boston's freedom trail

one of the things i was most looking forward to about boston

was doing the freedom trail with chase. he had never been,

and knowing his love and fascination for history -- i knew it

would be a hit. i loved biking around following that little

brick-lined trail with him and stopping at each site to read

 about it, talk about it, + look around. the freedom trail is 

like boston's own big historical scavenger hunt and it's so

fun to follow it. here is a little synopsis of the stops:

{we used the freedom trail iphone app and guided our own tour!}

and here we go!! 

1. boston common:

the oldest city park in the USA. 

it has seen so many events throughout

boston's history and now it's a gorgeous

park surrounded by some of the main streets.

2. massachusets state house:

the gorgeous state capitol of massachusets-

i remember loving that gold dome when

i first visited boston and saw it in the

sunlight at dusk. it's a beauty in any light!

3. park street church:

symbolic of religious freedom and 

one of the oldest churches in the city.

4. granary burying ground:

this is one of the most amazing stops,

right next to park street church. so many

incredible people are buried here and so it

feels like hallowed ground. chase was most

excited to see paul revere's grave along with 3

other signers of the declaration of independence.

5. king's chapel & grounds:

this is where the british monarchy tried

to establish the church of england and show

they still had influence in america.

6. old south meeting house:

lots of important debates, meetings, and

events happened here..one notably being 

the boston tea party meeting, where plans

were made for it! we sat in here and read

about all that happened here & pictured it. 

 7. old state house:

inside of this building, the writers of the

declaration of independence made plans

leading up to the revolution. it's so worth going

 into, you can feel the energy that was there!

8. boston massacre sight:

right outside of the old state house 

you can see the sight of the boston 

massacre- some of the first casualties

in the entire revolutionary war. it's so

crazy to think that all of that began here!

9. fanueil hall:

i obviously love this place because it has the best

food, but i love thinking of it as an actual

 marketplace back in the day where everyone came

for meetings & to get the freshest food at the market.

10. paul revere house:

one of the best stops! you can go into paul

revere's house for a few dollars and see some of

the rooms. it is on a cobblestone street and you

really feel like you're back in time. chase thinks

paul revere is the coolest, so he loved this stop.

11. old north church:

i think this is my favorite stop, because i love

the story associated with it so much. on the night

that paul revere warned that the british were coming,

this church actually set everything in motion. they had 

a lot of back-up plans in case revere didn't make it,

and a lot of people to inform. so, 2 brave men went out

past curfew and hung lights in the top of the church--

if you've heard the phrase "one if by land, and two if

by sea," it was based off this symbol. when the spies

saw the british loading their boats into the charles

river, they hung two lanterns in the church to quickly

spread the word across town that the british were 

coming...by sea. i am fascinated by this story and church!!

12. copp's hill burial ground:

anoth famous, very old burial ground.

13. bunker hill monument:

built in honor of the battle of bunker hill.

14. USS constitution:

this final stop was a true highlight for us, since

a) chase was already very excited to see it, and 

b) we found out when we got there that we had

chosen the one day in 10 years that it was setting 

sail! we got to see it leave the port and sail the

harbor. there were news crews, locals, and tourists

taking in this historic ship in motion. amazing!

///

here are some more pictures from 

our freedom trail adventure:

our nice road bikes from back bay bicycles
helped us do the trail even faster!

who knew he loved ships so much? 
the combination of all the history on 
these ships had him so enthralled.

and we even saw some beginnings 
of new england's fall -- swoon.

i remember running the freedom trail with my mom on my

first trip to boston when i was in high school. we did the entire east coast, & she woke me up early our first morning,

we put our running clothes on and jogged along the

entire trail, stopping for brunch and treats along the way :)

i loved this trip because it made me reminisce about that

trip with my mom, and i got to show it all to chase!

whether you bike it or run it, you'll love it!

xo