Memorial Day Weekend in Boston

Elyse came to visit, and we all took a trip to Boston to spend part of the long weekend checking out the sites. We started off at the Children's Museum, which was pretty cool. The kids all thought the maze right at the entrance was the best; I'd have to say I agree.

Ian ended up participating in a study being done by some Hahhvahhd psychology grad students who were trying to study the ability of children to make linguistic connections between concepts that were not explicitly stated but were implied. I tried to ask the students what the hypotheses of the study were and how they were actually testing them. They didn't give very good answers (as in, couldn't explain to me what their hypotheses were). Either psychology experiments don't have to follow the scientific method, or some Hahhvahhd grad students aren't actually all that brilliant.....

Not everything at the Children's Museum was work and study, though. The kids liked the indoor "basketball court," for instance....

The next day we walked the Freedom Trail - THE WHOLE THING. I'm guessing that the round trip was close to 5 miles. That's a lot of steps for those little legs. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we finished.

This picture is in front of the Park Street Church. You can see by the kids' expressions that it's still early in the day....

Not much later, at the Granary Burying Ground, in front of Paul Revere's grave, the kids are still in a pretty good mood, but you can see that interest was starting to fade. At this point, we still had about 5 hours of our walking tour left.

Fast-forward through the King's Chapel, the site of the first public school, the Old Corner Bookstore, a couple of meeting houses, the site of the Boston Massacre, Fanueil Hall, Paul Revere's home, Old North Church (one if by land, two if by sea...), and Copp's burying ground, and we made it to the furthest point away from our hotel. This is the Battle of Bunker Hill memorial, and as the name suggests, it's on top of a hill, as in you have to walk up the hill to get to it. The expression on Ian's face does a good job of conveying everyone's emotions at this point in the tour.

The kids perked up a bit when we got to the USS Constitution, but the window on their patience / ability to withhold a constant stream of complaints about their feet / knees / legs was rapidly closing.

For the next 30 minutes or so, we walked directly back toward our hotel, making as few stops as possible. Complaints were heard, tears were shed, and threats regarding captivity of favorite toys were made.

Then, to save the day, just maybe ten minutes away from the end of our journey, we happened upon some street performers. I have to say, this might well have been the coolest thing we saw on the tour. Okay, they don't have the historical significance, but they were mighty entertaining.

All in all, it was a great trip. Boston is a fun town to check out. I'm sure that we'll be going back for a second round, maybe after all the blisters have healed and the kids have regained the privilege of seeing their favorite toys again....