Boston: Around the City

Day 3: Friday, May 24, 2013

We met Kjersten's friend Jake and I slyly asked what he was up to on Friday. He said nothing, so I said, "Oh! You should come touring with us!" He is a native Bostonian, born and raised, but he sure surprised me when he said, "Oh ya! That sounds like fun!" What!? Who goes touring with two people he just barely met and barely knows!? I tell you - a really nice guy does. That's who! We had a great time with Jake and he was so sweet to come up with a game plan for the day. He said, "I was thinking we could start here, head over to here, then visit here, and then... does that sound good? Anything else you guys want to do or don't want to do?" Awesome. Fabulous guy and tour guide!

Mike and I took the train to the Boston Commons again and met him there. Usually there are some lights on in the trains, so people can read or see where they are going. Our train for whatever reason had zero lights! It was pitch black! Not bad, just interesting. Nobody knew why, and they didn't make an announcement about it, but it was fun seeing faces lit up by only the electronics people were using.

Boston Commons -

The "New" Massachusetts State House was built in 1798. The dome on top was originally covered with wood shingles, but they leaked and so Paul Revere (yes the famous Paul Revere) covered the dome in copper. But the copper turned green in the heat, and so they had it refinished and covered by 23 karat gold which now prevents leaks and looks beautiful.

In this building is a wooden codfish which is called the Sacred Cod. It hangs in the House of Representatives chamber and if this Sacred Cod goes missing then the House of Representatives can not meet. Multiple times pranks have been pulled where people have stolen the Sacred Cod, and the House of Representatives were unable to meet for days. Now, don't you worry, the House of Representatives will go on because the Sacred Cod has a full time guard watching over it (don't you love how the government spends its (our) money?).

We stopped by the famous tourist bakeries yesterday – Mike’s Pastries and Modern Pastry, but today we stopped by the local’s favorite bakery. Yesterday we got Cannoli’s and today I got a lobster tail. I enjoyed the lobster tail much more than the Cannoli’s (apparently not a fan of those).

Afterwards we went to Paul Revere’s house so that we could get the actual tour. (Yesterday we were only able to look at the outside of the house.) They didn’t allow photography on the inside of the house, but it was interesting. It was a small house; 2 bedrooms and believe it or not, he had 16 kids. He had 8 with his first wife and 8 with his second wife. Only 11 survived to adulthood, so he only had 11 living there at one time. But his mother-in-law stayed there as well in the second bedroom, the kids all shared one bedroom up in the attic. 

We learned that Paul Revere’s famous copper engraving of the Boston Massacre was actually made after Revere saw a similar drawing done by Henry Pelham. He sold more prints than Pelham, supposedly because one of his friends added color to his print. They were able to make lots of prints of the engraving, and he sold mass quantities very quickly. Pelham was upset and argued ‘copyright’ but at the time there were no copyright laws in place, so Revere was able to keep selling. 

We visited the Haymarket Farmer's Market which is right in the center of the city. I thought that there would be some unique vendors, but it was all fruits and veggies. Yum :) I wish we had Farmer's Markets like that near our home.

We got to see the Boston Marathon Finish Line

And a make-shift memorial for the Boston Marathon Bombings :(

One of the most beautiful buildings that we visited was the Boston Public Library. One half of the library is very modern, the other half, is very old and has a very different look and feel. We visited the McKim building where murals and statues and paint filled the marble rooms and hallways. It was a sight to see. The library was founded in 1848 and was the first free municipal library in the United States.

The Chavannes Gallary - This is what you see as you walk up the grand stairway from one of the entrances to the library. The murals on each side of the staircase were painted by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, the murals depict the main disciplines of poetry, philosophy, and science and the center mural depicts "The Muses of Inspiration Hail the Spirit of Light."

This was just an old room that I really loved. It was very simple but you could tell its age. I loved how their were books perfectly aligned above desks on the floor and then a spiral staircase and a small aisle up above. The books look like they were rarely touched in this room and it reminded me of a library you would see in the movies.

Bates Hall - one of the most beautiful and majestic study rooms I have ever seen.

The Abbey Room - This room was covered beautiful gold accented murals titled, "Quest of the Holy Grail." You can't imagine how much it shimmered. It's called the Abbey room because the American Artist Edwin Austin Abbey is the one who painted the murals

There are 15 panels feature 150 life-sized figurines in the Abbey Room.

We visited the Trinity Church of Boston which felt like it was right in the heart of the city, but is actually located in the Back Bay of Boston in Copley Square right, near the Boston Public Library and the Boston Marathon Finish Line. I am confident that this church is known for its architectural beauty inside and out.

