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I arrived at the Harvard Square station with a little time to kill, so I took a little detour over onto the Harvard Campus where I took some photos of some buildings that looked cool, but I really have no idea what they are.
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I then made my way over to the chapel and got to remember what it's like to be new at church, something I haven't done in a loooong time. For the most part it wasn't too bad. Finding Sunday School was a little tricky, and the time between sacrament meeting and sunday school was kind of awkward.
After church, as I wasn't going to have much time to be a tourist on Monday or Tuesday, I resolved to go see some of historic Boston, aka the Freedom Trail that pretty much everyone had recommended to me. I hustled home after church, changed, and headed back to the train. I decided to skip the northernmost portion of the trail that only seemed to have a couple sites and would have made the overall distance considerably longer.
I got out in Boston's north end and headed over to a cemetery near the river that I found especially interesting. The headstones were so thin and old. Very different that what I'm used to seeing. The Old North Church (of Paul Revere lantern fame) was just down the street from there, and continuing southward there was a Paul Revere monument and Paul Revere's house (which I opted against paying to enter).
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The Boston Garden is historic, right?
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Looking toward downtown from near the Garden.
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The Copp's Hill Burying Ground
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The Old North Church
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Paul Revere monument
After crossing a newly created park that goes over the freeway, I found myself closer to downtown, and saw Boston's Holocaust memorial, and then Fanueil Hall, and the Quincy Market. The meeting hall upstairs in Faneuil Hall was closed to the public as there was some kind of Pearl Harbor memorial service going on up there.
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Holocaust memorial
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Faneuil Hall decked out for the holidays
Continuing along the trail, I saw a few more old meeting houses and churches, and finally found myself at another very interesting cemetery. This one had the graves of patriots Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock.
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I thought this was a church, but it's actually the "Old South Meeting House"
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Samuel Adams' Grave
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Granary Burying Ground
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Paul Revere's Grave
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John Hancock's Grave marker.
Just around the corner from this cemetery was Boston Common, a big park in downtown. It was decorated for Christmas with a tree, lights, and an ice rink where people were out skating.
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Christmas Tree at Boston Common
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Ice Skating on the frozen Frog Pond
At this point I was pretty worn-out and also starting to feel the cold. I grabbed a bite to eat at a little Greek place (chicken kabob wrap) and then headed home to my hotel where I cranked up the heat and went over my slides for my presentation the next day.
2 comments:
So awesome. Also, my OCD is particularly strong today, and so I'm forced to mention that it's Boston Common, w/o the "s".
I had a very similar visit to Boston as you did, I think; strolling alone through the Freedom Trail and parks. Great city to walk through.
So cool! And I can't believe you went to church (all three hours, no less!) in a strange city all by yourself. That pretty much makes you a saint in my eyes.
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