First, the gradual realization that the history of the United States revolved around this city; yes, we learn in school about the Boston Tea Party, etc., but to actually be there and follow the chronology as the history unfolded with the key players not knowing the outcome, as we do in hindsight! Here a small group of independent merchants, farmers, businessmen, and statesmen took on the might of the British Empire for an obscure idea of independence from colonialism, that at the time was, well, revolutionary.
The whole area of old Boston, where Paul Revere and many other
riders warned the residents that the Redcoats were coming, the Boston massacre, and all of the familiar events of our history, occurred in an area of about three miles walking distance. This first picture is the Boston Commons, the equivalent of our strip mall, where our founding fathers would hang out and hatch plans for, oh, say, you know, a new country or something.
The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) was particularly fascinating for me. Made of oak beams so thick that cannonballs bounced off of her sides (hence the nickname), she never lost a battle, and after 200 years, is still a commissioned Naval Warship. Huge by the standards of her time, she is docked near a more modern Destroyer of World War 2 vintage,
perhaps as a contrast to the change of time.If the whole city had to be summarized in one word, it would have to be contrast. As we rushed past all of the sights in our tour bus, the old blended in with the new, the modern with the historical, the the skyscrapers next to the buildings that saw members of the Continental Congress walk by in days gone by.
