Belated (about Boston)

My teasing of Christy about her tendency toward blogging about events months after the fact rather backfired. Not only did she beat me to posting about my trip to Boston , she even got pictures up, too!
But never fear, dear reader. What I lack in punctuality (blame the Democrat Congress, I’ve been too tired to put much energy into blogging since our last recess!) I will now attempt to make up for with detail.
I arrived in Boston on Friday afternoon – a little ahead of schedule thanks to a really nice airline employee who put me on an on-time, direct flight to Boston so I wouldn’t have to endure my severely delayed flight that had a layover in Newark. Tee’s excellent directions lead me on my first (successful) adventure on the T and my arrival in Cambridge. We chatted, drank tea (good thing I’m writing this down… if I was telling this story aloud I can see people getting confused between Tee, the T, and tea!), and when Matthew got home I had my first introduction to the world of Guitar Hero. I was (and remain) basically horrible. Meanwhile, Christy cooked an AMAZING steak dinner that was topped only by her incredible raspberry white chocolate cheesecake. (Suffice to say, the diet took a pretty major hit during my weekend in Boston. I’ve been trying to work that off ever since.)
We did, however, do plenty to burn off said meal on Saturday. After something of an argument with a ticket kiosk, Tee and I got a bright-and-somewhat-early start of heading into the city to walk the Freedom Trail. We worked backwards, starting with Bunker/Breed’s Hill. I made the (overly optimistic? tragic? idiotic? masochistic?) decision that I wanted to hike up to the top of the oblisque.
We stopped on step 200.
If I’d had the guidebook that I procured at the end of my Boston trip at this point in the story, I would have known that we only had 97 more steps to go. But unfortunately, I didn’t know the end was in sight, and I’d basically taken the tower like it was San Juan Hill, and I was on the edge of hyperventilating by the end of stop one on the Freedom Trail. It was very exciting.
After a breather in the first free museum we could find, our next stop was “Old Ironsides” – the U.S.S. Constitution. She’s the oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat in the world… pretty amazing to see.
We crossed the river in a ferry (at this point I’m wondering what forms of transportation I’m not going to utilize over the weekend) and made our way to a hot historic lunch spot – the Union Oyster House. As in, Webster ate oysters here. Sam Adams did too. It’s the oldest continually operating restaurant in the United States. Each dining room had its own motif reflecting a different era in which the restaurant had operated. Tee and I were fortuitously seated in the Colonial Room, where we enjoyed “chowdah” and cornbread.
I could go on and on about the various very interesting things we saw next, but I would probably bore you. Probably the most hilarious thing that happened that afternoon (at least if you were Tee) was my freak out over the Boston Massacre site – or lack thereof. It’s a circle of bricks. On an island. In the middle of an intersection. No plaque, no historical site marker, nada.
But it’s okay. Not like anything important happened there. Not like it was one of the most important turning points of pre-Revolutionary War America, the event that put the wind in the sails of the independents and turned the tide of public opinion toward rebellion.
No. I’m not upset. Not at all.
Suffice to say, as Tee predicted, I fell completely in love with the Freedom Trail. Along the way I took plenty of mental notes about places I wanted to return to and investigate more closely when I return. We were, however, victims of our own success, and by the time we collapsed onto the T, we were exhausted. Thankfully, Matthew was nice enough to pick us up and cook us dinner as we passed out in the living room.
Christy posted fun pictures from Sunday brunch on her blog, so I won’t repeat them here. But after we were done with our delectable eggs benedict, we met up with Allis, who drove up from Connecticut to relive the glory days of when she and Tee and I lived together in college. We bookstore-hopped in Cambridge and drank what is beyond a doubt some of the best hot chocolate known to man. Afterwards, Matthew gave us a tour of campus, including some of the stunning law school facilities. Sadly, Fringe fans, no sign of the Bishops, but it was still a fun tour.
My last day in Boston came all too quickly. After I packed all my effects, we headed west toward Lexington and Concord. We only had time to visit the latter, but what a fun town to see! While I have no particular affinity for transcendentalists, it was still fun to see many of their houses, as well as their graves.
For me, the highlight of Concord was visiting the site of the “shot heard ‘round the world” – the Old North Bridge. When we arrived at the site, this is what we saw:
That’s right, about a half mile of rock-solid ice between us and the bridge. But I had come all this way, and I wasn’t about to let the elements get in the way of my historical pursuits. (I also wasn’t about to cross the frozen river as Allis was encouraging us to!) After several near-falls, we finally arrived at the Minuteman statue, the bridge, and the monument where the first foe fell. Was it worth it? Oh, yes.
If you can’t tell from the tenor of my description, I am pretty much in love with Boston. I thought I’d been in places with lots of American history; in Boston, it seems impossible to go somewhere that wasn’t pivotal at some point in our nation’s past. I’m looking forward, deo volente, to many more trips to Boston – not just for the history, but to spend time with dear friends as well. Many thanks to Christy and Matthew for their exemplary hospitality, and to Allis for making the drive up so we could spend some precious time together! I’m so blessed by all of you.