Boston baked blog

Let me just say, for Boston being a smaller city than the others we visited, it sure does have terrible traffic. Maybe they're just not good with traffic management. The "Big Dig" surely would attest to that.

After an hour drive to go about 16 miles into Boston proper, we let everyone off to go through another airport-style security to see Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution. Happy 211th birthday! They were doing maintenance or a remodel or something on the top deck so we didn't really get to see what it looked like. You can see that the masts are even off. The cannons were all sitting on shore. So we spent about 10 minutes there and then left.

After giving the students maps, clues for a photo scavenger hunt, and a time to meet us back at the bus, we told them to follow this red line and we'd see them later. The line designates the Freedom Trail, a self-guided historical tour of Boston. The kids were supposed to find things like the Old North Church, the Democrats' donkey, ducks, etc. all over the old part of Boston.

We sponsors took off by boat (after Steve, Janelle, and I walked down the wrong pier first) on the water taxi.

me

John & Anita Watkins

Steve & Janelle Baughman

Look, I've been to Boston in the Fall! This shows you a little more of the buildings along the Charles River. Very historic buildings right next to very modern buildings. I saw a fire boat, a huge Coast Guard ship, and a cruise ship.

I hung out with Steve and Janelle for most of the day. Our first stop was Mike's Pastry for some "breakfast."

They said it's pretty much famous. All I know is that Steve's Boston cream pie was better than our Boston cream puffs. Here's Janelle stealing some pie.

We soon met up with Paul Revere, his horse, and some of our students along the Freedom Trail. You can see the Old North Church in the background behind the statue.




This is an example of one of the scavenger hunt stops. They had to take a picture of their group (of 5) in front of a fire station (5 points). If they wore official fire fighting gear, 25 bonus points. Two more points were awarded for each firefighter in the picture with them. And, if they were on or in a fire truck, 5 more bonus points. Can you pick out our kids???

And for some other things I saw and liked in Boston . . . This dog was just walking around on the sidewalks by itself for a while. It came back with a person later. It wouldn't stop and say hi to me. =(




This is St. Francis of Assisi. Apparently he liked birds. All around this statue were bird houses, a birdbath and feeders.




Steve and Janelle, being veterans of this trip, were willing to let me choose where I wanted to go. Of course, our next stop was Fenway Park, all the way on the other side of Boston. We jumped on the subway and rode across town.

If we hadn't stopped to go to the bathroom at Barnes & Noble, we 1) would have likely gotten to tour Fenway and 2) would have had other problems. We did have a nice time in the ginormous shop across the street, however. I had teased Ryan before the trip that I was going to come back with every Red Sox player's shirt. I could have done it!

You Red Sox aficianados will recognize this as the "monster" side of Fenway. We only walked around three sides. Someday I'll go back and tour the park AND go to a game.

Slightly disoriented after leaving the subway, we finally found Boston Public Garden, made famous by the book, Make Way for Ducklings. You can see the duck island and ramp in the top picture. I wanted to see the famous duck sculpture that was put in the park in 1987.

We found it, but I had to wait for a little girl to stop hugging, petting, and trying to pick up the ducklings to get a picture of them. The mother mallard probably stands almost as high as my waist. This was also on our kids' scavenger hunt. They had to take a picture of themselves sitting on the ducks.

After the park, we followed the trail back toward Quincy Market for lunch. I shopped for souvenirs for a little while before heading back on the water taxi toward our bus. By our meeting time at 5:00p, it was starting to rain a little. We had a great day walking around. I even wore just a t-shirt most of the day. I definitely would like to go back!

destination: lexington & concord

"the regulars are coming out!"

This was one of my favorite days of the whole trip. Not only were we outside most of the day, but it was in rural settings mostly. No big cities and craziness. It was a pretty cold morning, very clear and crisp. You really felt it standing in the shadows!




We picked up our tour guide, Masha, dressed in her Revolutionary War era costume and headed to the Lexington town green (big grass triangle). It was the site of the Lexington skirmish that began the war.

This is the monument erected after the battle, in 1799. She explained the first battle of the war, giving all of the important players and how Paul Revere and others helped warn the minute men to be ready. Lexington apparently didn't have any minutemen, but they have a statue of Jonas Parker (one of the locals) that is called their minuteman statue. I wasn't really clear on all of this.

The next stop was a historic home that is part of the Minute Man State Park for a rifle firing demonstration. I liked that they were in authentic clothing, but thought it was funny how the safety guy had a walkie-talkie. See the fire coming out of the barrel? The second firing made a smoke ring!

We loaded back into the bus and drove down streets lined with beautiful trees toward Concord, following the rough path the British took when searching for weapons in Concord. We passed Louisa May Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson's (Nathaniel Hawthorne lived there later too) houses.

We stopped and walked to the banks of the Concord River where the monument commemorating the Concord battle stands. This angle is standing on the bridge looking back at the side we came from. The trees were gorgeous, even if after "peak."

Across the Old North Bridge, the Concord minuteman statue stands at the edge of the field where the minutemen defeated the British regulars and began pushing them back to Boston.

I, of course took the first bridge picture, so Janelle took one of me.

to live deliberately
Now I take you to the second half of our day . . . Walden Pond. (And I've given away the secret of all of your souvenirs . . . You wanted pond water, right? [j/k]) This is a leaf I found and Thoreau's statue near the replica cabin.




