July 3, 2008

This was a birthday weekend! Both Maggie and Uncle Sam happen to share a date in history. The good old U.S. of A. is 232 years old and Maggie is only a few hundred years short of that. I'd never been to Boston and Maggie hadn't been since she was young so it seemed a good place to celebrate the long weekend.

Boston during the 4th of July is quite the spectacle. Fife players played, Revolutionary soldiers marched in formation, and everywhere you looked flags were waving. Though we opted out, some Bostonians chose to spend the day camping out for the Boston pops (4am to get a front-row seat). Along with millions of others, we watched an amazing fireworks display over the river before cramming back on the subway toward our hotel.

The remainder of the weekend was dedicated to all things historical. You literally almost can't throw a rock without hitting something interesting (or a Dunkin Donuts, very nice). Over the other days, we walked the entire Freedom trail, toured the church where the lanterns were hung, listened to Paul Revere talk about his life, tried to "pahk a cah in Havad Yahd", and attempted to visit the Boston Tea Party museum. (FYI, it burned down completely last year. Great big thanks to the cab driver who dropped us off anyway).

The city is a maze of streets (just paved over horse-paths really) but it has a ton of character with the cobblestone streets and mixed usage areas. The area reclaimed by the Big Dig is really nice (though I didn't deal with construction for 15 years) and you can tell the city is trying hard to finish making itself over. There's way more to see than a long weekend will allow but I think we got a good sense of main area so that we can branch out further next time.

Boston was a great trip except for one thing. Try as I might, I couldn't find a suitable fife to bring home and start playing. I'll have to learn some revolutionary war music some other time, oh well. Happy birthday to Maggie and America!