A Trip to New England ~ Boston!

Every year my sisters and I get together -- a pact we made when our mom died 17years ago.  When dad was still with us, we would take turns having everyone to our houses.  Now we have decided to start exploring other destinations -- this year it was New England. I took the red eye to Providence, Rhode Island, arriving around noon on a Saturday.  Funny story -- I was the first to arrive and headed for the ladies' room.  I opened my stall door and who should be next in line to enter but my sister Chris!  Haha!  We did the "fancy meeting you here" line, and then headed down to meet our sister Linda.  Coming from three completely different parts of the country we all arrived in Providence within an hour of each other and with our gates right next to each other.

We made Providence our home base as it was easy to get to various places we wanted to see from there.  Boston was one of the first places on our list, so we headed there Sunday morning.

We started at the Visitors Center on the Boston Commons to pick up maps and get the lay of the land.  We decided to take a guided tour along the Freedom Trail.  Our guide was dressed in complete colonial garb and knew her history and lots of stories!

The beautiful Massachusetts State House stands proudly on Beacon Hill (land once owned by John Hancock) -- and as our guide aptly pointed out, they built it and then planted a big tree right in front of it!  Ye gads! 

But we were able to see it from the other side of the tree later in the day...

As you can see, they are working on it, but the dome was originally made of wood.  After leaking, Paul Revere's company covered it in copper (which turned green) and then it was gilded with gold.  It's a pretty building, built in 1798.

We then walked past the historic Park Street Church...

...to the Granary Burying Ground (started in 1660) where our guide pointed out the graves and shared stories of people from our history books such as James Otis:

Paul Revere:

Samuel Adams:

and John Hancock:

As the morning wore on, the heat and humidity began getting to us and with a pub across the street we decided to cheat and sneak away from the tour a little before it was over.  Air conditioning, rest for tired feet, cold drinks and delicious food revived us, and by the time we left the pub we were ready to continue on the Freedom Trail on our own!

It took us past the Old City Hall:

The Old South Meeting House (from 1729) where Samuel Adams gave the signal to launch the Boston Tea Party:

 The Old State House -- the Boston Massacare occurred just in front of the building and the first reading for Bostonians of the Declaration of Independence was read from that balcony!

And the bustling Quincy Market place.

From there we walked a couple more blocks and picked up the hop-on-hop-off trolley to the USS Constitution.  That will be the next post!

Loved Boston, the history and spirit!