DAY 5 - All over the place

This was our last day in Boston and we still had lots we wanted to see. So we bundled up and started walking.

We started off at the Bunker Hill memorial. The hill is actually called Breeds hill. If I remember right, they were originally going to fight the battle on Bunker hill, but Breeds hill was a higher hill so they changed the location. This is the famous battle where General William Prescott made the famous statement "Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes." If you would like to read more on the Battle of Bunker Hill, click here. If you ever decide to take a trip to Boston be sure you read up on the Revolutionary War before you go. It will be a more meaningful trip for you.


This Bridge is the Zakim Bridge but is widely known as the Bunker Hill Bridge because of the similarities to the monument. It crosses the Charles river and connects Boston to the neighboring town of Charlestown. It is the world's widest cable-stayed bridge. If you look directly behind the bridge you will see TD Gardens...Home of the Boston Celtics.


The large white steeple you see in the background of this picture is the Old North Church. It is the oldest standing church building in the Boston area and is still used for worship today. This church was made famous by Paul Revere when he used the tower to signal troops of the comming of the Brittish. "One if by land, Two if by sea(or river)" Here is a great site that tells all about the Old North Church. It has a lot of great information and pictures of the inside.


This is Ben and I sitting in one of the pews of the Old North Church singing Hymns. I think we were singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"


It was so wet and yucky walking around town after the big snow storm. This is a picture of my leg so you can see how high up the water climbed up my leg.



After following the Freedom Trail for a while we got back on the subway and made our way to the Museum of Science. This was a really cool place. If I lived in the area I would for sure buy a membership and visit often. We had a lot we wanted to see so we didn't stay at the museum for too long. Just long enough to take a brief tour and see what it was all about. In front of the museum There is a big T-Rex so Mom and Ben decided to act like him.


Ben looking excited while I snapped a photo of him in front of a dino skeleton.



My foot compared to the footprint of a dino.



Next stop: The Aquarium

I really like the aquarium a lot. Behind dad you will see a Sand Tiger Shark. (I think that is what they were called)


There was a guide walking by with this jaw bone, so Ben asked him if he could take a picture with it. He told us it was the teeth of one of the aformentioned Sand Tiger Sharks. It turns out they have really big mouths and could swallow Ben's entire head in one bite. Yikes!!

Mom was a trooper. We did a lot of walking this day and we still had more to do. So Ben and I went and asked the front desk if they had a wheelchair we could rent so that mom could have a break from walking for a while. They were actually complimentary. All we had to do was leave a drivers licence. So mom got a good break...and Ben got a good workout pushing the wheelchair up all the hills in the building.

I can't remember what kind of tortiose this is, but I do remember the guide telling us that she was 75 years old and weighed over 500 lbs. She was HUGE!! Darren got a better picture of her so maybe we'll get lucky and he'll post some of his Boston pictures on his blog.


This here is a sideways picture of one of the coolest sea horses I have ever seen. I almost missed it because I thought it was just a bunch of weeds floating in the water. I thought they had cleaned out the exhibit for some reason. I'm glad I kept looking.



This is just a neat picture of downtown Boston. I really like the clocktower in the background.


One of the last things we got to do was ride to the top of the Prudential Building. On it's 50th floor, there is an observation deck that is open to the public. There is also a free audio tour that explains to you what exactly you are seeing out the windows. This is Susan listening to her audio tour. This is where I learned a lot of interesting things about the Boston area. One of the most interesting things I learned from this tour was about the great Molasses Flood in Boston.

In 1919 there was a big Molasses processing plant located in the North End of town. One January day one of the tanks of molasses exploded leaving 2,300,000 gallons of molasses flooding down the streets of town at around 35 miles/hour and with enough force that it lifted a train off it's tracks. There were 21 people and many horses killed and 150 people injured. Nearby buildings were lifted off their foundations.

They say that in that portion of town on a hot summer day you can still smell the molasses that seeped into the pebble roads. If you want to read more on this event, look here.