Boston

With today being a holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Brett and I both had the day off and decided to go to Boston for the day. It is a roughly a 2.5 hour drive from our house so we drove up yesterday after church and pulled in just as it was getting dark. We did manage to make it to the temple just as the sun was setting which made for some excellent pictures. You know me and my picture taking.... Then we attempted to head into Boston and didn't really have a specific place to go so the GPS was no help and we made a wrong turn and ended up headed back out of the city so we decided that we would save every bit of Boston for the next day. And we sure did....

Temple with sunset

This is what the temple looks like when you are approaching it from the freeway

We started off the day in the small quaint little town of Lexington, MA. You will know this town because this is where the "shot that was heard around the world" happened. We got a nice hotel room for $50 with free wi-fi and a great complimentary breakfast. We are cheap and do everything as cheap as possible but it was a great place to stay. I will definitely go back! All of the touristy stuff to see in Lexington is closed right now so we got to see everything from the outside and of course the Battle Green. 

Statue erected to mark the significance
All of the remains to the soldiers who lost their life on
April 19, 1776 are buried at this statue. 

This church was not here at the time but there was a church
similar to this  on the actual Battle Green

Battle Green - flag pole marks the spot of the first shot

Buchman's Tavern
The soldiers were staying here the night that Paul Revere rode in to give the warning
All the had to do was cross the street and wait for the British to come
The road is also the actual road (of course not paved back then)
that Paul Revere road into town - Bedford Road

Paul Revere

Then we headed into the big city of Boston, took about an hour to find a place to park. I had done some research on cheap places to park and both of the places turned out to be false... :( We finally decided that we were just going to park close to everything and find out the best thing to do for parking for the next time. Parking was expensive but we did learn that parking outside of the city and riding the metro in is fastest and cheapest way and now I can see why! (FYI for anyone headed to Boston soon)
We had predetermined that this time was going to be more of a reconnoitering day than anything else. But we were able to see so much and learned a little bit about travelling in/to Boston. We spent the whole day on the Freedom Trail - which is awesome and you see pretty much everything historical there is to see in the city in just a few hours. We were unfortunate to not be able to get the full affect of the tour due to some of the sites being closed. But we had a very enjoyable time walking around Boston in 20 degree weather! Brrr!

Old State House

Just in front of the Old State House

Old South Meeting House

Old City Hall

Ben Franklin

People such as the first women off the Mayflower,
Governers, Judges are buried here

Granary Burial Grounds
Franklin's parents, Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil,
John Phillips (1st  mayor), Johnn Hancock,
Boys of the Boston Massacre
are buried here

John Hancock's Grave
He is buried next to his wife and long time slave

Granary Burying Grounds
Ben Franklin's parents are the big one in the middle

State House

Statue honoring 54th Regiment of Mass. Regiment
During the Civial War this was the first regiment to consist of both white and black soldiers 

From the steps of State House

Faneuil Hall

Paul Revere's House

Paul Revere with Old North Church behind

At the Old North Church they have several of these things holding
dog tags to honor those who lost their lives in the war with Afghanistan

Old North Church
The window at the top is where the two lanterns were lit to
signal that the British were crossing the Charles River

USS Constitution (closed so no good pics)
"Old Ironsides"

Memorial at Bunker Hill

From inside of the memorial looking back at Boston City

Warming up with some Boston Clam Chowda

I think I have fallen in love all over again. I love Boston - my new favorite Major City BY FAR!