This marketplace was always busy, filled with tourists. After a while we would look for the Freedom Trail. There is a relatively short walk you can take through Boston that stops at all the old revolutionary sights and historic monuments. We would go to the Old sate house/ boston massacre sight, to ask the volunteers to ask some questions about the trail. We picked up a map and were told the hour long walk from one end to the next was only a couple miles. We would try and use the map to figure out where things were orientated but soon gave up and let our eyes do the walking, whatever we thought was old, cool, or interesting was our next stop.
We would end up visiting the Irish famine memorial, the original state hall, the gravitate of sam adams, other signers of the declaration of independence, fighters in the revolutionary war, mother goose, paul revere, and of course john hancock. It's kind of funny to see how john hannock's name is associated with his signature. Just like his big and bold name on the declaration so to are other things named after him very big and bold. Shrek might say he is overcompensating for something. For example out of all these small, thin, and worn graves, there was john hancock a huge mast of stone stemming from the ground shaped almost like a penis, with his face at the top looking down at everyone. We can go further and sight the John Hancock building in Chicago, which may not be the biggest, but is certainly just as loud and tall.
Other than john hancock it was also somewhat funny to see Franklin's' gravesite. Now I don't mean benjamin Franklin, for his resides in Philly, Instead his parents who were bostonians had a ginormous, tower with their name emblazoned on the front of it so there was no mistaking that this was in fact a Franklin! It was deemed very important and had a plaque in front of it to explain who these people were Now i'm not saying they don't deserve a grave stone or a little recognition, but as you learn history in school I don't think you ever hear anything about his parents. They’re grave was treated like a celebrity, as if to congratulate them on such a wonderful job. Congratulations, you gave birth to a founding father! It was a little over the top for two people who yes may have had the famous Benjamin Franklin but in reality you hear little to nothing of.
After the graveyard we walked to the actual capitol building, the one with the gold dome on it. We were told that if the gold leaf of the dome was scraped off it would only accumulate to the size of a grapefruit. I think I may call bullshit on that one. There were even a few protestors waiting around outside, taken up against the massachusetts law over immigrants, similar to the arizona one. Just wandering around we would bump into the old kings church and walk inside to listen in on a tour. We exited and made our way back the market place, failing somewhat on our freedom trail walk.
Unsure what to do, and with most things closing around us we decided to call up an old friend, Miss Lindsay Taylor. Telling us she just go off work she would make her way down to us from her college town Fitchburg. For the half hour or so wait mike and I found a nice grassy area and would throw some disc to pass the time. Remembering how fun Ultimate was, we both found that we still had a little disc magic left. This certainly wouldn’t be the last time we threw around.
When Lindsay caught up to us we hugged and exchanged stories while making way through the market again. Now we had an insiders point of view and were able to hear a new side of Boston. We just so happened upon a a street performer who had just begun a show. This poor, sad, awkward, little man led us on for 15 minutes as it seemed most everyone hoped he would get better. Leaving everyone else a bit disappointed and uncomfortable we walked on towards the stadium of the Boston Bruins. It was a nice walk full of great stories provided by Lindsay. Crossing into a different part of the city we were now in Little Italy, where street after street was lined with another italian restaurant. Everyone was hungry so we stopped in and got a few slices of pizza and a drink. We would take our spoils and look for a park bench where we could relax and enjoy. What we found instead, and i'm still not sure how we heard of this place was Andy's bakery. Grabbing a table and setting up shop we chowed down and also ordered a couple cannoli's. These were some big cannoli's, that lefts us all pretty full.
Not a whole lot planed for our evening Lindsay invited us back to her place in Fitchburg for the night. Thank you so much Lindsay!!! Following her car about 45 minutes north we'd park out front of her apartment, two cars side by side, both repping Nor-Cal stickers on the back. We were showed around the place, which was pretty empty, with all her roommates out or gone. Introduced to Lindsay's kitten Jack-Jack (think Incredibles Jack Jack in little devil mode) we played around a bit with this friendly and fun, spastic kitty. The idea was to go hit the bars, and “go boozin” as Lindsay would say, but after a long day, it turned out to be just a nice evening chatting and drinking in doors. A plan was made for tomorrow, and we went to bed both picking our own room to crash in.
The next morning was beautiful as we slept in late for the first time in a while. I would actually wake up to Michael talking with one of Lindsay's friends in the living room. The plan we had made the night before was to head with Lindsay, and her friends to a beach. Ashton who we were introduced to would in fact be the only other person to accompany us. Leaving closer to 11 we drove pretty far to get to this beach. At one point we wondered out loud, “Lindsay where the f&ck are you taking us!?” It took nearly an hour to get to the beach in question, and we actually had gone into New Hampshire. This was no ordinary beach, but a beach town, that thrived with summer tourists, vacationers, and locals all hitting up the long sand line filled with vendors, rides, and shops.
Choosing our location among the many beach goers we would put down the cooler and blankets. The frisbee almost immediately came out as the four of us tossed some disc in a near by area with a smaller concentration of people. Round and round it was good throwing, with only a few bumps as a disc or two may have crashed near a family or two. When frisbee got old we headed towards the waters edge. Cautiously making our way in we only ever made it to the thigh line. For all of you out there who may not know there are waterlines you must cross on your body when slowly entering cold water. There's foot, knee, thigh (right under the balls), then the balls themselves, belly button, chest/nipps, neck and head. This water was much colder than when we had swam in North Carolina, so the danger region was not too pleased at the idea of plunging into some icy water.
