Freedom Trail

I know you have all bee waiting breathlessly for the next installment of our trip to Boston. It has been so wonderful, with J & R as the perfect hosts, and Ty providing great video. Last Saturday we went downtown and did as much of the Freedom Trail that we could. It really was great - historically informative and inspirational. Leaving our car behind, we travelled in on the commuter train, which required a bit of waiting.

All that waiting just makes a body tired.

But the train finally came and we got on board for the ride into town, passing some very nice scenery on the way.

As well as some interesting scenery inside the train . . . .

And here's the budding young tour guide to tell you all about it:

Our first stop on the Freedom Trail was the Copp's Hill cemetery. It is really quite a nice looking cemetery, in spite of the slightly askew headstones. I doubt they are relations, but I did find a Jacob Hall and a Mary Richards. This "burying ground" dates back to 1659 and is named for a shoemaker, William Copp. Both Cotton & Increase Mather are buried here (back in a corner, under a tree). It is also believed to be the burial ground for almost 1,000 free African Americans from a community across the street.

And finally, because of its height, the British set up there cannons here in 1775 and fired upon the Battle of Bunker Hill. If you look closely, you can just make out the Bunker Hill monument through the tree right about in the middle of this photo.

Next stop on the Trail was the Old North Church, and the statue of Paul Revere. This is a shot from the South, looking north to the church.

So I thought this looked vaguely familiar - does anybody else? These are the organ pipes inside the Old North Church.

And these are the pews. Interesting, hmmmmmm.... We decided that this would be a pretty good set up for our chapels. Since everybody sits in the same place every week anyway, everybody could just be responsible for the upkeep of their pen (pew). And it would put an end to little ones getting away under the benches.

See, they all come with addresses, and the names of the current occupants. Don't know if these folks are just renters of if they have bought the real estate.

Just turn around from the shot of the statue above and you get this shot of the Catholic Church behind you. Rose Kennedy was christened here as an infant, and then 104 years later had her funeral mass here. The trail here went through a very obviously Italian part of town.

Right in the middle of which is Paul Revere's house. It is the oldest structure in downtown Boston, having been built in 1680. It was already 90 years old when Mr. Revere, aged 35 at the time, bought it in 1770 for a mere 53 pounds down and a mortgage of another 160 pounds. Paul R. ended up having a total of 16 children. This particular house looked a lot like all of the other houses of that period, but cost a bit more to enter. We took a bye on this one and walked on.

Ty is tuckered, so we found a nice park-like place for him to take a load of his (Jeff's) feet. Across the street was a "farmer's market" with all kinds of fresh fruit, vegetables, and fish! I loved it.

We could also see this sign from our resting spot. Some in our party thought it was a restaurant, but I thought it looked more like a hotel for rich oysters.This is Faneuil Hall (a distant relative, I'm sure), also known as the "Cradle of Liberty". Built in 1742 as a center of commerce, it still has "market stalls" (little shops) in the cellar. The one we spent the most time at had books, flags, and maps. The original was much smaller and was rebuilt in 1763 and 1805. It was here that the Bostonians of the day fomented rebellion in the form of protests against the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act, and the Redcoat occupation. They also formulated the Boston Tea Party from here. The original Samuel Adams held forth here, and staged the funeral for the victims of the "Boston massacre".

Lots of cool stuff in here.

This is John Adams in the middle and Fredrick Douglas on the left.

Directly to the east of Faneuil Hall is the Quincy Market. As you can see, on the day of our visit they were stringing up a guy - by his feet. Later he got out of it. Inside Quincy Market today are roughly 15 billion eateries where you can get literally anything to eat and drink; but only if you can get through the 15 trillion people attempting to do the same as you. We were finally victorious, I got bacon-wrapped scallops (yummmm), others in our party got corn dogs and Philly sandwiches.

We all sat on a planter outside in the great Springtime weather and had a picnic lunch.

After lunch we were pretty tuckered out, but went to one last site, the Old State House. John Adams would say of this place, "Then and there the child independence was born." I thought the lion and the unicorn were pretty cool looking, but they were torn down after the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony in 1776. In 1770 the British soldiers guarding this, the seat of Massachusets government, opened fire upon a crowd that was pelting them with rocks and bottles, resulting in what was later called the "Boston Massacre". John Adams, a local attorney, was selected to defend the soldiers, which he figured would end his career as an attorney regardless of the final decision. He did his duty, however, and got them all off - greatly enhancing his reputation for intelligent application of the law, as well as steadfast dedication to truth and justice.

