New England Adventures - Day 6 in Boston

Day 6 of our trip... and our last official FULL day in Boston. By this point in our sight-seeing tour of Boston, we had been averaging about 7-8 miles of walking a day....EVEN when we slept in and started later in the morning!  Needless to say, I didn't feel the SLIGHTEST bit guilty for any of the fabulous foods that we ate.. (Giacomo's TWICE, Mike's Pastry... TWICE and J.P. Licks ice cream.. yup, that's right, you guessed it.. TWICE :) 

On this morning, we started out on the Freedom Trail again.. this time at Paul Revere's house. 

Paul Revere's house, a wooden structure, dating back to 1680, is downtown Boston’s oldest building still in existence. Paul Revere purchased it in 1770 when he was 35 years old. He paid 53 pounds, 6 shillings, and 8 pence with a mortgage of 160 pounds. Revere was living at this house the night he set forth on April 18, 1775 to make his momentous ride to Lexington that would be immortalized by Longfellow’s famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride.

The Ebenezer Hancock House is located along the Freedom Trail, just past Faneuil Hall. The building is the only dwelling still standing in Boston that can be associated with John Hancock.

Paul Revere Statue near the Old North Church

Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End of Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related to Paul Revere's midnight ride, of April 18, 1775, which preceded the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution.

Taken from The Old North Church's website: "The pews are called box pews. Now, we let visitors sit wherever they would like, but at the time of the Revolution, members of the congregation would have had to purchase their pews if they wanted to worship here. Different pews had different prices, the most expensive being the most desirable. Those on the center aisle would have cost significantly more than those on the sides or in the galleries on the second level.

Families, as long as they kept up their pew rents, had exclusive use their pew and would decorate them to their own tastes with fine fabrics and furniture, similar to the Bay Pew. These decorations and where families sat were indications of a family's social status. Many accounts exist in which a family, who arrived late to this country, would purchase a back pew, but would reserve a front pew when one opened up, and thus, in many ways moved up in society. Which is why, for example, General Thomas Gage, Commander of the British Forces, had to sit in the far back pew. "

When the Charlestown Navy Yard closed in 1974 after nearly 175 years of serving the fleet, 30 acres became part of Boston National Historical Park. The National Park Service now maintains an important part of the ship yard, and as part of the Park Service's interpretive program, USS Constitution, in connection with the United States Navy, and USS Cassin Young are preserved as representatives of the kinds of vessels built in this yard. Together they represent a 200-year-old tradition of building fine ships for the Navy.

Bunker Hill Monument

View from the top of the Monument (Chad did this trek up the monument solo...this preggo was NOT in any condition to hike up that 221', I-don't-know-how-many-steps, granite monument.)  Great job love :)