Beantown Part 1

Last week my dad was in Rhode Island on a business trip. He had the weekend off, so he made the trek into the city with a friend on Saturday, and we all went up to Boston on Sunday. It was so much fun and I was so happy to see my Dad. We haven't seen family since December (I can't believe its been that long) so it was nice to get a little slice of home.

Boston was awesome (this blog is full of poetic genius like that). Really though, I loved what I saw of Boston. It was quaint and New England-y and quite. It had little ally ways with bookstores and bagel stores were everywhere. You could actually drive around the city and find parking spaces! So different from NYC, which is impossible to drive through, busy, loud, and dirty (well, relatively speaking). We stuck to the tourist area, walking the freedom trail, and eating at Faneuil Hall, but I would totally live in an area full of tourist if I could have one of those adorable pre-war buildings. We will never be able to afford a place like the ones we walked by, but a girl can dream.

Derek has been to Boston twice. Once, they dragged all the guys in his NSI class up there in the freezing cold and gave them a guided tour. Derek remembers nothing from this tour, but he can identify the McDonalds he had lunch at that day. The second time I guess all he saw was the inside of some bars. This cricket was important for some reason and Derek was so excited to see it, but don't ask him why it was important...he has no clue. It was our first stop and we started the freedom trail here.

This was the Old State House, the oldest building in Boston. It was built in 1713 as the seat of British colonial government. The Declaration of Independence was read to Bostonians here. I got all that from the sign. Derek contributed this tidbit of info, "that circle in the street means something, but I don't remember why it was important." That was the theme of our trip. It was a really pretty old building and now there is a subway station in part of it. There is a museum inside, but you have to pay to see it, so I just made Derek take a picture of the cool spiral staircase (I'm a sucker for those things). It was cramped inside and I can't imagine all those smelly colonial men crowded inside in the July heat. No one said the beginning of Democracy smelled good. I bought a Boston ornament to start our ornament collection. My parents have ornaments from everywhere they lived and some places they've vacationed, and I wanted to do the same for us. Besides, we have like no Christmas ornaments, and we definitely need some.

Old South Meeting House (I think)...I like the buildings in this area

Boston's Old City Hall, which now houses a Ruth Chris steakhouse. Random.

This was in the courtyard...

and this was on the ground in front of it..

Derek is a really talented photographer, when he isn't photographing people. He has a hard time with human subjects but he rocks at buildings and flowers, or maybe Dad and I were just really blurry that day.

The site of the oldest public school right in front of the Old City Hall

There were graveyards everywhere...really old graveyards. I think I visit graveyards in every city, but I've never seen graves quite like these. The carvings on some of them were actually pretty creepy. There was a reason for all the skulls and scary stuff, but I can't remember the explanation.

I thought this was pretty cool....Mary Winslow was buried in this particular graveyard and she was believed to be the first white European woman to set foot on Plymouth. Her story is actually pretty interesting...if you have a minute, you should Google her.

Grave of William Dawes Jr., who rode to warn of impending British attack along side the more famous Paul Revere

 

More of Boston in my second post...