2026 RT - Boston part 2

Hi! We are still enjoying Boston! The weather forecast has been inaccurate but the weather good! LOL

On Tuesday we started the day at the Boston Tea Party museum. I really wanted to see this but was skeptical about a $39 museum. Dear reader, it was awesome!

It starts out on December 16, 1773 in the Old South Meeting Hall with an interactive re-enactment of the meeting that preceded the actual Boston Tea Party. The three ships loaded with 90,000+ pounds of tea have been in the harbor for almost 20 days. The law states that they have to be unloaded within 20 days and the tax on the tea paid. The Sons of Liberty had guarded the harbor to make sure that no one unloaded the tea because they didn't want to pay the tax. Something had to be done by day 20.

They couldn't steal the ships or steal the tea and offload it. It was decided that they would dump the tea in the harbor. This was an act of tyranny!

This boat is an exact replica of one of the tea-laden ships.

In 1770 the women in Boston had already agreed to boycott taxed tea. Further, the Daughters of Liberty had begun sewing their own clothes, etc to replace British goods.

While not as heavy as the original boxes, which weighed 100-300 pounds, we did get to throw tea overboard!

There was also a museum with the one remaining tea box that someone had found washed ashore. There we learned that Samuel Adams and John Hancock were charged with tyranny by King George III.

The Boston Tea Party was the single most important event leading to the Revolutionary War. The British responded by closing Boston Harbor, dissolving the Massachusettes government and forced colonists to house British troops.

These harsh punishments united the 13 colonies for the first time, leading directly to the formation of the First Continental Congress and the outbreak of armed conflict at Lexington and Concord.

After this museum we grabbed lunch at the Bell In Hand Tavern, started in 1795 by the retired town crier.

Next, we hustled to the Massachusetts State House for a tour. It is a beautiful building.

The seals of the 13 original colonies. Massachusettes is in the middle.

House of Representatives.

First thing I thought was this bird looks kind of like a turkey...

... turns out I was right. At the time this was built, the US was undecided if the national bird would be he turkey or the eagle. This "bird" could pass as either. 😂 Can you imagine if it were the turkey??? What would we eat at Thanksgiving??

We were really running today, next stop is across town at Fenway Park for a tour of the stadium. We are getting our money's worth using our subway/transit pass! Love, love, love taking the subway and busses instead of driving!!!

Behold, Fenway Park. Home of the Boston Red Sox. The oldest stadium in baseball. Opened in 1912.

Notice the Green Wall in left field, it is 37 feet, 2 inches (11.33 meters). The color is Fenway Green.

Roger Clements pitched a game with 20 strike outs while on the Red Sox.

On June 9, 1946 Ted Williams hit a home run 502 ft, the longest ever at Fenway, hitting the seat's occupant in the head and unconscious for a few minutes. It is now marked with a red seat in the right field outfield.

This is a rooftop beside Fenway park. In Spring 2015 Fenway farms was planted here on 2,400 sq ft of growing space. Over 6,000 pounds of produce are harvested annually. Much of the produce is used at Fenway and the rest is donated to charity.

Seats on the Green Wall!

Our actual seats were in the Grandstand. The forecast called for rain (duh). It was a beautiful night for a game! The Red Sox won!

They have a scoreboard in the outfield, same as our stadium at home. One little quirk - the scores for the National League (on the right) cannot be changed from behind the scoreboard as the rest can (ever since adding the support structure for the seats on top of the Green Monster). Between innings this dude came out with a step ladder and changed the information.

We had a great day learning about US history and Red Sox history.

On Wednesday 8/19 we headed to Lexington after doing laundry. We weren't sure about what we would do there but ended up with a ticket that let us see three houses/museums.

The first was Buckman Tavern. This was really a headquarters for the Sons of Liberty. They would gather here to talk about their protests, discuss grievances and strategies going forward.

Next was the Munroe Tavern. This building was used by the British after the battle to retreat and treat their wounded.

Nothing gets by these guys! LOL

The family had left one person behind to take care of the house. He was killed and the British took the house for their purposes.

Finally, the Hancock-Clarke house.

This house was a rectory, only preachers live there with their families. Rev. John Hancock lived there with his wife and 12 children. Most of the children were either preachers or farmers. One son, Thomas Hancock became a book binder in Boston and ended up quite wealthy. Rev. John Hancock was the grandfather of Patriot John Hancock. Patriot John Hancock was adopted by his (wealthy) uncle Thomas after his parents died. Indirectly (or perhaps directly) uncle Thomas funded his nephew's revolutionary efforts.

Thomas Hancock had this portrait done of his father Rev. john Hancock.

On April 18- 19, 1775 Paul Revere rode his fastest horse to this house (by then occupied by Rev. Clarke, his wife and his many, many children) to warn patriots John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British were coming. These are the rooms they would have been occupying.

Wealthy uncle Thomas had updated the house for his parents, the house still contains much of the original furnishings, etc. These are original Delft Tiles around the fireplace.

This would have been very expensive back in the late 1700's.

In the years leading up to the war the women protested the taxes by boycotting English goods. Instead, women such as Rachel Gould, the maker of these bed linens, made their own fabric, dyed the fabric and made their own yarn for embroidery. This is absolutely gorgeous 250+ years later.