Last full day: Boston

This morning we woke up too early (as usual when the time is 3 hours earlier than you are used to) and headed over to the downtown of Lexington since we are staying here.  We learned about the very first shot of the revolutionary war and the first casualties for our country.  Some of the minute men we walking out of their tavern and saw the British.  They were talked down and decided to retreat.  No call was made by either side, but a pistol shot rang out which caused the British to shoot (though it was most likely their gun by the description made by Paul Revere who was hiding in a swamp nearby).  Eight minute men died.  We viewed the memorial they made for them which is the oldest memorial in the US!

The tavern they were in when the British showed up

The men in the battle

This is the field they fought in

Next we headed to Salem to see some stuff about the witch trials.  That city sucked.  They have like nothing about it except a little museum you have to pay $9 for an hour to go into.  They are probably embarrassed because everywhere else that is famous has gov't paid plaques and info on everything!

The graveyard behind him was actually cool, it was really old

The witch museum

Next we headed to Glaucester which is the first ever American fishing village.  My dad really wanted to have lobster while we were on the East Coast, and the lady at the tour booth gave us some spots but as my parents said they didn't want anything fancy, she told us where the locals go, but said it was a "dump" haha.  It was pretty nuts and crowded in there, but you got 2 lobsters with sides for $25 which was quite reasonable for restaurants, and I got a HUGE pile of shrimp for $9.

We headed over to the water to check out the memorial, boats, and saw a lighthouse on an island out in the water.

Our next stop was the city of Boston.  We parked by the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and got to look around on the boat.  There is a brick line around town you can follow to historical sites, and we followed it to the battle of Bunker Hill spot and memorial.  We couldn't go up (which was stairs so kind of a relief) because we got there a bit too late but it was cool to look at.  Then we headed to the Italian part of town which is where the church was that Paul Revere put the famous lanterns, and his house.  There were so many Italian restaurants and they have been said to be the best ones apart from actually going to Italy (or equal).  We were too full to spend that much on a dinner though, but bought a famous lobster tail pastry from Mike's bakery for later.  After that, we got back in the car.

This sign cracked me up because it said "wadda" and that's exactly the Boston accent

There's the brick line!

Such a cute, pretty clean city!

The old north church Paul Revere notified people of the  coming British

Paul Revere statue

A bunch of Italian restaurants

Paul Revere's house

 We headed to the other side of town and found the REAL Cheers from the show, which we would eat at later!

We drove to Harvard to see what it was like.  Seriously all the girls wore skirts and the guys had tucked in shirts.  It was funny.  We stopped at a cool park and found this- it is exactly where George Washington took over the troops!

There was a Red Sox game too, which was cool.  The parking was $45 in addition to your ticket though, yikes!

Back to Cheers.

On our way back the emergency alert came on the radio and listed cities in the small state of MA that we were in that had a warning for winds, quarter-sized hail, and thunderstorms.  Luckily we weren't in there, but we got back to a huge lightening storm and a quick dump of a TON of rain.  It was nuts.  We ate our delicious lobster tail (cream puff) and tried to skype Beany but it was crappy quality because of the storm.  I am so excited to see him again, but so sad to leave.  I really like it here!

This thing was huge...like almost a foot long, and had the tastiest cream stuff inside!