Boston's Back Bay was originally a mud flat, so this Trinity Church rests on approximately 4500 wooden piles, each driven through 30 feet of gravel fill, silt, clay and constantly wetted by the water table of the Back Bay, so they do not rot if exposed to air. (Thank you Wikipedia - seriously every tourists dream website.)

The church is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and was founded in 1733. When the original church building burned down in the Great Boston Fire of 1872 this building was built. It took 5 years, from 1872 to 1877 for it to be built.

The Boston Trinity Church is the only church in the United States and the only building in Boston that has been honored as one of the "Ten Most Significant Buildings in the United States" by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 1885, architects voted Trinity Church as the most important building in the U.S.

Inside the church there are many murals covering the walls. Artist John La Farge did the paintings and chose not to be paid but to only have his supplies covered. The murals cover 21,500 square feet of wall inside the church - that is A LOT of square feet!

If you are a film buff (like Mr. Michael Teagle) you would be interested to know that in "National Treasure" Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage)finds the grave of Charles Carroll of Carrollton inside this very church.

We visited the Boston Public Garden. It was referred to as "Boston's Central Park," comparing it to New York's Central Park; however, they are so very different, there wasn't much of a comparison. Boston Public Garden is very beautiful, and while much smaller than I imagined, it was a nice escape from the city and had a lagoon, swan boats, a beautiful bridge and some pretty flowers. It was a nice place to take a stroll.

A nesting swan that we saw down by the Boston Garden Lagoon:

The Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund sponsored a Memorial Day flag display on the Boston Common, with every flag planted representing each Massachusetts service member who lost their life in the line of duty.

There are 33,000 flags which represent the service men and women from Massachusetts who have died in service since World War I.

We visited Cheers! Yay! Some of my fondest memories growing up include watching Cheers with my dad while eating nachos J. It was fun to see the actual bar in real life. It was just like I remember, the outside at least. Against other people’s advice, who said NOT to go inside because it just ‘ruins’ it for you, I went inside. It didn’t ruin it for me – there was still a bar with tables, but it definitely doesn’t look like the Cheers set as seen in the TV show. Such a great tourist stop!!

We left the city and went to Harvard Square. We ate lunch there at a very yummy Spanish restaurant. We were so hungry that we didn't care much to stop and take pictures of all the buildings and statues that we saw. After lunch we kept walking around and I did stop to take just a couple of photos.

This is an Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard Square:

 Another old building nearby on Harvard Square:

On our walk home from Harvard Square, the rain started coming down hard! So we ducked into a café for some hot chocolate. Mmmmm – not only very pretty but very delicious. Mike has some expensive taste in hot chocolate. He wanted to get it multiple times a day every day that we were out there.

The rain continued all through the night, so we decided to go on a double date with Kjersten and Jake to see Star Trek. Can you believe that Jake wanted to spend more time with us after touring with us for the whole day? The theater was pretty neat. It looked like an old opera house. Fancy ceilings, fancy balconies, multiple curtains that had to be opened to reveal the movie screen. It sure was something else.

Mike was so tired from the day of touring that he fell asleep waiting for the movie to start. I think this was the only time that Mike would ever fall asleep in a movie theater!

Super fun day, super fun night! We love Boston!

Boston: The Freedom Trail

Day 2: May 23, 2013

Ugh. I get so overwhelmed trying to write about busy days like this - but I have to, otherwise I will not remember it when it comes time to make a photo book!

The next few days of our vacation were pretty packed full of sightseeing. Well pretty much up until the time that we left - we were going, going, going.

We decided to walk the Freedom Trail around Boston today. Would you believe I didn't take one photo of the actual Freedom Trail?! It's a red line that is painted all around the city, guiding you to all of the different historical sites. In some places, they even had red bricks running down the center of a cement sidewalk to help people know where to go. It was madness. I couldn't believe how much time they put into it, but pretty awesome nonetheless.

You can walk the Freedom Trail on your own, or you can pay for a tour. Mike being the history lover he is decided he wanted a tour. I think it was probably worth it, Mike thinks it was totally worth it and would tell anyone who visits to get a tour of some sort. It's just nice to get stories or facts that you wouldn't have otherwise known about the people who lived there and the events that took place.

