Oct 8th, 2015

Today was quite uneventful. We drove from Middleboro, Massachusetts to Sussex, New Jersey. We stopped for gas and a red box but that’s about it. Our camp site has some animals that I took the boys to see. There are goats, sheep, ducks, and some mini ponies. The best thing that happened yesterday was that Amanda joined us!  She’ll be blogging for us a few times over the next days.

-Grace

October 7, 2015

Yesterday we spent the day in Boston, Massachusetts.  Our friends from home, Mary Lisa and Sarah have a cousin that lives in Massachusetts that we connected with and she so graciously took us on the “Freedom Trail” and more.  We started our tour in The Common with the “Make Way for Duckling” statues.  We have ordered the book now, and can’t wait to read about the reason for the Mother Duck and her Ducklings to be a fixture of the Park.

The Freedom Trail is a brick line path that leads through the city of Boston.  It has historical sites all along the way which tell the story of how our Nation was started back in the American Revolution.   There is something pretty honorable about being able to walk the path of the Revolutionary period in American history.

While on the trail we saw the Massachusetts State House.

And Park Street Church.

And the Granary Burying Grounds where some of Ben Franklin’s family is buried as well as others like Samuel Adams and the victims of the Boston Massacre.

We saw King’s Chapel.

We saw the Benjamin Franklin Statue and the Boston Latin School.

We did a scavenger hunt in Old South Meeting House.

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Old State House was fun to see with the Unicorn and the Lion displayed on the front of the brick building.

This is a picture of us standing the the site of the Boston Massacre.

We also saw Faneuil Hall and the house that Paul Revere lived in as well as Old North Church.  It was fun to sit in a pew box in Old North Church and ponder the lanterns hanging in the bell tower… “One if by land, Two if by sea”.

In the Old North Garden we saw these dog tags on display honoring fallen soldiers from the Iraq – Afghanistan war.

Our tummy’s were never hungry.  We ate a scrumptious Italian lunch and we got to experience a authentic Boston cannoli.  So good!

  

These 6 glass towers are a Holocaust Memorial.

Our last stop on the freedom trail was the USS Constitution.  It was really neat to be standing on not only one of the 6 first ships that were commissioned and that started the US Navy but the only ship of those 6 still remaining.  It is also the oldest sea worthy war ship left in the world and is scheduled to sail again in 2017.   We got in a piece of the “Ironside” history from an active duty US Sailor.  The USS Constitution got it’s name because the sides of the ship was constructed with 7″ of white oak next to 7″ of live oak and 7″ of white oak.  When the ship was in battle the cannon balls that were hitting it either stuck in the sides of the ship or bounced off.  The US Sailor shared the story of making the USS Constitution and it’s first battle against the British in 1812.  Ironside has a 33 – 0 record.

On the USS Constitution, the kids hoisted an American Flag up.  We will proudly fly Old Glory at home and remember our day on “the Ironside”.

We the met up with Chadyn’s husband Paul and went to get dinner.  It was so good and so fun!  We love new experiences!  We ate Shabu-Shabu in Chinatown.

So, we left Boston today with a heart full of respect for the history that was made so many years ago right there where we walked.  And a thankfulness for new friends.  Thank you Paul and Chadyn!

Here is a video that Grace put together of our days in Massachusetts.  We really are so proud to be an American.  We love this land.  God Bless the USA.