Boston History

 Over Labor day, we headed east.  Very east. About as far east we could get in the country - Boston.  

After spending lots of time in other countries learning their history, it was time to learn more about USA history.

We took a red-eye flight leaving SLC at midnight and getting to Boston at 6:30am.  We went to our hotel, dropped off our luggage and then were off!  No time to spare!

We started with a  guided walking tour before heading out on our own.

It's very easy to do your own walking tour by following the "Freedom Trail" - it's about 2.5 miles one way, passing 16 historical sights along the way.  You follow a red brick path the entire way so you won't get lost.

The start of the Freedom Trail

This isn't one of the historical sights, but it was interesting to see the small building surrounded by skyscrapers on every side. In the 1870s, there were 30 of these apartment building in a row along the street.  In the 1950s, Boston wanted to modernize and tore them all out and built up modern skyscrapers in the area.  This lone apartment building was spared

This is the Old State House - and was built in 1713.  It's the oldest surviving public building in Boston.  It was where the Colonial Government was housed before the American Revolution and where the Constitution was read to the public for the first time.

Built in 1798, this is the current State Capital and replaced the Old State House

Park Street Church was built in 1809 and is a historic Evangelical church

There are several cemeteries along the Freedom Walk

Dunkin Donuts is headquarterd in Boston and are everywhere.  Like on every block.  You can stand at one and see another one down the street.  People of Boston love their Dunkin Coffee.  Even the tour guide brought it up - how popular their coffee is.  The donuts are pretty good though!

This mosaic is called the City Carpet.  It represents where the first public school in the country opened in 1635, called the Boston Latin School and is still in operation

Right next to the mosaic, is a statue of Benjamin Franklin who, along with Samuel Adams, John Hancock and others, attended the school

The Old South Meetinghouse, built in 1729.  This is where the Boston Tea Party was organized and planned. It was the largest building in all of Colonial Boston, so it was a popular place for meetings

The other side of the Old State House.  The balcony you can see here is where the Declaration of Independence was read to the public gathered below.  This is also where the "Boston Massacre" happened

This street performer gathered quite a large crowd

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In the churches, on the ground level, there were small walled off sections, like individual small seating areas.  People with money would pay to have their own section reserved every Sunday.  The closer you wanted to be to the front, the more money it would cost you.  But you wanted to be seen, so you wanted to get the best spot to be seen which meant how rich you were

Here's a better photo from above.  The text says: 

These box pews were fashionable in colonial churches in the 18th century. People who worshiped at Old North had to buy their seating, so box pews were property.

Owning a box pew was very expensive, some cost the equivalent of a day laborer's annual salary. In addition to the purchase price, pew owners had to pay a yearly tax and make regular donations. Only box pew owners had the right to vote on church matters.

Many of Old North's pew owners supported the colonial government, collecting and paying taxes. The regular and predictable income from pew owners kept the church and its leaders functioning.

They even had their own foot warmers!

You could pay extra to decorate your area and make it more comfortable. This one had red velvet wallpaper and benches

View from our hotel window

We walked almost 10 miles - which actually was pretty much the average each day we were there

On each floor by the elevators, the hotel had these old phones...which they had to put up a sign saying they are real 😂😂

The next day we did more of the Freedom Walk, but on our own.  The guided tour section only takes you a mile where most of the sights are. To see the rest of the sights, you're on your own walking the other 1.5 miles, but you have the red bricked path guiding you

         

It was a nice calm walk from our hotel to downtown - it was quiet in the morning

The church where Paul Revere hung his lanterns

We then veered off the Freedom Trail to do some exploring of Boston on our own.

We beat most of the crowds when we got to 'Acorn Street'.  In the 1820s, most of Boston streets looked like this.  It's one of very few streets that still have the original architecture and uneven river cobblestone roadway.  Yes, people still live along this street.

This street is also called the 'most photographed street in American'  spoiler alert:  it's not.  Not even close.  It's a marketing nickname.  It was nice to visit though

As we walked by the large Boston downtown park, Boston Common, a parade was just getting started for Asian American Day

We headed over to Cheers to grab a pint......everyone knew our name

We went to the Boston Public Garden, a huge free garden and park area for the public, that was America's first public park/botanical garden. 
Yes, the water is as green as the grass

The famous Boston Swan Boats are here in the park.  They have been family owned and operated since 1877 and still use original pedal operated boats.  

Of course we had to go for a ride

The park has a 'famous' Make Way For The Ducklings sculptures

We then headed over to the Boston Library, built in 1848 and is full of architectural beauty.  It's the 3rd largest library in the United States with 23.7 million items with almost 2 million extremely rare and one-of-a-kind items

This is a very large study hall.  Everyone was just on their laptops.  Not sure why they all had to come to the library to go on their computer though

This is the Trinity Church, built in 1872.  It's in the 'Back Bay' part of Boston, which is reclaimed tidal lands where the beach used to be.  Because of that, the church was built using 4,500 wooden pilings deep into the silt and sand and are perpetually submerged in the underground water so the wood never dries out or rots.  This church is considered by architects, as one of the most important and beautiful buildings in the United States

Another church you can see the separated seating areas in 

The very first original printing of the Declaration of Independance

You probably know what this is - the real thing

Later that afternoon, we went on a classic yacht tour of the harbor

The Boston airport is right along the harbor and the planes landing were very very very close to us!