We started at the Boston Commons with our tour guide who apparently lived during the time of the revolution. That made for some interesting stories ;)

Then we headed to the Park Street Church and the Granary Burying Ground (South Burying Ground):

We were able to see James Otis' grave.
- They used to have something called Writs of Assistance in colonial Boston. Basically if you complained about someone, they gave you a search warrant that you could use the rest of your life to go in and search their house - and you could take whatever you wanted. You didn't have to have any proof they did anything, you just had to complain. James Otis is famous for arguing against this writ for five hours in Superior Court. Only one member of the court stayed awake for the entire argument, John Adams.
- James Otis graduated Harvard Law and was talented in his arguments. One evening James went to a coffee house where John Robinson, a man James had commissioned against, also sat. A fight broke out and Robinson struck him with his cane. James Otis ended up with a hole in his head, the worse head injury the doctor had seen to have the victim still living. Our tour guide said that later, when James Otis was pushed around town in his wheelchair, kids would run behind and try to throw pennies into the hole. James Otis suffered from mental disease or insanity.
- James Otis told his sister Mercy Otis Warren, "My dear sister, I hope, when God Almighty in his righteaous providence shall take me out of time into eternity that it will be by a flash of lightning."
He was later struck twice by lightning, the first time he survived and the second time while visiting a friend, he stood in the doorway during a storm and was struck dying instantly. *Be careful what you wish for.*

- John Hancock was the first and only signer of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The rest of the delegates signed several weeks later.
- Hancock’s signature was so large that to this day, the slang expression for your “signature” is “your John Hancock.”
- John Hancock was very pompous and prideful. He thought that he should be Commander and Chief in the war but George Washington was chosen instead. Washington went on to be President of the United States and John Hancock was mayor at the time. Because of his jealousy towards Washington, he didn't announce when President Washington was coming to Boston; the President arrived to Boston with no welcome or parade as would have normally taken place at that time.

The graves used to be strewn around across the cemetery - no order and definitely not in lines; everyone was just buried wherever. When they decided to stop letting sheep eat down the grass and began using lawn mowers, the graves were moved and organized into straight lines:

If you could afford a table-type grave/headstone - it was the best way to be buried. Since people hadn't started donating their bodies to science, medical students had to find a different way to get bodies... GRAVE ROBBING! They normally couldn't move the larger graves, and so the people buried under them could rest assured that their bodies would lay safe and sound.

Approximately 5000 people are buried at Granary Burying Ground even though there are only 2300 headstones. Since funerals were expensive, there would be one headstone per family. Each grave contains at least 20 bodies.

All of the 'famous' people that are buried in the Granary Burying Ground didn't have huge, wonderful headstones placed immediately upon their death. In fact, this is Paul Revere's initial headstone:

However, at one point visitors weren't allowed in the burying ground so they had to stand at the street and look in at the graves. So the city made larger, 'more grand' headstones for these people, so that guests could see their 'graves' (even though they aren't buried where their headstones are located) from the street. These include headstones of Paul Revere, Sam Adams, James Otis, John Hancock, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and Benjamin Franklin (not the Ben Franklin you are thinking of - he is buried in Philadelphia but was born in Boston).

In fact, Paul Revere wouldn't have had a large headstone at all because he wasn't really famous until after he passed away and the poem "Paul Revere's Ride" was written about him (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

Crazy size difference of Paul Revere's original and new headstone right?!:

While there is no evidence to prove that this is in fact Mother Goose's headstone, it is a Boston legend that Mother Goose is buried in the Granary Burying Ground.

According to Eleanor Early, a Boston travel and history writer of the 1930s and '40s, the original Mother Goose was a real person who lived in Boston in the 1660s. She was reportedly the second wife of Isaac Goose, who brought to the marriage six children of her own to add to Isaac's ten. After Isaac died, Elizabeth went to live with her eldest daughter, who had married Thomas Fleet, a publisher who lived on Pudding Lane. According to Early, "Mother Goose" used to sing songs and ditties to her grandchildren all day, and other children swarmed to hear them. Finally, her son-in-law gathered her jingles together and printed them. (Wikipedia) 

Mike really liked the portion of the legend that the tour guide shared in saying that Mother Goose's son in law never liked or enjoyed her singing.

 "HERE LYES Y BODY OF MARY GOOSE WIFE TO ISAAC GOOSE, AGED 42 YEARS DEC OCTOBER Y 19th 1690"

I kind of have a thing for looking at old graves. These next few pictures explain why, check out the tombstone art:

This one is the most common picture found on the headstones - it reads Momento Mori - Latin for "Remember That You Will Die."

This picture of two skeletons waiting at an hourglass (center) was pretty awesome:

Also, this image of the skeleton trying to beat time by getting to the hourglass fast enough is pretty unique and awesome as well:

 

The Samuel Adams headstone:

Samuel Adams is known for the beer - the Samuel Adams beer - but did you know that Samuel Adams didn't drink?
- A strong opponent of British taxation, Adams helped organize resistance in Boston to Britain's Stamp Act of 1765. He also played a vital role in organizing the Boston Tea Party—an act of opposition to the Tea Act of 1773—among various other political efforts.

