FlatStanley - Blogabond

Flat Jeremiah brought the sun to Boston.
It had been a long winter and, fortunately, when Flat Jeremiah got here we had the first day where we could leave the house without having to wear many layers of clothing.

Taking a walk with big sister Catherine on 'The Freedom Trail'

On such a nice day we couldn’t stay at home and went for a walk on the "Freedom Trail": A walking route marked by a painted red line on the sidewalks that links important sites of the American Revolution. Since this trail is 2.5 miles long, we decided to follow it only within our neighborhood, the North End.

Boston's most famous landmark

The first stop on our journey was at one of the best known landmarks in Boston: The Old North Church. The church was made famous on April 18, 1775, when the British planned to march to Lexington to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and then on to Concord to seize arms. To warn of the arrival of the British troops, sexton Robert Newman hung lanterns in the tower of the Old North Church and, so legend has it, Paul Revere undertook his “midnight ride”. Revere’s ride is immortalized in Longfellow’s epic 1863 poem Tales of a Wayside Inn.

Bunker Hill Monument across Boston harbor

Later we went to see the Bunker Hill Monument, a granite obelisk that towers above the Charlestown waterfront commemorating the battle of June 17, 1775 that ended with a costly victory for British forces against an irregular colonial army that finally ran out of ammunition. British losses were so heavy, however, that the battle would presage future success for the colonial forces. Also in Charlestown we saw the U.S.S. Constitution, also known as the “Old Ironsides” for the resilience of her live oak hull against cannon fire. Every day, at exactly 8 o’clock in the morning, a cannon shot from the U.S.S. Constitution wakes us up, and another shot gets fired every day at sundown, announcing that it is time to go home.

What's left of 'The Big Dig'

Continuing on the trail we passed by what is left from the “Big Dig”, a $15 billion and 15 years project that built a six-lane underground highway without disrupting the nearly 200,000 cars that use Boston's highways daily, and without disrupting 29 miles of underground utility lines. This project has been compared to the digging of the Panama Canal, the English Channel Tunnel and the Alaskan Pipeline.

At the end of our journey we went to see a basketball playoff game with the Boston Celtics at the TB Banknorth Garden.

Big brother Andreas & FJ heading into a Celtics game

And again Flat Jeremiah brought us luck! The Celtics won against the Atlanta Hawks with 96-77!

FJ's travels around Boston

Boston, United States

Heading South?