By the time we got done here we were ready to get on the subway and head for the train. We caught the Orange Line and got back to the Boston equivalent of Grand Central Station in time to purchase and consume some of the best ice cream I have ever had, before the train home. It was a long and really fun day - one of many to come . . . stay tuned.

Here in Boston

We made it to Boston after a full day of airplanes and airports. Our first day was fun, with Tyler trying on Grandpa's hat.

The first highlight of the day was a walk in the beautiful weather with Spring all around us. (but no ducks) Ty & Grandpa got into it with sticks.

Grandpa was vanquished, and chased down the trail.
Tossing rocks in the pond was the next order of business; followed by trying to seed the trail with those cute little yellow flowers.

After a vigorous walk it was time to watch the "waste removal & recycling" man do his work.

The other fun we had (well, Grandpa got his naps, but there are no videos of that, thank heavens) was a trip to the Bugaboo Creek Steak House. The food was good, the company was great, and right by our table where Ty could see it well, was a huge buffalo head that about every 10-15 minutes would move and talk. Great times in Beantown.

M @ Work

So, if any of you have read M's post about her work situation, here is the rest of the story. Real live pictures of M at work. Actually, in these shots she had not seen me and was working hard on ignoring the wierd old guy with the camera.

And this is what she is looking at - Syriac. I don't know what it means, but it is being digitized nonetheless.

More of the technowhiz at work. She's good.

So while I was waiting for M to get off work, I wandered aimlessly through the halls and stacks of the HBLL, encountering many interesting encounters. This empty room for example. Do you wish you were in this class? I'll bet the university wishes you were, and lots of others too.

Easter Sunday

Although a bit late, we did want to express our gratitude to Sharon & Paul for putting up with us a few weeks back when we visited. Here is what we woke up to Sunday morning.
But although it was snowy outside, we had fun waffles on the inside, along with grits (yummm!) and other very nice breakfast foods. S&P were the best hosts. Thank you so much.

Heidi II

Yes -- she's back -- by popular demand! Heidi the Hydrangea! Or at least the sequel. We'll see if we can make it work this time. I can't say that we learned much from our last, disastrous, years-long experience with Heidi I. But we are the eternal optimists, believing as we do that we, too, can have at least a hand-full of green thumbs. Actually, one of us does - but I just have a handful of thumbs. Anyhow, we have been spending all our money on plants and all our time planting. We are never happier than when we are dirty. Here's our latest attempt at hydrangea growing. In case you were wondering where this picture was taken, it is where the very disappointing lilac bush was. You remember, the one that always had lots of leaves, but no flowers. It is now on the way to compost heaven.

We bought 3 miniature lilacs from Spring Hill Nursery, and they are doing well, but not as well as this little bush we bought at Raley's with the most fragrant flowers already on it. Notice how the little gnome guy just cozied right up to it. It is very short, but as I mentioned, beautiful and very fragrant.

And speaking of beautiful, what do you think of this beauty? Isn't that one of the most beautiful iris you have ever seen? My photographic skills do not do it justice by a long shot, but this is about the best I could come up with.

Moving on now from beauty to food . . . here is the 2010 corn patch with yellow flowers on the perimeter and two pepper plants in the background by the fence.

The corn is on the south end, and this is the north end. Onions on the left, and potatoes even further left and out of the picture. On the right are mostly peas, but about half way down is our incredible edible spinach and on the far end is our butter lettuce.

And the grapes are back this year too. In spite of our most fervent neglect, they hung in there and are making a great start on the new trellises I made for them. These are the Concord.

An another late addition is the Lemon Tree, very pretty, but you know the rest. I can't wait to have my own Vitamin C tree right here.

And not pictured are numerous berry plants. We kind of went overboard this year on the berry front, with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Some flowers and bushes had to come out to make room, but it will be worth it. (oh yes, and we have a couple of tomato plants too, just to remind us of the telestial nature of our surroundings)