Boston

I have neglected my postings. Often when we get back from dinner, I'm to tired to write, post pictures, etc. Need to catch up or will forget what we have done. The last I left you, we were going to make a color loop in western Mass. It was a nice drive, but many of the trees had already lost their leaves. The next day we made another loop on our way to the Boston area. It was much better and we stopped two different times in parks to take a walk and enjoy the scenery.
We have stayed outside of Boston the last three nights. On Sunday, we went into Boston on the train and met Keith Thomas ( one of Alan's classmates)The three of us walked the Freedom Trail. This trail is a red line beginning at the Boston Commons, wandering through the older part of Boston connecting the major buildings of the early colonists and Revolutionary War. The photo is the Old North Church where William Dawes and another guy climbed the 14 story steeple to hold out to lamps to show Paul Revere and his messengers that the British were coming. It ends across the Charles River at the Bunker Hill monument and finally at the USS Constitution. My legs had gotten jelly like by the time we got to the old ship so I sat while the guys toured the boat. So much of our beginning history is in this city. Great day and a great tour guide!
Yesterday we went to Lexington and Concord. We started in Lexington at Buckman Tavern. We learned about the life of tavern owners as well as the history of the beginnings of the Revolution. This is where troops gathered waiting for the British to come. It is right across the street from the Green where the troops met for the first time. Shots were fired, not by command but by accident. Eight men died and they are buried on the Green.
The road between Lexington and Concord is called Battle Road and they have a trail that you can walk that has stops where important things happened. Don walked part of the trail and I picked him up at the Hartwell Tavern. The fighting along this trail took place as the troops were coming back from Concord on the way back to Boston.
In Concord, we went to the North Bridge where the "shot heard round the world" was fired that marked the beginning of the Revolution. Listening to people it sounds like the re-enact the start of the war every April 19th. Very close to the bridge is the house that Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather built and Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote here. Whoever was living there at the time watched the fighting from their windows.
Took in a lot of history in the last couple of days. Learned so many details and will have to figure out a way to share them.