Seven in the morning on Saturday came quickly as we woke up on our surprisingly comfortable inflatable mattress in the beautiful New England style home of my good friends Phil and Bev Wyman. I was pleasantly surprised to arise to the sound and smells of a freshly brewing pot of gourmet espresso being prepared by one of the house guests of the Wymans (whose wife was upstairs in addition to a third housemate...I'm telling you, the Wymans are modern day saints). We chatted for a bit, ate a quick brekky, and headed down into Boston.
The drive to Boston is about 30 minutes south, and I had already pinpointed with directions a seemingly mythical location in Boston: a $6 all day parking lot near Fenway Park. It seemed too good to be true, but I was determined to find out. Upon arriving, it was, in some ways, too good to be true. Though the parking lot existed at $6 dollars all day, this particular day was reserved for only Boston University students moving into their dorms.
Bummer.
So though it does in fact exist, it wasn't available. I asked one of the cops directing traffic where some good parking for Fenway was. His answer, in perfect Bostonian accent, was "oh, yous goin to da game? Well what yous want to do den is drive ya ca' down ova' heeya to Cahm [Commonwealth] Ave and hang a left. Den jus keep ya eyes peeled for some pahking lots all ova' da place."
So after driving past a few $30 all day lots, we decided to try to find some side streets. Apparantly though, Bostonians are privy to gamegoers parking on their streets, so signs everywhere were posted for resident only parking.
Except one.
We scored a free parking spot about a 10 minute walk from Fenway. Super sweet. With that $6 savings I can buy a soda at the game.
We hopped on the train into downtown, exited near the Boston Common (the Boston version of Central Park), and walked up Beacon Hill.
Beacon Hill is awesome. It's the street that borders the Common on the North side, and it's made up of beautiful homes, mostly built by the famous Boston based architect Charles Bulfinch. He designed the Massachusetts State House right there on Beacon Hill (pictured at left with some tool standing in front of it), which is the building featured in the movie "the Departed" where Matt Damon's character keeps an eye on it in his daydreams of his future. The building was also featuerd in "Amistad." The state house was basically the first official American government building (previous to this, we simply occupied British built government buildings) and today serves as the capitol building for Massachusetts, housing the Massachusetts legislature and governor's offices. The building would be the model for the US Capitol building, which Bulfinch also had a hand in designing.Further of Beacon Hill, you pass high end homes that are owned by many modern day politicians, like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and Jonathon Edwards. At the northeast corner, however, is our first stop of the day: Cheers.
Yes, that's right, Cheers. The Cheers. It was originally called the "Bull and Finch Pub," obviously named after Charles Bulfinch, the designer of the building it is housed in. Aside from it being in the basement, the Pub resembles nothing of the TV show, but it simply acted as the inspiration for it. Upon entering, you can tell that it was/is a local favorite and that if this was "your pub," the friendly "everybody knows your name" mantra rang true. Today of course, it's more touristy, so I don't know how many "Norms" attend the Pub, but it's cool, nonetheless.
We had a late brekky/early lunch, or "elevensies" as I like to call it. We had the must have New England Clam Chowder, topped off with a Guinness (an Irish beer in an Irish town? It's a must).
From here we walked through the Common, which was the site of the very first professional American football game, and, more importantly, was the site of a Revolutionary War British POW camp. Here on the Common, British Redcoats conquered by the Colonists were housed in tents on the Common. Back in this day, however, war was different. Because we were so short on men, we would only leave 4 or 5 US soldiers to "guard" the Brits. We often took our soldiers' guns too, because we needed them. But the honor of war ran much richer than today. Guantanamo Bay this was not. We would often guard 300 Redcoats, unfenced, and usually left armed with their rifles, with only a handful of Americans. War was "fair" back then, and a defeat was a defeat. On the lawn at the Common is also a graveyard that has both Redcoats and Minutemen interred in the grounds.
One sad point of the Common's history is its use as a gallows during the 17th and 18th century. Why I say that is sad isn't because I'm not down for justice, but for the injustice that took place. One period saw scores of Anabaptists hung for their faith. Anabaptists, if you don't know, are Christians who believe that babies shouldn't be baptized, but rather adults who can make their own decision. That doesn't sound too bad, but the Anglican Church (Church of England) that was ruling in this day saw it as heresy, and excecuted all Anabaptists. What's crazy to think of, is that I myself, if I lived there in that day and age, sharing the views and beliefs of Anabaptists, would be sitting right up there on the gallows alongside them in my own town. Crazy.
On the northeastern corner of the Common is a church that houses the oldest cemetary in Boston, the Old Granary Burying Ground. In this cemetary is the grave of John Hancock, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, and Ben Franklin's parents. The oldest grave dates to 1667. Standing on the final resting place of such American heroes and patriots, the ones responsible for my freedom, is awe-inspiring. Very intense and surreal.
Another great testimony of this church is the part it played in the freeing of the slaves. Way before Abe Lincoln and the Civil War, this church was the source for firey sermons and calls to freedom, and kept those sermons ringing until the Emancipation Proclamation declared by Abe Lincoln.From the church we walk past King's Chapel, a church from the 1600's, as well as the first Public School in America and the Old City Hall, a Federal style building also by Bulfinch.
At the end of the block we reach an important little monument that is special to me. There is a great little plaza dedicated to the Irish immigrants who made Boston their home, mainly during the era of the Potato Famine of the 1840's. There is a bronze statue of a starving, ragged family in the devastated country of Ireland, and the same family as a different statue well dressed, standing upright, after having found freedom and health in America. Kitty corner from here is the Old South Church, a place where Sam Adams and John Hancock stood from the pulpit declaring to parishioners to stand up for the freedom to worship as we like.