The headstone of the five victims of the Boston Massacre and one young boy, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time weeks earlier:

Christopher Snider is considered to be the first martyr to the cause of the American Revolution. He was twelve years old at the time; Loyalist, Ebenezer Richardson, had attempted to destroy the effigy, and a mob gathered around his house, throwing rocks and attempting to wreck his house. Richardson fired several shots at random from his window and Christopher Snider was killed.
His death was overshadowed two weeks later when the Boston Massacre occurred so when they created this headstone, Christopher Snider's name was added.

King's Chapel
The original King's Chapel was a wooden church built in 1686 by orders of the King of England by a man named Sir Edmund Andros. Sir Edmund Andros was to find a place and build an Anglican church but nobody in Boston would give or sell land to him to build a non-Calvinist church; because of this, Sir Edmund Andros built the church on public ground, a cemetery. It is now known as the King's Chapel burying ground but at one time was the only burying ground in all of Boston. It was the only burying ground from 1630-1659, then in 1659 the Copp's Hill Burying Ground was formed, a year later, the Granary Burying Ground was formed.

The church was built on top of half of the graves in the cemetery. The townspeople in Boston were very upset because they did not want an Anglican church built atop the graves. When the American Revolution began all the Loyalists fled to Canada and the church was left vacant. In 1754 stone was placed around the original wood church.

 Old State House

Photos above and below show the Old State House and the buildings surrounding it. At one point, the Old State House was the tallest building in all of Boston.

Citizens often gathered around the State House balcony (shown below) to hear the reading of official proclamations, many which were of great historical significance. It was also from a spot underneath this balcony that the famous Boston Massacre began. Here, a handful of angry British soldiers fired into a shouting crowd of Boston citizens, killing 5 of them. There is a circle of paving stones underneath the balcony which marks the historic occasion.

On July 18, 1776, the citizens of Boston first heard the words of the Declaration of Independence, read from atop this balcony. Later that day, symbols of royal authority (the gold unicorn and lion) that once graced the State House were burned.

Faneuil Hall:

Faneuil Hall has served as a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. Funding was provided by a wealthy merchant, Peter Faneuil, for the construction. 

The first floor was built to be a market house, the second floor was build to be an assembly room. Inspirational speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis and other patriots were given at Faneuil Hall. These oratories became the footstool for America's desire to obtain independence from the British.

If you look close, there are scribbles along the pavement surrounding Faneuil Hall. The Boston Harbor Shore Line used to go up to this point, which means that Faneuil Hall would have been built in the ocean. Big ocean ships would port 10 feet behind where Faneuil Hall now sits; the location was known as Dock Square. Peter Faneuil had to fill the land before building the Hall.

The Ebenezer Hancock House was built in 1767 and is the only remaining house in Boston associated with John Hancock. He owned the house but it was lived in by his brother. This house is one of the few downtown residences surviving from the late 18th century.

These pictures (above and below) are the streets of Boston back in the day. They are the original size of Boston streets back in the day. All other streets have been expanded to fit at least two cars.

Climbing the Bunker Hill Monument:

294 Steps to the top.
Baby girl sure was having a hay day in my belly after the climb.

Views of Boston from the top:

Oh goodness! We saw, we ate, and we did so much more - but I think that's all I care to document about for now!

Boston, Massachusetts: A Babymoon

Day 1: May 22, 2013

Mike really wanted to go on a vacation before our lives change - never to be the same again. So... being the good wife that I am, I agreed to tag along. He really wanted to go to Boston because he loves history - and I would be able to see Kjersten - so we watched airfare for months and when it finally went down - we jumped on it.

We left on Tuesday night around midnight, so really Wednesday morning if you want to get technical. We had a short layover in Atlanta, just enough time to walk from one terminal to another and stop at the bathroom. We arrived in Boston around 10 am EST.

For some reason Blogspot didn't want me to place this picture the correct way - it kept smushing it.

We aren't fans of red eye flights because we can never get decent sleep. So, although I had a list of things happening that day - Mike needed a nap - he ended up sleeping pretty much all day. I didn't want to wake him because he had been going fully force getting ready for the vacation - getting all his homework done in advance so he didn't have to worry about it while we were gone and making sure things were set for his departure at work and here at home.

That night we tried to eat at the Shake Shack - way too busy so we went to an amazing place called Comella's. Mmmmmmm. It was soooo good! I recommend it to anyone! I would have gone back there a dozen times if time/convenience would have allowed.

After we ended up at the water front for a spectacular view of the Boston skyline. It had been raining and so there was a bit of fog or clouds covering the top of the buildings, but it was still very pretty!

Pretty great start to our vacation :)