Wednesday 15th & Thursday 16th July - Boston

Thursday 16th July
Once again, we took the morning train into Boston and signed up for another hop on/hop off trolley bus. First stop was Boston Common, a large green area, which was first declared a common in the 1600s. In those days, people grazed their cattle there, but it is now an open grassy space that the public can enjoy. Across the road was a beautiful park - the Public Park - with gardens, ponds and a number of bronze sculptures of important historical figures. The historic Swan Boats, est. 1877 operate on the lagoon in this park.

There was also a group of bronze ducklings, which were attracting a number of small children who were having great fun pretending to ride them.

We walked around the Granary Burial Ground which contains the graves of Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams as well as the victims of the Boston massacre - civilians who were shot by British soldiers in 1770. We couldn’t visit Boston without sampling the local delicacy of clam chowder, so we chose an Irish pub which looked promising and ordered a bowl each. We were not disappointed, as the flavour was superb.

The trolley ticket entitled us to a free harbour cruise,

Boston skyline from the harbour

so we took the boat around the harbour and across to the far side of the Charles River, accompanied by an interesting commentary, then disembarked to look over the USS Cassin Young, a WWII US Navy destroyer which experienced the Japanese suicide tactic of the kamikaze aircraft.

We had hoped to go on board the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) which was constructed in 1797 and is the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat in the world, but we were running out of time so just looked through the museum instead. (HMS Victory is older, but is in dry-dock, not afloat!). That proved to be a very worthwhile substitute, as some of the rooms were reconstructed to resemble the inside of the old ship. Children could lie in the hammocks to get a taste of shipboard life.

There was a trolleybus stop close to the museum, so we hopped back on and did a complete circuit of the town before catching the train back to North Concord, where Mike was waiting in the car to take us home.

Wednesday 15th July
Today is Emma’s 10th birthday. Happy Birthday Emma! Terry and I had a quiet day today. We wandered into Maynard in the morning and had a walk around the lake (called Mill Pond) and then browsed a few shops. We went into my favourite diner for lunch - Babico’s. It’s decorated in real 50’s style - pink and turquoise vinyl striped booth seating and pink vinyl upholstered stools along the counter. Sounds tacky but it’s great. And they serve the BEST pancakes. Emma had a few friends in during the afternoon for birthday cake, and some neighbours stayed for pizza in the evening. Mike makes great pizza. I recommend this hotel!