New England - Day 9

It was a sunny, breezy morning for our sightseeing tour of Boston. We had a local step-on guide who gave us a refresher history lesson. He was amazing, giving us a steady commentary of dates and details interspersed with humor that made us think he could have been a stand-up comic. As soon as we got into Boston proper, we got off the bus to walk streets too narrow for anything but cars. We saw the Paul Revere house, Paul Revere's statue and Old North Church. We learned that the stories of our childhood weren't exactly true because "two if by sea" actually meant the river instead of the sea. We made another stop in Copley Square, drove all around Fenway Park, and drove past hospitals and colleges which provide two of the major economic foundations for the city. We saw the gas lamps and beautiful brick homes on Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts State House and the curving, narrow streets that supposedly were originally cow paths. Lunch was at Quincy Market, a bustling and interesting place with dozens and dozens of choices for food and shopping. This afternoon we drove about 15 miles out of town to Lexington and Concord, both of them charming towns today. Their position in Revolutionary War history is the claim that the "shot heard round the world" was fired at one of the two, probably Concord's Old North Bridge. Minutemen statues and a poem about the beginning of the war were there to remind us of history classes in school. - Laurel Johnson, Tour Director