Boston is the capital and largest city of the Massachusetts.  One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded  in 1630 by Puritan colonists from England.  It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Paul Reverie's "midnight" ride, to name a few. Through land reclamation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. After the coming of American independence the city became an important port and manufacturing center, and a center of education and culture as well.




   This is a very old firehouse and under the Historical Registry so they can not touch the outside, only for repairs.  Well, the openings for the bays that hold the fire engines was originally big enough for a team of horse and a wagon.  So today they have fire engines that are modified just for those doors.  It is still a working fire house.

  Big sports city and this Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sock.
  Important dudes in baseball. 

  Retired #'s and interesting banners.  We did not tour the park because we did not have time, must pick our favs, and I am not interested. 


   This is the only sign I know of that is on the Historical Registry.  You can see this sign when the baseball games are being televised.  They have changed the lighting to LED.

   Back in the day during WWII cities had Victory Gardens.  Everything was being rationed including veggies.  So cities set aside plots of land so the citizens could grow their own.  Boston has keep theirs and it is is full use today. 


   These are statues at the end of the Boston Marination.  The story of the tortoise and the hare.  

  A plaque in the sidewalk at the end of the Boston Marathon. 


This is the Boston Marathon Memorial. 

   Subway entrance to the oldest subway in the USA.

  The Old State House is a historic building in Boston.  Built in 1713, it was the seat of the Massachusetts legislature until 1798. One of the landmarks on Boston's Freedom Trail, it is the oldest surviving public building in Boston.  This is the balcony where read the Declaration of Independence. On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from the east side balcony to jubilant crowds by Col. Thomas Crafts (one of the Sons of Liberty).   It has been read on every July 4th since.
 
It has a striking, graceful appearance that is meant to echo the tower of the Bunker Hill Monument, which is within view of the bridge, and the white cables evoke imagery of the rigging of the USS Constitution.

   Boston has kept many of the buildings just the way they were back in the day.  This is the market that Julia Childs, the great TV chef, would come and purchases her food stuffs.

  That half a basket ball in the trees is the dome where the Boston Pops will play a concert for the 4th of July.  the harbor will be filled with boats and the land around with people.  I think I remember them saying around 700,000.  No we will not be here on the 4th, but I don't think we would come in for it anyway.

Fun and interesting architecture for MIT dorms in Cambridge, Mass. 

part of the same building. 

  Speaking of MIT, The smoot is a monstandard unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a  fraternity pledge, who in October 1958 lay on the Harvard Bridge (between  Boston and Cambridge, Mass ), and was used by his fraternity brothers to measure the length of the bridge.

One smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot's height at the time of the prank (five feet and seven inches) The bridge's length was measured to be 364.4 smoots plus or minus one ear, with the "plus or minus" intended to express uncertainty of measurement. Over the years the "or minus" portion has gone astray in many citations, including the markings at the site itself, but has now been enshrined in stone by Smoot's college class.
To implement his use as a measuring unit, Oliver Smoot repeatedly lay down on the bridge, let his companions mark his new position in chalk or paint, and then got up again. 
People walking across the bridge today can see painted markings indicating how many smoots there are from where the sidewalk begins on the Boston river bank. The marks are repainted each semester by the incoming associate member class.

The markings have become well-accepted by the public, to the degree that during the bridge renovations that occurred in the 1980s, the Cambridge Police department requested that the markings be maintained, since they had become useful for identifying the location of accidents on the bridge.  The renovators went one better, by scoring the concrete surface of the sidewalk on the bridge at 5 foot 7 inch intervals, instead of the conventional six feet.  

Google Calculator also incorporates smoots, which it reckons at exactly 67 inches   Google also uses the smoot as an optional unit of measurement in their Google Earth software and Google Maps distance measurement too.

All the history in this town and I pick this one to go on and on about.  I think it is so interesting too.  


  This was the reason we were not able to exit the parking garage.  The race route was on the street for the entrance and exit of the garage.  So off we went to dinner,


Cheers was a television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was set in a bar with the characters visiting.

   I told you in yesterdays blog that the Special Ops officer suggested we go to Cheers for dinner.  This is our beer of choice.  

 We got up and headed back to Boston.  We had a fun day today too.  Here are some of the pix from the first day.  I will post tomorrow pix from today.  Soon I will stay home and catch up on this blog.  LOL