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.