Road Trip: Boston, MA, Part 1

Get your finger ready to scroll because this one’s long!

In keeping up with my master plan of taking a road trip each month, I traveled to Boston, MA for the first time this month. Given my enjoyment of American history, I decided to spend the day walking the Freedom Trail downtown. What a fantastic and historic journey.

View from Boston Common:

Park Street Church:

Massachusetts State House:

Granary Burying Ground:

…home of Samuel Adams:

…Paul Revere:

…and John Hancock:

Pennies were left at each of their graves, but I haven’t found a solid explanation of why:

Here’s Paul again:

The Old South Meeting House:

The Old State House, near the site of the Boston Massacre:

Paul Revere’s house:

The Old North Church, where the two one-if-by-land-two-if-by-sea lanterns were hung, and a statue of Paul “The British Are Coming” Revere:

Inside the church:

For a fee, you could take a guided tour of the Freedom Trail (I didn’t). The tour guides were dressed appropriately:

Battle of Bunker Hill Monument (although technically the battle took place on Breed’s Hill):

294 steps up the monument gets you this view of Boston:

The monument again:

Many streets on the trail were lined with gas lamps. Here’s one with the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in the background:

One of things about the Freedom Trail I enjoyed was that the entire trail is marked by a continuous, two-row line of bricks. Following the bricks leads you to all the stops on the trail, and each stop is identified by a bronze marker:

Here, the trail is delineated from a bricked sidewalk:

And here, the trail crosses the road:

And here’s me following the red-brick trail:

I’ve you’ve been on the Freedom Trail, you will have noticed something is missing from my photo essay.   More on that missing something in the next installment.