Then down around the corner is the Old Town Hall (with Eric in front to the right), a British built government building that stood in front of the site of the Boston Massacre, where British troops fired upon and killed 5 American colonists unlawfully, an event that added more fuel to the fire for independence.
Across the street and down a block is Faneuil Hall, named after Patriot Peter Faneuil. Out front is an awesome statue of Samuel Adams (yes, the beer maker, pictured at left with his "don't even think about messing with me, you limeys" stud pose), one of our nation's greatest Patriots. It was here at Faneuil Hall that Sam and the boys rallied the most heated speeches and rallies, which gave way to the affectionate nickname for Faneuil Hall as being the "Cradle of Liberty." It was here that the idea, dream, and vision of independence was birthed, nurtured, and matured. To stand in the main hall and try to envision these guys - Hancock, Adams, Faneuil, Franklin, even George Washington - make their plea to colonists and farmers, is quite an unreal experience. Very, very, eerie.Being a town that has known lots of various types of oppression, with the Anabaptists, to colonists, black slaves, the Irish, and countless others, Boston became a town that built one of the most overwhelming memorials to one of the most treacherous oppressions in history: the Jewish Holocaust.
Six rectangular glass columns spanning 54 feet high each, all having nearly one million 7 digit numbers that are each an eighth of an inch high and an inch wide, adorn a walkway filled with quotes and stories etched on the glass and stone of the pathway. Each of the six million total numbers represented each of the tattoos that Jewish victims had marked on their bodies. Click on the picture at the right and see if you can make out the columns of tiny numeric inscriptions, and then picture 5 more of these towers. It is a silencing, mysterious, dramatic memorial that makes you feel almost guilty for moving on to tour the rest of the town in enjoyment.Yet after spending some time reading through the amazing and horrifying stories, we did move on, and interestingly enough, the time spent at the memorial, for me at least, made the rest of the tour even more dramatic and deep, knowing that it was religious freedom and the freedom of basic human rights that our forefathers were fighting for, in order to avoid events like the Holocaust.
So as we continued across the street, we walked past the oldest restaurant in Boston, ye Old Union Oyster House, a place frequented by nearly everyone Bostonian in the last 175 years. This is also the oldest original street in Boston, as evidenced by it's seemingly ancient cobblestone path.From here we make our way north and cross over a nice new park called the Rose Kennedy Park. Previous to the existence of this park was a fun Boston attraction called "the Big Dig." It was a road construction project to put the interstate underground and create this park on top that would connect the North End with downtown. The project was years overdue and millions over-budget. So notorious was this "Big Dig," I remember the first time I was in Boston, there was a Guinness billboard on a building next to the "Big Dig" that said: "Guinness, Great Beer since 1792. Isn't that when the "Big Dig" started?"
But now, it's a great little park with water features for kids to play in and parents to hang out at. Crossing over we enter into Boston's famous North End, aka "Little Italy."
The North End is great, all red brick buildings, streets filled with the aroma every time of pasta and baked bread you can imagine. A few years ago when I was with Pete, our bass player, a true purebred Italian American with all the pedigree markings (hairy back), he smugly said to me, "so, where's the Irish part of town?", thinking he got me by showing off the coolness of Italians and their North End. However, I simply replied, "oh, that's the whole rest of the city, guy."
Tail between the legs.
In the North End you find Paul Revere's home. Yes, his home, dating from the late 1600's, virtually untouched. It's awesome, an amazing sight to see. It's the dark wooden home pictured on the left of the photo on the right. From here we walk along the main road and find ourselves at the opening of the Paul Revere Mall. No, not that kind of mall. A grand brick paved walkway, with a great bronze statue of Paul Revere and his well endowed stallion (on the left). Walking through the mall, you pass a nice fountain and come upon the back courtyard of the Old North Church.The Old North Church is the famous church where the signal for the British invasion was set so that Paul Revere, waiting in Charlestown across the water, could know how the Brits were coming in ("one if by land, two if by sea") so he could get a head start and warn the Minutemen and the colonists. The church has enjoyed visits from Jonathon Edwards (the 18th century evangelist, not the 21st century politician, though no doubt I'm sure he has been here as well), Charles Wesley, and Queen Elizabeth II. Just a few, not to mention every US President since in our entire history.
From the Old North Church we walk north up the hill to Copp's Hill. Here at Copp's is buried Revolutionary War soldiers, both British and American. It was here that the Brits used the land as a staging ground for their cannons, as the cemetery is perched on a hill and had a great view and distance from Charlestown across the water. To this day, you can still see pock marks on graves where the Brits used the gravestones as target practice with their muskets.
Walking down the other side of the hill, we end our old Boston tour standing on the edge of the river, peering across the water at the USS Constitution, aka "Old Ironsides." Ironsides is the oldest floating sea vessel in the world, and it is also the oldest active battleship in our Navy. Yes, it's still active, 100%. Did it go to Iraq? No. But it is officially active and is manned by current Navy personnel (not retired volunteers) and goes through all the days' opening and closing ceremonies that any active ship would do. Ironsides fought in the War of 1812 (she was built in 1797) and has never lost a battle, which is where she got her nickname. Her very pliable wooden sides were taken from trees in Maine, which has very flexible and sturdy wood. When in battle, the enemy would fire cannons at the ship, and to the amazement of both the Americans aboard and the enemy, the cannonballs would bounce right off into the water. Thus it was declared, "Aye!! She's got iron sides!!!"From here we make our way back to the train station, but only after first stopping at an old Irish Pub for a traditional Irish brekky and a Sam Adams (a must have while in Boston) for an early pre-game dinner.
Since this post is getting long enough as it is, I'm going to leave our pilgrimage to Fenway Park for the next post, even though it was still in Day Four. My fingers need a rest. :o)
