Adventures in Boston

Wednesday, March 11^th

As I woke up this morning to the sound of my Mom opening our hotel safe, I did not feel at all ready for the day. But as soon as we sat down for a cup of coffee and breakfast at the Pret (we’re beginning to love this place!), and looked at our map of Boston, I was so ready for a day filled with adventure.

We headed toward the Boston Commons and walked through to the top, after which we found a church called Park Street Church, along with a cemetery beside it. This is called the Granary Burying Ground, which was founded in 1660 and is the third oldest cemetery in Boston.

Dressed in sweaters/coats, jeans, and tennis shoes, we walked up the icy steps of the cemetery and through its open gates. There was about two feet of snow in there, which almost completely buried many of the tombstones. It was somewhat unfortunate because we didn’t get to see as many inscriptions, but it was fun.

We trundled through the snow, sinking into some areas, and found the graves of Paul Revere, John Hancock, and many others. I believe the oldest stone in the cemetery dated back to 1667. What an incredible feeling it was to be able to see the graves of several of the most famous people in our Nation’s history!

When I was on my 8^th grade D.C. trip, we got to see George Washington’s family tomb, but we weren’t allowed to go into it or see much. In Granary Burying Ground, we could see the graves of many well-known people up close, and even touch them.

Most of the stones had interesting pictures of skulls on them.

We also got to see the grave of Benjamin Franklin’s parents!

After walking through the deep snow of the cemetery for about an hour, and gathering all of the loose trash as we went (it was full of gross magazines and food wrappers that must have blown in on top of the snow), we decided it was time to go back to our hotel and change out of our soaking socks and shoes.

We walked to Faneuil Hall for lunch after changing our shoes, because we had heard that there are a ton of good places to eat at there. Feeling discouraged after not really finding any place to eat (we must have been in the wrong stretch of the area or something), we were about to give up and go look for a hot dog cart. My mom noticed a little place called Ames Plow Tavern, which was down a few steps from the street. We figured we’d give it a try considering how late in the day it already was. Not sure whether or not I, as a minor, would be allowed in the tavern, I made sure to only walk partway down as my Mom asked if it would be okay. He happily said it was fine and told us to pick a seat. We sat at a high table across from the bar, which was one of the few tables in the establishment.

The tavern had low ceilings and dim lights, and a display of old pictures on its walls. I sat facing the door and could see out to the street above us. Everything in there seemed to give it that cozy, friendly feeling.

I ordered something I haven’t had in ages- plain cheese nachos, and my Mom ordered a burger.

It was such a nice little place to eat, and the man conversed with us most of the time we ate, all about the history of the place and some of the history of Boston itself. The food was tasty and we had a fun experience!

 Carvings in the bar counter

We walked to the Harbor after lunch, where I got some adorable pictures of seagulls and a couple pictures of boats, and we enjoyed the sunshine. The seagull pictured below was simply greeting us with a friendly, wide beaked "Well hello there!"

It appeared as if we had once again arrived in an area on the perfect day, with beautiful weather! There was definitely still a lot of snow, some of which covered most of a park bench, but overall the weather was sunny and wonderful! We walked across the bench instead of sitting on it.

We also found a frozen part of the harbor where geese, ducks, and seagulls were all walking on the ice or floating down the thawed areas. It was so picturesque!