Boston

Jotham had another couple of long back to back business trips the end of October and although he wasn't too excited about the trips, I'll admit I was after he invited me to spend the weekend with him in Boston!  I've never been to the east coast and it was absolutely wonderful. 

 To see some of the places and things I've studied and read about my entire life was incredible!

Jotham toured Boston a couple of years ago with a co-worker and hit all 16 nationally historical sights on the 2.5 miles of the Freedom Trail in just over an hour and a half.  But this was my first trip to the Freedom Trail was I wasn't going to miss a thing.  We spent all day following the red brick line through the streets of Boston.

One of the highlights for me was Paul Revere's Home - did you know he had 16 kids?

Everything historical out west is a hundred and fifty years old at best, so it was so fun to visit a historical site with a history over 300 years old.  The house was almost a hundred years old when Revere moved in.  The guide showed us the leaded glass windows.  Some of the window panes were beautiful colors and explained to us how this was considered a defect in the glass making process and not appreciated by the colonials at all.

At Bunker Hill, we climbed the monument all 296 steps to the top, which doesn't sound like a lot until you are on step 126, panting, and realizing you're not even half way.  Its nice, they've got the steps numbered for you so you know exactly how out of shape you are!  We met a really nice park ranger here that shared the history with us: this was the first major battle in the War of Independence.   The famous order "Don't shoot until you can see the whites of their eyes" was given due to the small supply of ammunition on hand.  The revolutionaries actually lost this battle but because the Americans casualties numbered 450 compared to 1065 of the English it was a moral victory proving the Americans could and would fight.

We also really enjoyed our tour of the USS Constitution, or more familiarly known as old Iron Sides.  The oldest fully, commissioned naval vessel still afloat in the world.  

We ended up cutting our visit of the ship's museum short because we'd bought a multi-ticket to visit a few of the other sites back at the other end of the trail and it was getting close to closing time so we rented bikes to help us quickly head over to Boston Common.

After rushing through the churches and meeting houses before they closed, we thought we might have enough time to return to the ship's museum and headed back on our bikes, but alas after a few wrong turns, we missed it.  By now it was getting dark and the streets of Boston were getting more and more crowded, so crowded we had to walk our bikes. I felt so claustrophobic especially as we were passing by Mike's Pastries.  Jotham wanted to stop and wait in line to see what all the hype was about, but I was done, besides there wasn't anywhere to park the bikes. 

But what a day!  So fabulous! and I still didn't get to see it all!  I could have easily spent another day, but I also really wanted to see Concord so Sunday morning we went to church next to the Temple and then headed out to Concord about 40 minutes away.

This is North Bridge where according to Ralph Waldo Emerson the "shot heard around the world" was fired.  Although the first shoots of the Revolutionary war were actually fired in Lexington this is an important site in the skirmish.    Emmerson's grandfather's home, the old Manse, is just up the hill from here and had a grand view of the fighting.  Nathaniel Hawthorne later rented the old Manse and lived there with his young bride and left some pretty romantic vandalism etched in the glass windows.  It was a fun house to visit.

We also toured Louisa May Alcott's home, Orchard House.  Love, love, loved it.  The tour guide shared fact vrses fiction throughout the tour and it was fascinating, in addition to being a fun old home.  I fell in love with Little Woman for the first time a few years ago and it felt like actually visiting the home of old friends. 

Although there was so much more I wanted to see in Concord the day was getting long, Jotham was tired and so I had to pick and choose, deciding on Walden pond because I knew Jotham would enjoy it.

Here we are on a nice romantic stroll through the woods surrounding the pond.  It was so beautiful!  You don't really see it in this picture, but the leaves were turning and we crunched in the leaves as we walked hand in hand on this crisp fall evening.

 

Thoreau talked a lot about living alone and has a reputation for his solitary years on Waldon pond but in actuality his one room cabin often hosted numerous visitors.  

Including me, I enjoyed by little sit down next to his fireplace.   

Jotham and I talked a lot about Transcendentalism while driving around and I've thought frequently about living a deliberate life instead of just allowing the whims and fancies of the day to direct my course.

The day was cold and blustery, and by now the sun was setting low so we drove to our hotel in Mitford, about an hour away.  The next morning Jotham went to work and I followed him around a bit and then I joined Debbie Purcell, the local franchise owner, on her daily walk in woods with her dog.  Again its not hard to enjoy that beautiful fall scenery and crisp cool air, loved it!  That afternoon I did some outlet shopping and then Jotham took Colonial Chem-dry out to a pretty nice dinner.  We had some great seafood on this trip, but I especially enjoyed my clam chow-da in Boston.

Tuesday morning Jotham went to work and I spent a lazy morning in the hotel room getting ready, reading and watching HGTV (a real treat, sometimes I think its good we don't have cable).  Then off to the airport and home to reality.