Boston Adventures Part 2: Listen my children and you shall hear...

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

For whatever reason, my kids (especially Emma & Adam) LOVE this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We have a nice illustrated book version of it and it is chosen several times a week for me to read to them. Cami and Emma have the first three stanzas memorized. Anyway...when they found out we were going to Boston it was just expected that we would see anything and everything related to Paul Revere. This would include a trek to Lexington and Concord where Paul Revere rode to and where the Revolutionary War began the next day after his ride.

So this became our plan for day #2 in Boston which dawned with cloudy skies and the threat of imminent rain. Glen was busy with his work conference and having heard horror stories about driving around in Boston, we hopped onto the Metro and then onto a city bus to Lexington. Since we didn't have a car to get us around to the sites we thought we'd sign up for one of the tour buses that takes you around.

As you can see from the picture our guide was dressed for the part, but unfortunately lacked the liveliness that accompanied his clothing. It was informative, but not interactive and did not allow us to get out and explore any of the sites. So once the tour was done I realized that this trip would not be very exciting for the kids unless we could do some real exploring.

So we called Glen and talked him into joining us in the car. So while we waited for him we found that even the fire hydrants in Lexington were patriotic.


Now we finally got to get out and see everything up close in person. Here is where Paul Revere was captured that night between Lexington and Concord.

This is where the Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775 with the infamous "shot heard round the world".

Wow! This trip reminded me why I love living in the East. In the time it would take to drive from SLC to Denver we passed through Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, NYC, Stamford, New Haven, Providence, and Boston.
Our kids go on field trips to Jamestown, Yorktown, Richmond, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and of course our own beloved Washington DC...places I only read about in history books. It's amazing the powerful impressions that seeing and experiencing history has made in my own life and in the lives of our children.