Back to the towels we would soak up some sun, munch on snacks and drinks, and of course read some cosmo. The four of us would sit there and enjoy each other's company until it was decided we had to leave and continue our exploration of Boston. Lindsay and Ashton stayed at the beach after we said our goodbyes and thank you's. Closer to 3 we took off down the coast in search of Boston. When we arrived it was Freedom Trail round 2! We had learned that there was actually a red brick path that led anyone who followed it across the city, stopping at the various points of interests. A little embarrassed we didn’t realize this earlier we set off to follow the red brick road! No munchkins though.
Along this trail we would make stops at Paul Revere's house, a park dedicated to paul Revere, the old church tower where the lantern was hung, another special graveyard etc. It was only a few miles long but with the amount of stops here and there it took a couple of hours to complete it. We'd cross a bridge and walk int the old navy base where the USS Constitution sat. We would also find the Korean war memorial of boston. Along this whole journey there were little sights, and stops showing Bostons rich history.
For dinner we sat down at the old stomping ground for revolutionary spies and meetings. This pub/restaurant which was a favorite of Paul revere himself was called the green dragon tavern. It was a bit odd to see a bunch of old red coats sitting around going over stories and talking with tourists. We were wondering if these were just actors off the streets here to enjoy the food, or if they were part of some group for hire to entertain. Mike would have a good sized burger, and I would have the Irish sampler with bacon(Irish bacon), guiness steak tips, and sausage, with boston baked beans, and a salad. It had gotten to the point again where we both desperately missed vegetables. Being in Boston I just had to order the boston crème pie too. (Dad, it was great, you would have loved it.)
Done with dinner we'd walk back again through the market place. Mostly filled with tourists there were only souvenir shops and restaurants open now. We checked out the girls in the area but didn't see much of anything so we called it a night and headed to Michael's family friend Wendy for the night. We'd stay up going over what we had seen, and what was to come, also allowing Michael to catch up a bit with her.
It'd be another late morning as we slowly got up and tried to work on photos and blogs. Leaving before ten it was back to Boston for our last day in the city; and it would be a full one. Our first stop of the day was Trinity Church. (Disclaimer: The church we visited in New York was not Trinity as we said, but actually St. Patrick's Cathedral.) Trinity was also under a bit of repair, and was actually the one and only church on this whole trip that asked for an entrance fee. The next place we visited was back to the capitol building where we'd get a free tour of the building filled with interesting and historical facts by our young volunteer guide. It was a very extensive tour that took us into the executive office lobby, and even a viewing section for both the Senate, and House while in session. It said no pictures everywhere, but don't worry we got some. This tour also further destroyed my hope for a better government as we were told of stupid superstitions that would hold up and delay even the simplest of processes for the massachusetts government to work properly. The tour guide told us with such serious and respectful conviction, but I could only think of what idiots. For example they can't begin until all the chairs in the room have been adjusted so that everyone sits at the same level. Nor can they begin if their sacred wooden carving good luck fish isn't present. WTF!?
With the tour over our last adventure in Boston, and perhaps my favorite part was Fenway park. Unfortunately as we got closer to Boston we looked at schedules and found that the Red Sox would not be in town, but that didn't limit us to personally going and viewing the nations most historic and proud baseball park. Signing up for an extensive tour we roamed all over the park, stoping at various sties and sitting with amazing views while listening to great stories of tragedy, hope, and victory, about the Red Sox, their management, and the ball park itself. Our tour guide, a true bostonian, was great and made the tour unforgettable. At the end of the day we walked all over trying to find a Fenway frank that had been advertised but found no such luck. Maybe this was for the best as the baseball gods were telling us we would have to return for the real thing at a real game.
Boston was fun, but before we left there was one last thing we had to do, and of course that was Chowdah! (Emerald, I can hear you know) One last Boston treat, this bowl of chowder was nothing special, but necessary. (And yes of course it was a bread bowl Katie, only way to go.) After that it was back to the open road, making our way to Maine. Originally we were going to Vassalboro Maine for the topless coffee bar we had heard about, but that we would read later was closed by angry and prude towns people. So the idea was then stay at the capital, Augusta, but most everyone, including our handy dandy book told us there is almost nothing there so why go. So our destination would turn out to be Portland Maine, the next up and coming hip place to be on the waterfront, developing a culinary and artsy name for itself. (Let's not forget it's till Maine though people) We'd make one little stop in Portsmouth New Hampshire for some coffee and internet access. Surprising to us though this town was bumping on a saturday night. We had both kind of hoped to stay longer with many beautiful women running around, but we knew we had to get to Maine so off we went.
Here's a good chunk of our trip. I know I know we are doing a terrible job of up-dating and editing. The goal is to get all this out before we hit Pacifica again. Wish us luck. The trip is slowly coming to an end. Missing you all lots, those back home, and those we have met along the way.
-Whose Line Is It Anyways!?
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