Houston & Boston

As part of Don's job with USA Basketball, he helps to set up coaching academies around the country.  This year USAB set up six academies and the weekend of July 30-31 there was one held in Houston along with a youth camp day on Monday for the boys and girls club.  We enjoyed watching the USA Olympic team v Nigeria Monday night before flying to Boston for the next academy.

HOUSTON

Jay and Andrea at Pappasitos. 

Don with David Robinson & Sam Perkins coaching at the youth camp.

USA v Nigeria

BOSTON
 Early Tuesday morning we flew from Houston to Boston.  We are staying at the Marriott Long Wharf.  The coaching academy is not until Saturday and Sunday so we will have fun for a few days first.

Lunch at Legal Sea Foods - chowder and fish & chips

New England clam chowder.   Yum.

Rainy day at he harbor

The Marriott Long Wharf

Dinner at Sail Loft

Lobster!

Hop on, Hop off Trolley Tour of Boston.
We hopped off at Boston Common/Public Garden area for lunch.  Otherwise we just rode the complete loop for an overview of Boston.  We will explore each in more detail later.  Boston Common is the country's oldest public park.  Once it was a campground for British troops during the Revolutionary War.  The Public Garden is a 24 acre botanical area next to Boston Common.  The famous swan boats are located there and a sculpture depicting one of my favorite children's books Make Way for Ducklings.

Lunch at Boston Common

The swan boats

It was a fun trip around the small lake by pedal power.

Make Way for Ducklings

James Taylor concert at Fenway Park!

Harbor Tour with a stop at the Charlestown Navy Yard.
The Harbor tour was included with our Trolley tour and it was a bonus!  We stopped off at the navy yard and walked past the USS Constitution.  We did not tour the ship as we've done that type of thing before and were more anxious to visit Bunker Hill.  The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned US Navy ship.  "Old Ironsides" dates back to 1797.

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" came the order from Colonel Prescott to revolutionary troops on June 17, 1775.  The bloody battle resulted in the Redcoats prevailing but they lost more than 1/3 of their deployed forces, while the colonists suffered relatively few casualties.  We climbed the 294 steps of the Bunker Hill Monument to enjoy the panorama view of the city.

Harbor Boat tour - our Marriott in the background

The harbor at Long Wharf

Approaching the navy yard with Bunker Hill beyond

The Celtics arena and Bunker hill bridge

USS Constitution

Bunker Hill Monument

View from the top - 294 spiral steps!

At the beginning (or end) of the Freedom Trail

Back into Long Wharf

Freedom Trail
The Freedom Trail is a 2/5 walking trail (follow the red-brick road) from the Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument.  Our hotel is about in the middle of this trail so we started at Faneuil Hall and headed north of our first walking tour.  We had lunch at the Quincy Market and walked through the historic Faneuil Hall.  This original market and public meeting place was built in 1740.

Lobster roll and crab salad sandwich

Faneuil Hall

Quincy Market

We continued our walk to the Paul Revere House, Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground.
When silversmith Paul Revere rode to warn patriots of the British march to Lexington and Concord, he set out from his home on North Sq.  This small clapboard house was built in 1680, making it the oldest house in Boston.

"Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch/of the North Church tower as a signal light/One if by land two if by sea" .  It was here on the night of April 18, 1775 that the sexton hung two lanterns from the Old North Church as a signal that the British would advance via the sea route.

From the church we walk to Copp's Hill Burying Ground, the second oldest cemetery dating back to 1660.

Dinner at Giacomo's Ristorante - We walked to the North End to this recommended Italian restaurant.  The north end is full of Italian restaurants and customers line up on the sidewalk for this one.  They don't take reservations, but we only had to wait about 30 minutes to get seated in this quaint, cramped restaurant.  The seasfood pasta for 2 was delicious!!

Delicious!!

Whale Watching Boat Tour

Freedom Trail continued.......

A few blocks from our hotel we can access the Freedom Trail so Monday we finished the walk.  Starting at Faneuil Hall we walked to the Old State House and the Boston Massacre Site.  Built in 1713 to house the colony's government, the Old State House was at the center of many key events of the American Revolution.  In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Boston from the Old State House balcony.

On March 5, 1770 a deadly skirmish erupted between nine British redcoats and a large crowd of Boston residents.  Angry over Boston's occupation by British forces, locals threw ice.  Five  Bostonians were fatally wounded and it was labeled the Boston Massacre.

Old South Meeting House - No tax on tea!  5000 angry colonists gathered at the Old South Meeting House to protest a tax....and started a revolution with the Boston Tea Party.  Built in 1729 as a Puritan house of worship, the Old South Meeting House was the largest building in colonial Boston.

Old City Hall

Old City Hall

Site of the first public school

King's Chapel and Burying Ground
King's Chapel, the first Anglican Church in Boston was founded in 1686 and houses the oldest American pulpit in continuous use.  Adjacent to the Chapel, King's Chapel Burying Ground was Boston proper's only burying place for nearly 30 years.

Granary Burying Ground - Some of America's most notable citizens rest here - John Hancock, Ben Franklin's parents, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and the Boston Massacre victims.

Massachusetts State House

Last night in Boston!  We ate at the Chart House which is on Long Wharf and next to our hotel.