The Freedom Trail

Yesterday on our mutual day off, Nathan and I found ourselves without much of a plan. Of course immediate thoughts of spare time turn towards the house. We originally thought Sunday might be reserved for an Ikea trip, but we're still waiting for our zipcar registration to go through. Also, as luck would have it, we found out Naomi's dad has a storage unit in Rhode Island that he needs to liquidate. To our mutual benefit, he is sending us a truck full of furniture! I know, unbelievable good fortune.

So, as we await the truck next week, house arrangements are somewhat on hold. With this absolutely free and sunshiney day, we decided to finally take to the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is quite literally a red line running through the city which passes revolutionary history landmarks. It begins at the State House and ends at the USS Constitution. We agreed that whether or not one takes in the historical sites, it's a great way to see a little bit of the whole city.

This actually wasn't part of the trail, but the facade of the Baptist Temple downtown has caught my eye more than once.

Statue of Ben Franklin in front of the Old City Hall, notable as the first honorary statue dressed in clothing concurrent to the period. This building is also hailed for its reuse, now no longer used for city hall.

We had never explored the North End, Boston's Italian district, and were excited to walk through during one of their festivals. Every weekend of July and August they celebrate the Madonna with a parade and tons of food. You can see that people have pinned dollar bills to the Madonna icon.

At this point, we stopped for a lunch break at one of the many Italian restaurants in the district. It was amazing. We think we'll be going back to the North End for dinner, and hopefully soon.

Towards the end of the Trail you enter Charlestown and see the imposing obelisk of the Bunker Hill Monument.

The view from the top is wonderful (despite the construction).

But the climb up is a challenge. 275 steps is no small feat. Perhaps it's more than coincidence that this is near the end of the trail because going up and down is fairly exhausting. It made me at least less concerned about the large Italian pasta lunch.

We finished up at the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. We didn't stay for the full 1/2 hour tour but wandered around the deck a while. To imagine that huge ship at sea...

It was a full, well spent day. In fact, there's little more I like than just wandering around the city with this fellow. We finished off the day with rootbeer floats at Brigham's (did I tell you we have an ice cream joint just down the street?) and a few episodes of House and a good sleep.

Sharing a tired, quiet moment over lunch, I thought about all the anxieties I've been fixated on lately. We spent so much time thinking about this move, trying to find the 'right' place to live, attempting to put together a semblance of a complete life. Even then at lunch I wondered if we'd gotten to know the city well enough before choosing our spot. Though all in all, those things are not so much a worry. It makes sense on days like this when I find myself in some corner of the world, sitting across a table from Nathan. I think it takes a lot to make me happy, but it doesn't take too much.