Day thirty-three: Boston, MA

Well, I think we all feel like we've pretty much seen Boston. Today, we tramped all around Boston following the Freedom Trail. The trail is marked by red brick or red paint, a stripe marking a 2 1/2 mile long (or so they say) trail that takes walkers to all the historic buildings, monuments, churches, and sites around Boston. We saw Paul Reveres house, two monuments to Benjamin Franklin, and even hiked up all 294 stairs of the Battle of Bunker Hill Monument, which looks a lot like the Washington Memorial in DC, and offers a beautiful view of Boston.

Taking a break from the Freedom Trail, we detoured to visit the historic World Head Quarters of the First Church Of Christ, Scientist, a beautiful Byzantine-style church, an addition to a smaller classically styled church, which was built in the early 20th century. The whole operation, featuring a church, library, and publishing center, covered a vast area, surrounded by beautiful lawns and a gazing pool. We also visited the Maparium, a room in the library; the room itself is a giant glass globe, as the world was at the turn of the century. You go inside to hear a presentation and see the globe as a whole. To our surprise, it was almost 100 years old, much older than we had expected.

We also visited Quincy Market, a building in down-town Boston which features restaurants, anything from Philly Cheese-steaks to Indian Cuisine to canoles. Also, we saw Faunial Hall, one of the best-know buildings in Boston. And of course, we saw Boston Commons. For those of you who don't know, it's a lovely park in the city, similar to but smaller than Central Park in NYC (and we thought of you Uncle Russ and Aunt Suzie!). And, we ate at The Union Bay Oyster House, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in America.

After touring the U.S.S. Constitution and taking a water taxi back to the train station, we were thoroughly tired and ready to head home. We'll all in the room trying to find creative ways to keep off of our feet, and are preparing for a fun day on Cape Cod.

Jane