My Travels: Trip to Boston

October 23-24 I went with my friend Rick to Boston. Rick had a business meeting and it gave us a chance to do some sightseeing in this city which was such an important part of the birth of the United States.

It was a pretty long flight - more than 5 hours. Looking out the window I got to see a lot of the United States. There's a lot more space between cities and towns in the U.S. than I'm used to seeing when I fly around in Europe. Looking at a map I was surprised to see that we'd crossed the whole country.

View Larger Map

Before the United States was a country it was inhabited by Native Americans who are believed to have come over from Asia through Russia to Alaska at the time of the Ice Age. Before 1700 the huge continent of North America was very sparsely settled. Explorers from Europe came to North America and were followed in the 1700's by settlers from Great Britain, Spain and other countries. The settlers that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the Boston area) were from Great Britain.

In 1773 Boston was a trading town with its port on the Atlantic Ocean. The settlers began to rebel against "taxation without representation" and protested with a famous episode in which they dumped tea off of the British merchant ships into the Boston Harbor. It became known as the Boston Tea Party. The area around Boston was where many battles of the revolutionary war took place in which the United States broke away from Great Britain to become an independent country.

Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, though not nearly as old as many cities in Europe.

There are a lot of historical places to see in Boston. We took a tour and I collected a bunch of stuff to put in my scrapbook when I get home. My favorite places were the Quincy Market and the Boston Common.

Quincy Market is a really energetic place with indoor and outdoor shops. Lots of people of all ages. Lots of music and good food.

Here I am at Faneuil Hall and the Quincy Market.

From Boston

Here's a link to more information about:
Faneuil Hall
Quincy Market

The Boston Common is a large park in the middle of the city. Nicki and Joni wrote in a letter they sent with me about how much I like to lay down in the sun in a park - well, this was a great park for me. Here are a couple pictures and a link to some more information about the Boston Common.