Day 3: Boston

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We decided to attempt to conquer Boston and its environs in a single day, something that took the colonials a hell of a lot longer to do. Boston's rich in history, and old cemeteries, and we got to experience a whole lot of it.

We began with downtown Boston. We began by driving to Boston Common and wandering around the park there. There were tons of plaques and statutes commemorating everything all over the place. We wandered the streets around the Common by the Massachusetts State House, etc. Was really crazy.

We eventually found ourselves near Faneuil Hall. We didn't want to walk back, so we got a taxi to take us uphill to the Common again. Once there we wandered the old cemetery there, and went back to our chariot for the next stop.

From there, we did a drive-by of the Old North Church. There was literally no parking and the place was pretty crowded, so we drove by and took some pictures. I wish I could've gone into the church, but it just wasn't going to happen unfortunately.

We saw Pope John Paul II Park on the map and decided to drive across downtown Boston to get there (it was in the south). It was a pretty cool drive, since it was a weekend traffic was never too bad. I got to do a lot of driving under the Big Dig, and it truly is an impressive tunnel system there. The park wasn't much to look at, so we departed for Salem.

Yes, Salem...we wanted to do the witch thing. We wandered around the supernatural indoor/outdoor mall there, checking out all the unique shops. I don't think there was one chain store there. For lunch, we visited a Polish deli and had some pierogies and Kinder eggs! (Kinder eggs come up again later.)

From here, we headed to Walden Pond. It was nice, quiet, serene...much as I had hoped it would be. A very beautiful place.

Onto Minute Man National Historical Park, where I got to see the North Bridge where the Revolutionary War started. As we got there some tour buses were disgorging hordes of Brits, ready to attack Lexington and Concord again (only with cameras this time).

I was aghast to hear them asking silly questions ("the US used to be part of Great Britain?!"). I tried to ignore the interlopers as best I could and take in the history of the place, trying to imagine hearing the Shot Heard Round the World.

From Lexington, we saw the replica of the Orchard House, the house owned by the Alcott's.

As the sun was low on the western horizon, we went to our final stop of the day, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. There we gave our respects to Thoreau, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Emerson on Writer's Ridge.

Just as we got in the car to leave the cemetery, a chipmunk popped up and we were able to get our first pics of one. The others we had seen earlier were far too wiley to be caught on the camera, but this one sat still and let us shoot away.

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Photos

Old North Church
Drive-by

Downtown Boston
Heading into the Big Dig.

Kinder Egg
Heather enjoys a(n) (illegal) Kinder Egg.

Sleepy Hollow
Looking scared in the cemetery.