the tour). Luckily, the tour terminated in front of our hotel. We sat by the fire in the lobby enjoying a cup of hot apple cider compliments of the hotel.
Once we could feel our toes again, we headed off to the Northend to find a slice of pizza.
We took a tour through Paul Revere’s house. I love the warped floor and tiny rooms. Not sure how they lived with 16 kids in a 3 room house. Good thing only 8 kids were ever there at anyone time.
One thing to note if you ever tour Boston is a few of the landmarks are run by the national parks so there are ranger talks daily on the history. We attend a mock town meeting to discuss abolition slavery in Faneuil Hall. It was held in the same meeting hall where the issue was discuss some 200 years ago.
Our last stop of the day was the USS Constitution. The war ship nicknamed “Old Ironsides”. We were blessed to be visiting just a year after her last restoration.
It had been several hours since the last time I teared up. I thought I was done for the day. Then we watched a movie on the history of the ship and what it has meant to the people of Boston. I know we can’t save ever historic relic but I am really glad they are saving this one.
After a lovely Italian dinner in a quirky old restaurant in the Northend, we stopped for cannoli at Mike’s pastry to see why everyone was carrying “Mike’s Pastry” boxes. The line was out the door with a crowd packed inside. The cannoli shell was fresh baked and totally worth the wait.
The next day, we only had one stop on the agenda, Bunker Hill Monument. The battle of bunker hill was when the colonies began to think they could beat the British power house. Though the colonies lost, they held Bunker Hill through 2 British seizes. And over a thousand British troops with them. This was almost half the British troops in Boston.
With the afternoon free and the weather finally warming up, we decided to walk up to Harvard University. As you walk up Cambridge Street, you instantly know you have hit the Harvard campus.
We spent a hour or so walking around campus trying to access the buildings. Getting in a library requires photo id, walking through a metal detector, and bag examination plus a Harvard ID. Oh so close.
With some extra time and an unused subway ticket, we headed up to Boston College. Ranked #2 in Massachusetts for prettiest campus. Harvard is ranked #17th.
We had one night left for Italian food so we took a locals recommendation and headed to a hole in the wall pizza joint, Ernesto’s Pizza. Never have I seen pizza by the slice served as a 1/4 of a family sized pizza. Pizza was outstanding and we had left overs for lunch on the train the next day.
Tomorrow we have a 5 hour train ride to our next destination, Philadelphia.
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