A Beautiful Day in Boston

A Beautiful Day in Boston
I was up and about early this morning, just before the sun about to peek its nose over the horizon. Grabbing my camera and tripod I made my way to the stern on the Promenade deck and set up the tripod and D200 for some photos of the sunrise. The low clouds and clear sky made for an unforgettable this sunrise portrait. Never miss a sunrise or sunset as that is when God becomes a painter of the sky.
The ship cruised on into Boston harbor escorted by the Pilot boat and an armed US Coast Guard patrol boat. M.A. and I grabbed some breakfast at the buffet and were one of the first folks ashore at 10:00AM. The weather was cool and sky clear blue, just a beautiful morning.
We didn’t purchase any shore excursions for Boston electing to do it on our own with the “Old Town Trolley Tours”. MA had pre-purchased two tickets on line but first we had to find where to board this thing! So we jumped on a public bus for $2.00 and then onto the subway ending up in greater downtown Boston. We still could not find any trolleys so after asking around we finally were directed to Central Station and found out where we needed to be. One thing we noticed about Bostonians is that they are very friendly and courteous especially to obviously lost tourists standing on street corners with maps in their hands!
Our intention was to see as much as we could today of the Freedom Trail with all the colonial landmarks. The first stop was in a part of town known as Little Italy where the Paul Revere House is located. It is the oldest house in downtown Boston, dating back to 1680: a very unimposing wooden home painted dark gray.
Brushing up on our history here! It was Paul Revere who warned the Minutemen about the British coming by sea after receiving signals from the tower of the Old North Church; one by land, two by sea. The sea was actually the Charles River and the British army crossed over in longboats going after the leaders of the rebellion. They were met at Concord and Lexington by the colonists who fired the shot heard around the world.
After visiting the Old North Churchyard, we hopped on the trolley again and got off at the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides.” There was a long line to actually tour the ship, so we just took a few tourist pictures and continued on our way. The plan was to make have lunch at the original Cheers Pub but there was a 10-K race on the streets of the city so that part of the route was closed. We elected to have lunch at the “replica” Cheers at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace. After lunch we walked around downtown and found the site of the Boston Massacre.
We made our way back to the port terminal where we boarded the Caribbean Princess once again. It was a full day of walking, photographing and taking in the sights. The ship departed Boston a little after 7:00PM headed north to Bar Harbor, Maine and we’re headed for the Palm Dining room. We’ve enjoyed the company of two other couples assigned to our dinner table. One couple is from Oregon and he is a retired Chevron executive. The other couple is from Philadelphia and he is a thirty-year veteran of the fire department there. It’s fun to get together at the end of the day and compare notes.