the blue blog archives: walking the line

Last week I got to go on a field trip with my boys and their classes to walk Boston's Freedom Trail, a red-brick path that takes you past some of the great historical sites in Boston. We started at Boston Common where we were greeted by dozens of Tea Party rally-ers in town to see Sarah Palin. (They even wore silly outfits just like the original Tea Party group!) However, as they were not there to learn anything about Boston's great history, we quickly parted paths.

We sat down beneath the State House (pretty little thing, isn't it?) for a snack and some sketching.

We searched the Granary Burying Ground for the graves of famous Founding Fathers like John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Sam Adams.

Next, we visited Boston's Old City Hall (waaaay nicer looking than our "new" concrete City Hall, by the way) where Ben Franklin looks down on all the school groups as they come by.

And we continued our walk to the tiny corner in front of the Old State House where you can stand on the spot of the Boston Massacre.

The Declaration of Independence was read from this balcony and, once the Royal Governor was ousted, the first Massachusetts State Government was here.

We had lunch on Boston's new Greenway (yes, we did finally get that Big Dig project out of the center of town and now have lovely green spaces instead of big highways along the water). On our way back, we spotted the Old North Church where Paul Revere had the lanterns hung to warn the Patriots of the arrival of the British by sea.

Not parts of the official Freedom Trail: our current City Hall (yes, the ugly thing on the right) and the equally ugly City Hall plaza, which we try to hide by holding big events on it such as the Big Apple Circus.

posted by alison at 11:02 am | in just blogging 2010

Comments

It looks like you had a fun field trip. I especially like the cemetery. I'm a genealogist and if you'll pardon an outrageous pun, I dig cemeteries, especially old ones like this. The sight of a shouldered gravestone like those just makes me wanna pull out my camera and sketchbook! I must put Boston on my list of places to visit.

Posted by: LibbyH at April 19, 2010 1:00 PM

Ahh... the wonders of a Boston childhood. :) I loved (and still do!) the freedom trail walk.

Do they still let them dress up at the Old North Church?

Posted by: Kate at April 19, 2010 3:09 PM

You've made me feel nostalgic. My older daughter is a BU grad & we spent many an enjoyable day exploring Boston & Cambridge. Loved the Freedom Trail & the Granary cemetary. I haven't been back since she graduated in '95. Maybe nextsummer we can take the grands to visit.

Posted by: Donna at April 19, 2010 4:45 PM

I have good memories of Boston. From 1989-1991, I was a student at New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vt and we used to drive down to Boston every once in a while to hang out and try the great food.

Posted by: Robin at April 19, 2010 9:27 PM

LOL about the last photo...and just to say, whilst most of the time I'm here in little old Israel...the rest of the pictures, Iv'e been there (Sep. 2001) :-)
it's quite a lovely city when you get to walk it.

Posted by: Orli at April 20, 2010 7:29 AM

Aw, I probably saw you guys! If I had known it was you, I would have waved from my window. :)

Posted by: Alexis at April 20, 2010 9:19 AM

A couple of my friends were dressed in funny costumes, but they weren't there to see Sarah Palin. They were there to kind of be an anti-rally as the "Real Tea Party." It sounds like it was a gorgeous day.

Posted by: Seanna Lea at April 20, 2010 11:39 AM

Back in high school I was on the speech team and we would go to a big speech tournament at Harvard held in Feb. over President's Day weekend every year. We always had a day where we went on that same tour and went to different museums around Boston. It's amazing what we were able to fit in and see on those trips (4 days of sight seeing mixed in with competition with kids from all over the country).

Posted by: Elisabeth at April 20, 2010 1:10 PM

Reading your blog is such a sweet, nostalgic experience for me. We lived in Belmont when my son and twin daughters were in primary school. When the Walking The Freedom Trail field trip came up, my son, along with the rest of the class, wrote and illustrated an account of the experience. His writing was good but I was puzzled about the illustrations. Every page of his little book had a broken, straight line and that was all.
"What is this?" I asked.
"It's the Freedom Trail. I had to follow it all over the city," he replied. He was a very literal child and not much of a smart alec, so I'm sure that he considered the Freedom Trail as that painted line on the sidewalk.
He's 23 years old now. I think he might get more out of the tour if he took it again.
Your children are so cute and I love hearing about their experiences. Thanks for sharing little snippets of life in Boston with a growing family.

Posted by: Dee at April 20, 2010 2:29 PM

I walked the Freedom Trail at almost this exact same time last year. What a great way field trip!

Posted by: Melissa at April 23, 2010 3:39 PM

We did just about the same tour with the kids a few years ago--thank you for this post, it brought back a lot of nice memories.

Posted by: karin maag-tanchak at April 29, 2010 8:41 PM

Oh, the Big Apple! That used to come to Hanover, NH, because the founder was a Dartmouth grad. They had to stop recently because they were losing too much money. I miss the Big Apple, it's a great circus.

I have some funny memories of the Freedom Trail too. Think 80s kids clothes and an old school video camera.

Posted by: racherin at May 5, 2010 1:15 PM