Steve, Janelle, and I quickly ditched the kids and went for a quick hike around the pond. It's really more of a lake than a pond. It took a while to walk around, but we got to stop at the original site of Thoreau's house

After our walk, we had a park ranger come to the replica cabin and talk about Thoreau and the 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days he lived at Walden Pond. The ranger said that people were very curious about why Thoreau would choose to live out there and he had something like 25 visitors in his little cabin at one time. You can see that his little bed takes up almost the entire length. So much for peace and tranquility. The ranger also showed us the two trap doors - one in the ceiling, the other in the floor. He said Thoreau kept his flute in the "attic." And I thought it was for Christmas decorations . . .

We ate our late lunch like many meals on the trip - beside the bus. This time it was haystacks, which always taste good when you're really hungry after hiking and being in the cold. We also had butterscotch pudding, my favorite.

I knew one thing coming to Walden Pond. I wasn't going to swim in it. I played the sponsor card and stayed on the beach. A few of our kids were brave (stupid) souls that plunged into the 50-degree water. Five guys and five girls were our polar bear swimmers this year. The pictures of juniors diving into the cold water year after year are always memorable.


Our evening activity was a trip to the mall where kids bought souvenirs at American Eagle. There was so much Red Sox merchandise for sale (not marked down, even though they lost WS hopes the night before) I could hardly contain my credit card! And we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

destination: our nation's capital

After our 13-hour drive from Portland, TN to Takoma Park, MD, we were very glad to sleep anywhere, so the gym floor at Takoma Academy was fine with us. We got in early enough Thursday night to settle in and take showers before going to sleep.

John Watkins told me he once saw Victor Borge perform in this gym. That explains the giant grand piano on the stage? Or maybe he took his own? I wouldn't want to travel with a piano . . .

Friday was our full day in DC. We started out by going to the Pentagon and seeing the new Sept. 11 memorial outside for those killed on the plane and in the building. The Pentagon doesn't allow photography so I don't have any pictures for you.


After leaving the Pentagon, we ate lunch at a nearby mall food court, then headed to the Capitol building. We had an appointment to meet with our district's representative, Bart Gordon. The kids enjoyed doing gymnastics on the Capitol steps while we waited.








After the kids finished talking to Bart Gordon, we headed inside the building for a guided tour. We were all given headsets so we could hear our guide in the noise and echoes inside. He showed us the rotunda, old Senate room, and old House meeting room. I liked when he whispered from one side of the House room and you could hear it on the opposite side like it was amplified.

Following our Capitol tour, we walked over a mile to the Holocaust Memorial Museum (also does not allow pictures). We were each given a victim of the Holocaust on a little biography card. Some of our people survived; others didn't. My lady survived and ended up in the US. The museum is really well done, if you haven't ever gotten to see it. It's very visual and has tons of information, I just wish more of the German had been translated. Hopefully that museum will help make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

For supper, we drove over near the FDR Memorial for some sloppy joes beside the bus. I had fun walking through the FDR Memorial for the first time. We took pictures of ourselves standing in the bread line.


I liked FDR's little Scottish terrier, Fala. The statue isn't little and I'm kinda glad terriers aren't this big. Can you imagine a dog with that amount of energy and this size?

We had a good view of the Jefferson Memorial (my favorite) from across the tidal basin.

We spent the rest of the evening visiting landmarks in the dark, including the closed Teddy Roosevelt island. It was a little creepy out there.

Sabbath morning we slept in later then headed to the Sligo SDA Church. We all sat in the balcony and listened to the Disability Awareness Sabbath program. They fed us a Filipino potluck that was really good after church.

We quickly ate and drove over to Arlington National Cemetery for our wreath presentation at the Tomb of the Unknowns. I remember watching the changing of the guard when I was little. I think it's really cool that our students got to present a wreath. We put ours up approximately 2 minutes after a middle school put theirs up.


I like how you can see the Washington Monument from almost anywhere in DC, including the hills in Arlington. I wished the trees were brighter in the cemetery, but they were still pretty.







Lindsey came and met me at Arlington and hung out with us until we headed out for our Samurai activity later in the evening. We took some kids to the Natural History Museum and walked around the mall area.

The most fun we had was probably feeding this crazy squirrel. I think it liked its reflection, because it kept charging my camera. It made for some funny pictures!

Lindsey and I let the three kids run up and touch the Washington Monument while we watched from a distance. We didn't want to have to run all the way back to the Smithsonian castle to meet the bus. The sunset was really pretty on the mall that night. We had perfect weather for seeing the sights in DC.

We met the bus and rode over to Union Station. Who knew they had a parking garage? After a very hurried (so hurried I didn't eat) supper break, Lindsey left on the metro to go back to her car and head home. I wished that I could have gone up and seen their condo and stayed to watch the baseball game that night!

Saturday night we saw a one-man "play" called 7 (x 1) Samurai: An Epic Tale . . . Told by an Idiot. He used sound effects and acted out all the characters without much talking. I thought it was pretty hilarious. I especially liked seeing him play both parts of a fight at the same time, even if it got a little gory by the end (if that's possible with one guy miming). Here's the review from the Washington Post.