JUNE 23-25: BOSTON

We rested for the weekend doing food shopping, laundry and a spot of dry goods evaluation (shopping- a carryover from Plimoth-sorry:))

What can I say about Boston, in a nutshell it was very nice. Subways where fairly easy to decipher, the freedom trail was a nice bit of history with such items as Old North Church, Paul Revere's house and other significant places too numerous to mention. It's basically a 2 mile hike through town, the City is small in comparison to DC and NYC. The second day we went to view the USS Constitution, the first naval war vessel, over 200 years old and still floating. A very nice tribute to an old war horse, again the feeling was eerie while walking the decks of the ship that carried a young nation and blood was spilt over. There was a museum there also with a lot of hands on stuff, Sue actually enjoyed it and I visited with a model ship builder on the premises who gave me some insight as to where to find lighthouse models! 

The third day was spent touring old Fenway Baseball park, built in 1912, what an edifice. Compared to Yankee Stadium tour this one was great. Plenty of tales and I think our tour director was George Burns younger brother, very funny/corny jokes:) Then we caught another subway to "The Commons" (park in Old English terms) and did the Swan boat ride on the lake, another good experience. We met a young fellow (70ish) who had recently lived for the last 5 years about 10 miles from my Brother/Mother's house. the swan boat is peddle driven by a "captain" and cost 2.70 per ride, our friend remembered when it was a nickel (late 30's)!  Next was a walk about 4 blocks to the world famous 'Cheers" bar, where everyone knows your name......they didn't! We had a nice (expensive) lunch where I finally tasted the Boston baked beans, quite good, not too much molasses! Got me a beer mug for when i drink O'Douls at home plus they only had one type of NA beer, which was excellent and very well may be my next drink of choice, called Kaliber by Guinness. Boston was small enough we did short day trips, saw a lot and did not get worn out, all in all we will be back.

JUNE 20-PLYMOUTH

Friday morning we drove about 70 miles South to Plymouth, site of the Mayflower landing and establishment of the Plymouth colony. What a cool day, we went to Plimoth plantation, a replica of the colony where they had native American Indians in their village along with costumed actors in the colony. The language and explanations of the Englishmen where excellent and funny, we thoroughly enjoyed this adventure. I checked out the replica of the Mayflower and found an interesting character below decks, telling stories and asking questions in the native tongue of the day. You couldn't actually see Plymouth rock due to restoration of the grotto, oh well, next trip:) We always leave enough things undone to warrant a return trip someday:)

We saw a Mexican restaurant on the main drag called "Sam Diego's" and as we where REALLY needing an enchilada fix we tried it. Except for the sweet salsa and the bottled picante sauce the dinner was very good, we where tired of fish and chips and chowda:)

JUNE 19-THE GREAT ROAD-CONCORD/LEXINGTON

Day 2 found us taking a short ride down highway 2A toward Concord. This is historically referred to as the "great road". It is the path taken by Paul Revere (without the Raiders) and Dawes. I guess I forgot this tidbit of history-did you know that Revere was actually captured during his historic ride? and did you know that he didn't climb the belfry at the old North church and do the lanterns-it was a friend-he had to make the ride, he was on the town "safety" committee and delegated this job so he could warn the outlying townspeople-the Minutemen-there where actually 3 riders that night! More on Mr.Revere later.

First we went to the visitor's center and saw a short 20 minute award winning film about this historical event. Once we left there we toured the countryside to see the various memorials, statues and buildings. We went to the old tavern where they had costumed docents to explain the history and lifestyles of the day. We got the nickel tour and saw the muskets fired! We meandered along the road for about a mile just to get the feel of what it might have been like (my wife hates this part)! Then to make it up to her I relented an attended a tour of Mary Alcott's house which was where her and her siblings grew up and she wrote the book "Little Women". It was an excellent tour but a little to feminine for me! What i did learn was her sister was an excellent artist an while teaching abroad inspired a student and he eventually did several major pieces......like the Lincoln Memorial:) Also, it was fascinating to find out all the highly regarded authors that lived in this area: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Alcott and others. It must have been something Friday nights at the local pub!

Next we travelled over to the North bridge where the first shots of the revolution occurred. What history, it actually felt eerie standing there!