8/15
Boston
We took a train to Boston which took about an hour. When we got to Boston, we went to the Boston Common, America’s oldest public park. From there, we took the Freedom Trail with a guided tour that we signed up for at the information desk. Our guide was “Abigail from the 1770s”, complete with Revolutionary era dress. If you don’t know what the Freedom Trail is, it’s a 2.5 mile path through Boston that take you to 16 stops. Don’t miss it if you go to Boston. All of the stops in the trail are significant to early American History – the American Revolution specifically. It starts in the Boston Common and ends at the USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides). We saw the Granary cemetary Burying Ground where Paul Revere, Mother Goose (yes she’s real and it’s on her tombstone), Samuel Adams and many others are buried. There are also monuments for other famous people. We got to see other places like the Old Meeting House, site of the Boston Massacre, the first public school,the capitol building and Old South Meeting House. Our tour ended half way through the trail at the Old State house.
The tour guide recommended a few great pubs like the Green Dragon Inn, where we ate. It was really good. I ordered the shepherd’s pie. While at the Inn we saw a reenactor dressed up as a general or a red coat by the bar. I thought it would make a good picture.
Next we explored the other half of the Freedom Trail by ourselves. It is really easy to follow because of the designated red brick trail though all of the streets. This trail marks the Freedom Trail so tourists can take the tour themselves if they don’t want a guided tour. We saw a printing press and they showed us how it worked. It could take them 5 hours or more just to lay out all of the letters to make their transcript! I learned where the saying “Mind your p’s and q’s” came from – the printers would lay the letters upside down and backwards in order to have them come out right on the paper and p’s and q’s if put the wrong way could look like each other, misspelling the whole word. We also saw Paul Revere’s House. You are allowed to go in it but there was a long line to get in so we didn’t. There was a memorial of dogtags in back of the Old North Church to recognize the fallen soldiers who died for us in the Iraq wars. It was so sweet and sad. The Old North Church is the perfect New England church with a tall white steeple. Inside was a bust of George Washington, a beautiful organ and pews where famous presidents and people have sat in for a service. It is also the church where one of the colonists set a lantern in the steeple to warn Paul Revere where the British were coming from. Then Paul Revere would ride out to tell the people that the “regulars” or British were coming so they could hide their weapons and stores that the British wanted. That is where the saying “one if by land, two if by sea.” comes from.
Then we walked across the Charles River on the Bridge to the USS Constitution. The boat right now is being dry docked right now to be fixed and worked on. Dry docking is where they pull the ship above the water to work on its hull. Old Ironsides as they call it never lost a battle and is still active in the military. Usually you can walk on the boat but this time it was closed for repairs. Instead we looked in the museum, which was great an interactive for kids and then we went on to a World War II destroyer called USS Cassin Young. This boat was in service through out all of WWII and witnessed every single battle. It was decommissioned in 1960 and has been docked at the Boston Navy Yard for public viewing ever since. You are allowed to walk on the upper level. We took a ferry back to south terminal which was accessed from the navy yard. Then we caught a train, in rush hour, back to Kingston, our stop and back to the campground.
It was amazing to see Boston because it is one of the oldest cities in American and has so much history!
Check out my other posts from this series of Exploring East in and Rv!!
Sandusky Ohio Part 1 of Exploring East in an RV
Niagara Falls Part 2 of Exploring the East in an RV
Adirondacks, New York Part 3 of Exploring East in an RV
Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts Part 4 of Exploring East in an Rv
From An American Girl 
6 thoughts on “Boston, Massachusetts”