September 23, 2008 – Minuteman Campground

We took a sightseeing tour through Boston today. We had to leave at 7:30 to meet the bus at a hotel about 20 miles from the campground. That meant we had to get up a little earlier than usual. I know - - we always complain about waking up early, but we are on Eastern time here, which makes it an hour earlier than we’re used to and believe it or not, we have started sleeping a little past our former 5:30 wake up time.

We got on the bus with a couple of other couples and then gradually picked up a few more people as we went into Boston. I think we ended up with 16 people total. The driver seemed really quiet and gruff when we got on, and I told Larry we must be picking up someone else who would lead the tour, but once he got started talking he gave a really good tour. He was very knowledgeable about the details of history! We stopped at the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow home,

which had briefly served as George Washington’s home and headquarters, but it wasn’t open for touring on Tuesdays, so we were only able to walk around the outside of it. We also stopped at the Boston Public Library (oldest public library in US), Trinity Church (beautiful old church),

Old North Church (Paul Revere’s “one if by land, two if by sea),

Copps Hill Burial Ground (oldest burial ground in US) and also the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). There were quite a few other buildings and establishments he elaborated on, such as Harvard and Boston University. We got back around 5:00. It was a busy but good day.