Running around Beantown

This past weekend we flew up to Boston to see my hubby's best buddy, Mike. Or as we call him, Beave...short for Beaver. Don't ask. We were also joined by another couple, Heather and Tim. Tim, Beave and Cory all played lacrosse together in college. It was a really great weekend and we had a lot of fun. I really liked Boston and was slightly surprised at how nice and clean the city is. I am excited to go back at some point. 

Hubby makes an appearance on the blog! We got free coozies and that was exciting.

I've been traveling with my parents since I was 12 years old. We've been all over Europe, England, Scotland and lots of Caribbean islands to go scuba diving. I couldn't go to a place like Boston, with so much history and not see the historical sites, so I got on Trip Advisor to see what was recommended. I found a guided tour that follows the Freedom Trail, and the best part was that you RUN IT! I mean, why not?? This is Boston we are talking about, home of the king of marathons. Beave had to play football and no one else was interested in running around the city so I signed up to do the tour by myself. I didn't care, I had a blast. If you're ever in Boston, you've got to do this.

First stop was the Massachusetts State House.

Our tour guide, Eddie-O was great. He told us so many cool little things about the places we went that we probably would have missed had we been just walking around without a guide.

Next was Granary Cemetery. It is filled with quite a few famous people. The graveyards were probably my favorite part of the tour. I'm ready for Halloween and these graveyards are just what I think of when I think of a creepy haunted Halloween.

Granary Cemetery

Paul Revere's grave on the left. The tiny one on the right is thought to be his original grave. They gave him a bigger stone when he became famous, which wasn't until after his death.

Skulls were all over the head stones. Graveyard filled with Tri Sigmas maybe?? (That's a shout out to my sorority sisters)

John Hancock, who is buried here without his head. Someone stole it before they could get his body moved back to Boston. Poor John.

Sam Adams. I don't remember what he was famous for but his beer is good!

Here we are at Kings Chapel. I want to go back and see the inside of this place. Eddie-O told us some really cool and creepy things about it.

Eddie-O!

This is the grave of Elizabeth Pain. She inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne, to write the Scarlet Letter. He was enthralled by her headstone. Notice how her symbol looks like an A? Every other month, a dozen red roses are left on this grave.

BONUS! The upcoming movie R.I.P.D. starring Kevin Bacon was being filmed at one of the places we stopped! We didn't see Kevin, but I got a few pictures before someone yelled at me for my flash going off. Oops.

Then we ended up at the Old State House. This is where the Boston Massacre took place in 1770. The balcony there is where Queen Elizabeth and President Ford stood when she came for a visit. He gave her a check for $33,000, the amount of the cost of all the tea that was dumped into the harbor by the Boston Tea Party. Ha! This is also where the Declaration of Independence was read to the people of Boston after it was written.

Old State House

We ran over the site of the Big Dig after this. It is where there used to be a highway and they dug a tunnel and put the highway underground. It cleaned up the area and made it more inviting. There are now gardens and fountains where there used to be highway.

From there we went over to the Italian area and ended up at Paul Revere's house. It is the oldest house in the US that is about 95% original. 

Paul Revere's house

From his house we went over to his statue. You can sort of see Old North Church behind the statue, which was our next stop. I didn't take a picture of this, but the story is pretty cool. The British knew that something was up so they were watching everyone pretty closely, men weren't even allowed out at night. The night that they hung the lanterns in the church (one if by land, two if by sea) the British came running into the church to find who was hanging the lanterns when they spotted them in the window. The man that hung them jumped out the back window because he knew the British would be blocking the doors. Today the window is bricked over.

Good Old Paul.

Old North Church while we were running to the next thing. That's part of our group. The red brick line on the ground is the actual Freedom Trail. You can follow it around the city yourself and find all the big historical sites.

This grave was in the last graveyard we stopped in. I can't remember the guy's name but the British hated him because he was a bootlegger. Since they couldn't catch him in life, they used his headstone for target practice. You can still see the spots where the bullets hit.

The Boston Skinny House! It is only 10 and half feet wide.

Once we left our final graveyard and the skinny house, we went to the Bunker Hill Monument...which isn't actually on the real Bunker Hill. That part was kind of confusing. Apparently the patriots back in the day went to the wrong hill...

This is the first monument in America. Look familiar? That's because the George Washington monument was modeled after this one.

It was getting really overcast at this point so I was glad that the tour was almost over. I was surprised by the weather. All week the forecast had called for rain but I got really lucky and it was only overcast and sprinkled on us. The weather was actually great for running. Just a bit humid, but I will take the humidity over a thunderstorm any day.

The U.S.S. Constitution, or Old Iron Sides. It is the only surviving ship out of the 6 that were built as America's first fleet. She launched in 1797. Her canons are fired twice a day, and they are so loud they set off every car alarm in the surrounding area.

Of course the tour wouldn't be complete without a picture of me running. And since I was alone, and wasn't going to ask someone to take my picture, I just took one myself. So there you go. I stayed in the back of the pack for this so no one would see me, lol!

I love running! And my friends think I'm crazy.

Boston Harbor. It was so cloudy, but I had to take a picture. I thought the pilings were pretty.

After the run and the football game we re-grouped and went to the Sam Adams Brewery and took a tour. The brewery is really tiny, so we looked at 2 rooms and then got to drink a fair amount of free beer. Most of Sam Adams is produced in their other 2 breweries which are not even in Massachusetts. The Boston Brewery only produces 1% of their beer. P.S.-If you find any White Ale, please send it my way.

The boys in the tasting room. They are too cute.

Once the tour was over our tour guide told us about an old bar down the road that bought the first keg of Sam Adams and served it, we could also get a special deal there where we could keep the swanky Sam Adams glasses, so we had to go do that of course. But we took a car, we did not run to the bar.

 

Our group!

The weekend was awesome. Boston is awesome. Running through Boston like a crazy woman was awesome. I fully intend to go back one day and do the run again. It was a total of 3 miles, but you stopped so frequently that you didn't even notice nor did you run out of breath or need water. The tour guide was super friendly and it is a fantastic way to make sure you get to most of the major historical sites if you are on a time crunch. Maybe next time someone will run with me!

Or maybe next time I will be running the marathon ;-)