On the Freedom Trail

We still had a lot of daylight left, so we set out to walk part of the Freedom Trail, even though many of the historic sites were already closed for the day. The Marriott is only a couple of blocks away from the Copley Square T stop, as well as Boylston Street and...

Boston Public Library

Trinity Church

Boston Marathon Finish Line

The site of the first bombing on April 15 :(

We bought 7-day passes for the MBTA for $18 apiece, and took the subway to Boston Common. Since another part of the family's pre-trip "homework" was watching "Glory," we walked up to see the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment.

Update:  In the week or so since we were there, vandals
broke off the end of Shaw's sword.

The Freedom Trail is marked by a red brick line on the sidewalk, which makes it easy to follow through the city. It took us next to the Granary Burial Ground -- John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are among those interred there.

Next we went through the King's Chapel Burial Ground, where William Dawes (the other midnight rider) was laid to rest. And we also walked past the Old State House...

The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed
from this balcony on July 18, 1776

The site of the Boston Massacre sits in the shadow of the Old State House

...until we reached Faneuil Hall and the Marketplace.

Samuel Adams in front of Faneuil Hall

Street performers were outside entertaining the crowds (and us, too!) The inside of the Quincy Market building is basically a huge food court, so we grabbed dinner here. Afterwards, we kept walking east towards Long Wharf to get our bearings for our day trip out to the Harbor Islands tomorrow. The Aquarium T stop (Blue Line) was close by, so we just had to change to a Green Line train to get to back to the hotel. This is our third experience with big city public transit and sadly, native Chicagoan R thought that both the Metro in DC and the T here in Boston were nicer than the CTA.   

Next up... a Civil War-era fort!