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On the way back to the hotel, we wanted to stop in at the famous 'Mike's Pastry' shop, founded in 1946 and known for it's homemade authentic Italian cannolis and desserts

The line however, was crazy, and this was the middle of the afternoon.  Nope. We were not going to wait in that line.  There was another location that happened to be 15 minutes away, on the way back to the hotel, so we would just stop by and see how that one was.
I should have taken a photo.  It was actually inside a food court at the mall.  We were the only ones there.  The workers were so bored, they were playing games on their phones. ha ha ha!!!  Those silly people waiting over an hour in that line could have walked 15 minutes!

Paul Revere's house.  No signs. Just a very small plaque. Right around the corner from the pastry shop.   Not even on the Freedom Trail

This one was so good

The next day we rented a car and headed to the 'Newport Mansions' in Newport in Rhode Island about 90 minutes away.

We had a car reserved, but when we got there, they said it hadn't been returned yet, but were upgrading us to one of their 'premier' cars.

Yep, we got a huge Dodge Ram fully loaded.  This thing was huge.  And hard to park. And used lots of gas.  Luckily, we found a big spot along the street we could fit in.

The Newport Mansions are a collection of 14 historic properties owned and operated by the Newport Preservation Society.  These are a collection of the areas 'summer cottages' built and used by the richest of the rich during the mid 1800s.  

A summer cottage in Newport was of the utmost importance for a lady competing in the social status hierarchy.  In order to buy land and build one of these cottages, the lady of the house had to to convince the other ladies who were already in the exclusive society, that you belonged.   Once you had proven yourself, and your husband paid for the land and built you a house, you had to meet with the other wives and had to plan your summer parties.  Each one tried to out-do the others. 

Remember, these 'cottages' were only used for 6-8 weeks during the summer.  During this time, each lady competed with each other as hostesses, the same way their husbands competed in the banks and boardrooms of the business world.

As the wife, you would plan your party, invite all the other wives, and families to your party. This all occurred during the 'Gilded Age' - a period of American history between 1860 and 1900 where there was rapid industrial growth and extreme wealth alongside extreme poverty.

Each lady would plan a party during each summer season. The Vanderbuilts, who had the largest cottage, threw the best parties.  They would spend around $250,000 for one evening's party - which in today's money is $6 mllion!

These houses are elaborate, built with the finest materials of the time, huge, huge, huge, had electricity, elevators, intercoms, even heat and air conditioning.   And each had exquisite gardens as well along with sweeping views of the Atlantic ocean. 

We went in three of the homes.  These mansions rivalled the palaces and castles we've seen in Europe

This is the largest of the homes, called the Breakers, built by the Vanderbilt's.  He made his fortune on railroads and steel. It cost $7 million to build in 1865 which today would be $220 million

This is the kids playhouse out back

This was built as a pavilion overlooking the ocean in the back of one of the houses.  It's now a Chinese tea room

Don't use flash or you'll fall down the stairs!

The next morning we headed to the last part of the Freedom Walk, the part many people don't go to because it's at the very end of the 2.5 mile walk. There are only two sights there - Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution 

From our hotel, it was a nice 30 min walk along the river to get there

We found the red brick path and it led us to the very end

The USS Constitution is the world's oldest war ship still floating and is an active duty ship currently and part of the Navy with a crew of active duty sailors. 

It was built in 1797 and was one of 6 of the Navy's first battleship.  The new America had no defense systems in place, and found they needed to get some.  So six warships were commissioned to be built with the finest materials and workmanship of the day, which was a huge cost financially to a new country with no money.

The USS Constitution is nicknamed Old Ironsides because in the war of 1812, cannon balls bounced off the sides because it was built so well and with the best thick and hardwood available.  The USS Constitution fought in 33 different battles and was undefeated.

It always won.  Other countries were afraid when they heard the Constitution was coming. 

So Many Ropes!!!!!!

Captain's Quarters

Bunker Hill is a monument about 10 min walk from the USS Constitution and was built to memorialize a major early battle of the American Revolutionary War on June 17, 1775.   About 1000 American troops fought with 3000-5000 British troops.  The British won, but they suffered over 1000 casualties, while the Americans lost about 400. 

Normally, you can walk up to the top with 294 spiral stairs, but it was closed when we were there due to the holiday. 

After walking back to the hotel, we had time for a quick nap and then headed to the airport to go home.

We loved our quick Boston trip!  We have learned so much about this history from other countries, it was time to learn more about our country's history.  It took a lot of effort from inspired people to start our country and we enjoyed learning all about it.

What did it cost you say?   Hmmmm....let's see

Flights on JetBlue: 

      Cash price would have been $420 per person round trip

    I paid $11 and 25,000 points per person round trip

Hotel - this one's a little tricky to follow.....and we ventured away from our normal Hyatt because with one my credit cards, it comes with 2 hotel credits to use during the year at two different hotel chains.  Well, I found a way to combine both of those credits for one stay.

We stayed at the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel

This was no cheap hotel:

A little ironic staying in a city who revolted against taxes (Boston Tea Party) and now they charged me over $200 in taxes for a 3 night stay!

So this stay would have been $1,405.67

I used two $250 credits, bringing my total to $905.67 which I then used 50,000 points instead of paying the $905.67.

In addition, by doing this, we got free breakfast every morning, early/late checkout, $10 daily snack/food credit, and $100 credit to use for anything at the hotel (we used it on dinner one night).

Total air & hotel if we paid cash: $2,345.67.  

I paid $22 and 100,000 points, making each point worth 2.3 cents. 

Not too bad.