The Longest Day

Because our flight home didn't leave until late afternoon, we checked out of the Marriott and left our bags at the bell desk. After breakfast (Dunkin' Donuts, what else?!), we went back to the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial to start off on the Black Heritage Trail. The State House is right across the street from the memorial. While we were waiting to cross the street, the buses transporting the Boston Pops to rehearsal for the Fireworks Spectacular drove past, complete with their police escort. You would have thought it was a presidential motorcade! Haha!

Our destination was the Boston African American National Historic Site on Beacon Hill, arriving just after it opened at 10:00AM. The Abiel Smith School, which houses the Museum of African American History, was the first building in the nation built for the sole purpose of serving as a public school for black children. While we waited for the ranger to take us next door to the African Meeting House, we checked out the exhibits upstairs and the boys finished up their Jr. Ranger activities.

According to the museum's website, "the African Meeting House is the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States." The ranger told us that the building was constructed primarily by skilled African-American tradesmen from the community. To highlight the quality of their work, she pointed out that the floors in the restored building today are still original. Frederick Douglass gave an anti-slavery speech here in 1860 -- how cool is it to be standing on the very same floor he did?!

The site only had one junior ranger badge left, so we trekked back to the Faneuil Hall visitor center to see if they had more (thankfully, they did!) At the plaza by Government Center, we found a food truck and grabbed lunch.

On the "to-do list" for the next time we visit Boston -- taste test more food trucks!

We still had a couple of hours left, so our very last stop was the Museum of Science. Just like I wrote about in this earlier post, this is one of those sister museums where we get in with our home museum membership. Can't beat free! J really would have liked to spend more time here because of all of the hands-on exhibits. And if only we had more time (and were willing to pay the hefty upcharge), R and I would have liked to view the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, too. *sigh*

We had a little adventure getting to the airport because we got on the wrong shuttle from the T stop. At least it was a well air-conditioned bus! We changed planes in D.C. and had an uneventful flight back to LAX, but without DirectTV -- J was disappointed yet again! He now thinks United is officially the worst airline ever. And only 20 short hours after waking up this morning, we finally made it home! Happy birthday, America!