The Freedom Trail

Since we have arrived in Boston, the children and I have completed almost all of The Freedom Trail. From the official website:

"The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that leads you to 16 nationally significant historic sites, every one an authentic American treasure. Preserved and dedicated by the citizens of Boston in 1958, when the wrecking ball threatened, the Freedom Trail today is a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond."

It has been quite informative, and it probably isn't an exaggeration to say that walking the trail is pretty well the only exercise we have gotten while here (see previous blog on weight gain).

One can walk the trail with an 18th century costumed guide. I would love to do that, but so far I haven't because I don't think it would be fair to inflict my children on other paying tourists who are actually trying to learn something during the 90 minute tour. I KNOW that my kids wouldn't tolerate this kind of tour very well!

Our most recent visit (done independently, of course) was to the Bunker Hill Monument....now that was exercise! It is much further from our apartment than I realized, I picked a very hot day to do the walk, and getting there involves walking up and down several hills....pushing both kids in/on the stroller, I might add. Noah is going through a phase where he doesn't want to walk, at all. He wants to "hitch" by standing on the back of Bekah's stroller. The main reason I allow it is a) so I don't have to listen to the whining and b) because it gives me a better work out.

As we made our way through Charlestown, where the monument is located, we came upon an old, but still manned fire station. The doors were wide open and the truck was shining in the sunlight.... inviting us to come in. Now, I had heard that if you drop in at a fire station with your children, you can get a little tour. I had never done it before. We decided to put the rumour to the test on this day! We stuck our heads in the door and waved hello to the firefighters in the back room. One of them came out and we introduced ourselves and asked if we could check out the firetruck. He was really great about it. He invited the kids to ask questions, sit in the driver's seat of the truck (Noah wouldn't, but Bekah did), he turned on the lights, and the kids each got to ring the bell too! (Noah did that with some coaxing). It was a very exciting experience!

I won't have any photos to share of this event, due to the fact that our memory card was full and we had no way to clean it off. That topic is for another blog.

Now, every time we see a firetruck, Rebekah wants to go and sit in it!