Boston - Part 2

Thanksgiving was such a great day but still just the middle of my trip and the next day we got up bright and early (before noon) so we could walk the Boston Freedom Trail.

We started off along Commonwealth to the Commons. (Cue pictures of the hoodie. Check it out in the third picture. Can you say TOO BIG? Yet another lesson in gauge. *sigh* I was having to pull it back up onto my shoulders the whole trip.)

The Trail officially starts at the State House and is inlaid into the sidewalk.

At the parts where the sidewalk is new or it goes over streets, they paint it on. Although, through Boston Common, they inlaid brick into the walking path.

Cue pictures of the bag. Isn't it pretty?! It's a good travel bag, too, because it carries a LOT of crap.

On the other side of the Commons, you hit the Park Street Church, then around the corner to the Granary Burying Ground. Duuuuuuuuuude... it was so cool. I thought this would be the point where I would do some crying (it's a graveyard, you know?) but it wasn't. That ended up coming later.

I have SO many more pictures of this place but it's just impossible to post them all. Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Sam Addams, the victims of the Boston Massacre... they're all buried here along with so many others. The oldest grave is 1672! It was just amazing. You can click them all to make them bigger... they're so beautiful.

Oh, and we took this pic just across the street at the only place you can have a Sam Addams right next to Sam Addams. ha! *rim shot*

OK, onward to the statue of Benjamin Franklin (and a Starbucks for the insanely good Peppermint Mocha Twist they have this season, which is now my new addiction. Cue scarf.)

Then to the Old State House and the site of the Boston Massacre. It's actually a pretty cool stone circle that marks the spot, but it's in a small triangle in the middle of a big intersection. We had to dodge traffic to get out there.

We stopped to rest at Faneuil Hall and went out to Quincy Market. This is me trying to make some face other than the huge grin I usually do but my sister wanted none of it and took another one.

By this point we were pretty tired and it was starting to get late so we made a small detour from the official route.

mmmmmmmmmmmm... oooooooooooysters

But actually, right before we hit the Union Oyster House, we made one last stop across the street...

This is the New England Holocaust Memorial and it's where the crying happened.

Walking up to it, it just looks like 6 glass towers, but as you get closer you see the steam coming up from the ground.

Then, as you step inside and look at the glass you see the numbers... I added my hand for scale.

And when you look up, you realize that the towers are covered with these numbers... etched in the glass... millions of them... and it hits you that every one of those numbers is a person who was deliberately tortured and killed in one of the Camps. This isn't even everyone who died in the War... this is just the Concentration Camp victims.

It was right then that I just burst into tears and I'm crying again just writing about it. The capacity that humans have for evil and hate... and to see it laid out in such a concrete way... It's enough to make you want to give up on us. But I have to believe that because we are the same people who can build and cry at such a beautiful memorial, there must be some hope, right? A question for the ages...

So YEAH! We went across the street and got a DRINK! SHEESH!

Then we went next door to the Green Dragon and had another. Here I am with my new boyfriend. Dude, Washington met with his men to plan the freaken Revolution in the back room of this place.

And then we actually hit a couple more spots along the Trail (See how I've completely abandoned the idea of using the zipper on the hoodie and am holding it shut? Gauge you dork! Gauge!) before finding a great spot for dinner and then going HOME.

OK, we didn't really go home... After a day of being repeatedly and extensively reminded of our own mortality and the insignificance of our own lives in the grand scale of history, we stopped at the Omni Parker House on the way home and got drunk. Can you blame us?

Here we end Part 2 of what has just become a 3 Part Series because I couldn't stop posting freaken pictures. I might be able to get Part 3 up for you tonight but don't hold your breath... I've got a living room in shambles and a week to prep for. Which reminds me, I've still got to tell you what's going on with this work stuff. hmmmm...