Our Star Spangled Adventure Day Thirty-Six

Wednesday, June 27th, Day Thirty-Six:

Wow, I am all caught up on my blog (yeah, I know there are a lot of blank spots......but I am actually journaling about today, TODAY!)!

I stayed up WAY too late last night (let's just say that I only got five hours of sleep last night...ugh), getting some laundry done. Our hotel in NYC had no laundry services......so, most of us were down to one set of clean clothes.......beginning to feel a bit desperate, you know :)

I was delighted to learn that our room in Boston is across from the guest laundry....VERY convenient! Got two loads clean last night, and got up early and got two more done......saved one for tonight......that is how I have time for writing tonight. It will be late again when I am done.....but hey, the clothes will all be clean! We have done very well on this trip making do with what we brought, and other than poor Maddelyn who kept getting her pajama bottoms neglected (mostly my fault), not much fussing about clothes. I wonder if we will have trouble looking at our clothes again after living in the same outfits for 8 weeks. Oh, this is all I own for me.......so, I am out of luck anyway.

Enough about laundry.....

We gathered ourselves this morning and walked to the "T"......the subway system in Boston. It was only a half mile walk......but, oh my goodness! It was hot! We saw on the news this morning it was to be about 96* in Boston, but more humid than yesterday (NO! Say it ain't so!!) and that it would feel more like 100*. Well, it actually felt MORE than 100*, since it WAS 100*! I rarely sweat.....this was definitely one of those days....phew! We have had great weather on the majority of our trip.....our only two days in Boston are supposed to be very hot. Tomorrow it is supposed to be cooler....about 90*, along with thunder showers in the afternoon (which after our Kansas and Pennsylvannia storms we do plan to take seriously :) ) And, by Saturday, only 76*. Can't wait :)

My friend Micki just sent me an email......she said Boston would seem tame, after NYC. She is SO right. It is definitely not as tall.......the subway system is quite simplistic.....WAY less crowds.

I have come to believe since we are professional tourists right now, that it is coloring our visits to the sites. On any other trip to the Statue of Liberty, I am sure I would have been very awed, but, we KEEP being awed across our beautiful country......and I guess we are coming to expect AWE as just something that happens to us almost every day for 8 weeks. Thus, our AWE is less intense than I think it would have been. I thought today: WOW, we are in Boston......oh, wow, we were just in NYC......and just before that we explored DC......and so on. It is becoming commonplace. Definitely NOT a complaint, just an observation. And, a very exciting existence it is. We will be glad to be home, but we will miss our country. We all miss NYC.

We arrived at the Boston Commons straight off the T. A beautiful park! America's oldest public park. We took a few pictures in the park. And, we took a wrong turn (yeah, I was responsible for that....)......which took us to Boston Public Gardens, another beautiful park....with a lake and swan boats. That wrong turn took us to the popular statues of "Make Way For Ducklings" that memorialize the ducks in Robert McCloskey's book of the same name. I have loved this author since I was a kid....I had wanted to see the statues....but I did not know where they were located in Boston, so this was serendipitous! While it was fortunate the wrong direction found me those ducks, it did cost us time and another long walk on a VERY hot day. Malachy could barely keep up. He rode piggyback on various backs.

Finally, we found the visitor's center on the edge of the Commons, bought a map of The Freedom Trail, and started, FINALLY, on our merry way.......backtracking yet again, poor kids. For those of you not familiar with The Freedom Trail, it is a red line-marked, or bricked, on the side walk, guiding walkers from one historical building or site to another. These were "the gathering places of the patriots, the incubators of revolution.....the buildings where American resistance to the British Crown was born, grew, and flourished....until eventually, the only alternative was war and independence."

Our plan for the day was to do as much of the Freedom Trail (FT) as we could till 3:30pm and then head to the Museum of Fine Arts, as it was free today from 4pm till 9:45pm.

After the Boston Commons, the next stop on the FT is:

Massachusetts State House
We took a self-guided tour. It is beautiful inside. In the first room, there was a display to represent every soldier lost in the war with Iraq.......a closer look showed that each "soldier" was made out of a tea bag. Never did find out what that was about. And, then each was dressed to look like a person, with a name on it.

This building was begun in 1795, when Samuel Adams was governor. Paul Revere was involved in putting copper on the dome, which is now gilded in gold. John Hancock's mansion used to be on what is now the west lawn at the House....it was demolished in 1863. :(

Next:

It took us (yeah, it was me again) at least five minutes to figure out where the FT picked up again......but, it brought us to...

Park Street Church

It is currently surrounded by scaffolding. We just took a few minutes look inside. Outside, it is lovely to behold, but not a very pretty church inside. It was built in 1809. In 1829, on the 4th of July, "My Country Tis of Thee" was first sung on its steps. It was "manned" by a sweet young girl, and they provided cups of ice water...how nice that was!!

Next to the church is the......

Granary Burying Ground

...and my laundry is dry and needs folding.....hope to finish up tomorrow. It is late.

Night

~C~