Northeast Trip - Boston

We drove our car to the metro in Boston, otherwise known as the 'T'.  We rode it down to the Boston Common where we could pick up the Freedom Trail and Faneuil Hall.

One of the best decisions we made was to get a two day pass on the Old Town trolley tour.  It was a great way to get around Boston.  The drivers/guides are very good and have a lot of interesting details.

We started out at Boston Commons and walked some of the Freedom Trail past the Granary Burial Grounds (cemetery) - the resting place of Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and others.

After walking past the Kings Chapel, Old South Meeting House, the Old State House and Boston Latin School (where Ben Franklin attended), we stopped for lunch at Faneuil Hall.

It wasn't the original Cheers Restaurant, but it was just like the other one in another part of town and we enjoyed our meal.

We also stopped at Bunker Hill and Charlestown Navy Yard, were the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) is berthed.

The next day we took advantage of the 2 day pass and rode into Boston on the T to the Fenway Park stop where we did the entire loop on the Old Town Trolley one more time.

We got off near Fenway in time to walk around the old ball park and take it in.  It is really a memorial experience.

Our seats were way out in center field but we had a terrific time watching a close game.  The Sox won in a close one, beating the Marlins 6-5.

We had a great time in Boston and have to come back.  There is way too much to see in a few days.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Our next post from Kennebunkport, Maine...

Northeast Trip - Plymouth and Cape Cod

Our first excursion with Tom and Cathy was to go south (we were in the Hanscom AFB FamCamp northwest of Boston), drive around the southern side of Boston toward Plymouth and Cape Cod.

We started out at Plymouth Rock and took a picture with William Bradford

and one of the Mayflower II.

Then we stopped for lunch at a lookout point along the way to Cape Cod with a tower built for some prominent locals that had a cool little observation point.

Then it was up the cape to the Visitors Center at the Seashore National Park, Cape Code.  From there we saw a video that explained the glacier impact on the area a long time ago.

It also referenced some stopping points along Cape Cod including the Marconi Wireless Station.  It was from here Marconi built the first transatlantic wireless communication station in 1902.  Large towers were built but gave way over the years to erosion and was relocated to Chatham.

Further up the way, we found a beach that was a bit cool but some folks were sunbathing and taking advantage of the sunny June weather.

We continued on our way to Provincetown ("C" on the map) above.  There we parked the car and walked around town.

It was the busiest town on Cape Cod and a tourist destination for vacationers and folks like us.

We picked up some post cards, got a sweatshirt, walked around some more and headed out of town.  We decided it was still a little early for dinner so we drove back out of the cape toward Falmouth.  We went along the side roads and it was a lot more scenic.

We were looking for some lobster and found it at the Lobster Claw Restaurant in Orleans on Cape Cod.  We were not disappointed!

After dinner, we took a nice drive through Falmouth and back up to our campground at Hanscom AFB near Bedford, MA.

It was a great day and a fun trip!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Next -- our time in Boston on the Freedom Trail and at Fenway Park.

Northeast Trip - Lexington/Concord

It was a 250 mile trip from West Point to Hanscom AFB FamCamp which is outside of Boston.   The drive was uneventful and we arrived about noon.

We got set up with water and electric and had to wait two days to move over to full hookups.  But that was no problem.
The campground is near the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway which was built on an inactive railroad.  We road down to a Starbucks and then on to the Lexington Green for a look around at some of the historical sites.

Minuteman Statue on the Lexington Green

We were in time to hear George, one of the local historians/docents give a tour of the Lexington Battle Green.  

It was here that the opening shots of the American Revolution was fired on April 19, 1775.   The skirmish left seven Americans dead when 700 British engaged with 79 militia.  The British continued to Concord on a mission to capture and dispose of known colonists munitions stored there.

Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent from Boston to warn the colonialists the British were coming!  They came right through Lexington. Neither made it, but another who joined them (Samuel Prescott) did.

Near Lexington and Concord, the National Park maintains a very well done series of displays and historic sites at the Minute Man National Park.  The park is along "Battle Road" and includes the site where Paul Revere was captured during his midnight ride and the North Bridge where 'the shot heard around the world was fired'.

The Old North Bridge was the first site during the Revolutionary War where colonials gave the order to fire upon the British.  It was never determined who fired the first shot but it was also the first victory for the American militia and ended with the British retreating.

Concord is also known as the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau and the beginnings of the transcendentalist movement of the 1830's and 1840's.  Thoreau spent two years living in the small house on Walden Pond writing his classic "Walden; or Life in the Woods".

In addition to Thoreau, the area was a familiar place for thinkers of the day including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott - author of 'Little Women'), Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller.

Emerson lived in The Old Manse which also served as a meeting house for many of them.

One of our last stops in Concord was the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery which is the final resting place of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

We were glad to have spent a couple of days in Lexington and Concord seeing these places.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Next time -- in to Boston!