America's 250 in Boston

 I'm so proud of Mike! Not only has he driven on ALL of this excursion,  but he drove into this strange big city of Boston, found a parking spot on the street, AND climbed all 294 steps to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument!!!

We spent the morning in the Charlestown part of Boston, exploring the area around Bunker Hill. We enjoyed the Ranger led talk, the plaques, and the monument. We walked through the Bunker Hill Museum at the bottom of the hill. We walked on some of the Freedom Trail, found a well-known bakery and stopped for a treat, and even met Tom and Athena Holtey for lunch at the Warren Tavern where George Washington and others were said to have gathered in pre-revolution days. She shared with us her newly- published family history book which was lovely. 

The parks and squares are lovely, too. And the architecture? Love it!! So historical and fun to see and admire. 

Then we drove back to Quincy in the afternoon and had planned to explore the park and museum about John Quincy Adams here in the area, but we tuckered out and opted to rest instead since we have a big walking day ahead of us tomorrow with the Jacques. And we ARE kind of old, y'know!

It's less than 10 miles away, but took over 40 minutes because of traffic. Tomorrow we will be using the Metro System!

The Boston "Freedom Trail" begins here at the Bunker Hill Monument. The red brick trail guides walkers to various points of historical interest. 

The marble stature of Mr. Warren is housed here at the Bunker Hill Monument. Which, incidentally, the American Patriots did NOT win😉. Our Park Service speaker wondered if it was the only monument built by Americans to their defeaters.

The building where the statue and lots of other information and quotes are. Also the history of building the lively LARGE obelisk. 

And Mike CLIMBED this! Amazing. I would have last year. But since my hip injury last year, it was just feeling almost all healed, and then I tripped  on some stairs at Niagara Falls on Friday last week and kind of re-injured it. Oops. 

Mike was sweating and tired after his climb up and down, but he was game for another walk-- to the restaurant. We waited out on the sunny ( but windy!) sidewalk for Athena and Tom. They came all the way from New Hampshire, just to have lunch with us.

I've told Mike his face is gonna freeze like this. This is how he looks at his phone! All the time!

Tom, Mike, Me, Athena

We don't know what Jesse Holt THIS is, but that is a family name of Mike's. This one died at Bunker Hill in 1775.

Lots of lovely monuments and parks, greens, etc.

 

We had a cookie and brownie and milk stop along the freedom trail at Tatte's bakery. 

A fishy fountain near Chelsea street.

Boston not only has an underground train and subway system, they also have underground freeways!!! ( And this picture also shows how many bugs are on our windshield.) This is an underground freeway. It's not night time-- that's a black ceiling in the tunnel. The freeway has exits and everything -- underground. 

Driving to Boston

 We said goodbye to our dear sweet friends, Dale and Irene Burnett in New York and headed to Fort Ticonderoga on Tuesday morning, September 22nd.

Amish horse and buggy going down the street on our way out of town.

Beautiful lake houses at Saranac Lake.

Fort Ticonderoga had a musket demonstration while we were there. Leather breeches and all!

It was a great collection of armorment from all over the world as they tried to reconstruct the fort. 

More cannons to look at

 The displays were really very good.

I found a diorama -a-Rama upstairs-- lots of old dioramas. Cool ( now they show movies in museums to help you picture what happened back then.)

Check out the poured glass panes. These bubbled ones were throughout the fort.

We didn't spend a LOT of time in the fort/museum/gift shop. Instead, we drove to Mount Defiance and looked over the views ... after missing the turn on the way there and getting a bit lost for a few minutes, driving by MORE lake houses and waterfront properties. Fun little detour.

The cannons above are pointing/aiming down at the fort. Some of the cannons they used took 6 pounds of gunpowder per blast!

Looking left, looking right. It's Lake Champlaine

There is so much stone. Everywhere. Even the concrete pavilion/lookout area floor was poured around the existing rocks/boulders.

A castle -looking building in the town that is the birth of the US Navy. So they say. In Vermont, I Believe.

A train came by on our drive to Boston. 

It was a long drive filled with slow speed limits that frustrated Mike, very little freeway, lots of trees and rolling mountains, a good meal at a roadside stand, many pretty lakes, and absolutely NO deer, moose, bear. ...though there were signs to warn us of those critters that might possibly be crossing the road. They did not.  We also had slow traffic as we neared Boston.

We had originally planned to see the State Historical Park/battlefield at Saratoga on our way, but determined that we'd seen enough

museum and war-time history for the day and needed to move forward. The Ticonderoga fort was big, expensive and private/non-profit. We also opted out of an expensive meal and chose the roadside stand instead. I'd hoped it was closer, but not sure.  It was still a long day of driving for Mike. I had a nap attack along the way. Luckily, he did not. 

Anyway, we have a funny-shaped corner - ish room in Quincy for the next 5 nights and got here in time to unpack, catch up on email, phone calls, blogging and BYU sports.

On to MORE  US history tomorrow!! No better way to celebrate America's 250, right?

the view from the entry

The view from the opposite corner. Odd wall art

Our strangely-configured room. No closet. Not a single towel rack in the bathroom. (!)

The views from sitting on the bed.

Monday, Lake Placid and around

 Mixed up photos of a Visitor Investigation Center in the woods, a big covered bridge, the Olympic Ski Jumps area at Lake placid, a waterfall on a rocky river(St. Regis).

Gondola ride!

Gondola, THEN a 265 foot (26 stories) ride up an elevator, and you are STILL not at the top!