Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Wordless Wednesday, 7:25 this morning...

Monday, November 7, 2011

Pictures of Boston

Downtown Boston Skyline
This building was the seat of Massachussetts government and many historical events happened here, incliding the Boston Massacre on its front lawn, and the reading of the Declaration of Independence just14 days after it had been signed.  (I think this picture is actually the back side.)
Revolutionary War artifacts, in the Old State House.
A statue of Benjamin Franklin, Boston was his hometown.
The Old North Church, from whose 14 story steeple Paul Revere was signaled to tell the colonists, "the Brittish are coming!"  You know the story!
Statue of Paul Revere.  We were so unfortunate to get there after the church and other special buildings on the Freedom Trail were already closed.  Behind the statue is a courtyard lined with plaques of historical information.  If I remember right, America's first school was built in that area.(?)
The USS Constitution, the oldest ship still sea worthy.
A residential street on the north side of downtown.  There are 2-3-4 story buildings everywhere, all are very old, and they are filled with apartments, some quite large, I am guessing.  We noticed the streets are extremely clean.  No garbage blowing around these streets!  The narrow roads (not wide enough for traffic) are another indication of their age!
This is the view from our hotel window.  Not bad for an industrial area!  The oil tankers come to this area to unload into huge "bins"(??? I'm from Iowa, I don't actually know what they're called!).

Sadly, we never made it to Bunker Hill.  Our walk was long, my feet had blisters, and it was getting dark.  We were a little nervous about finding our way back to a train station and it was hard to tell by the train map what streets the stops were at from where we were.
We had a beautiful flight home this morning: NO turbulence, sunshine, it was AWESOME to get close to home and actually identify the towns and roads below us!  We couldn't see our house, as they fly directly over it.  (We knew that- we see them all the time!)  We could even see the pavement at the end of our gravel road!


Friday, November 4, 2011

Boston, Mass.

By God's divine intervention and appointment, Dallas and I are in Boston, Mass for a real estate class.  Like, what are the chances we could find people to watch 5 kids for 5 days, get the most timely flights out here, the most accommodating and least expensive hotel in the area, and then get a Christian POWERHOUSE teacher!!  As he introduced himslef this morning, it hit me just how Sovereign the Lord is in our lives!

Thursday morning we got up at 3:30 a.m. for our 6:00 flight.  Everything went so smoothly (except the turbulance all the way to Chicago!)  We arrived in Boston on time and had the afternoon to do the Freedom Walk.  (Which I HIGHLY recommend for anyone ever visiting Boston!)  The walk is free, and we bought a $7 guide book.

Yesterday we toured downtown Boston.  We saw the site of the Boston Masacre and our original "Capitol" building (The Old State House,)  Massachusseett's original state building (INCREDIBLE ARCHITECTURE!!)  Paul Revere's home and statue.  "The Old North Church" where someone hung a light in the bell tower to notify Paul Revere that the British were coming.  It is SO TALL!  It is hard to believe the architecture of that time, when they didn't have heavy equipment or seemingly the means of doint that!  We saw the USS Constitution and we could see the Bunker Hill monument, but were too tired to go there.  It is a walking tour and they said it was 2-1/2 miles but it sure seemed farther!  (I have the blisters on my feet to prove it!)  There are so many things to see and the wonderful smells of all the restaurants.  It was a BEAUTIFUL mid 60's day with sunshine, and downtown where the buildings are so close there is no wind so it was nice and warm there. 

It was so neat to look down the alleys.  The buildings are so old that the "streets" between some of the 3-4 story apartment buildings aren't wide enough for cars, so they are like really wide sidewalks.  Some are barely wide enough and are one-way.  It was weird, we'd be walking along and there would be an open door and if you looked in, you were looking at someone's kitchen!  One dould easily look out their window and watch someone else in their 2nd story kitchen!  I wasn't sure if they were really narrow 3-story houses, or if each level was an apartment, but only 2-3 feet from the street!  We are enjoying the Harbour, we can see a small inlet of it from our hotel room. 

I HATE FLYING!!!  It has been 16 years since I went to Honduras and that had been my only time.  I almost got sick between Chicago and Boston.  They gave me a Sprite and I sipped on it the last 1/2 of the trip... that saved me!  (Whew!)  Once we came out of the clouds and could see ground, we were horrified to see SNOW EVERYWHERE!!!  But when we landed the captains said it was 61* in Boston. (YEAH!)  The east coast was "dumped" on last weekend, still homes without power.

When I get home I will add pictures. (I am writing this on the hotel computer.)