Boston Day 3: Freedom Trail and Public Gardens

On Saturday we followed these bricks through downtown Boston to see historic sites on the Freedom Trail.

 For our resident history buff it was a perfect outing;

 for the girlies, it was a very long day...

although, they did have fun playing inside these little chambers in one of the churches. I believe they were playing the Big Bad Wolf here.

 They (and I) would probably enjoy church much more if we had our own private section of benches with a door to sit in! Maybe I'll suggest a remodel...

Pulling out flags marking special graves. Awesome.

John Hancock Grave and Memorial

Paul Revere's original headstone.

Memorial added later.

Contemplating pulling out this big flag, despite my instructions to leave it alone.

Victims of the Boston Massacre

Samuel Adams

"Hold me, mom! Hold me!" Cailyn wraps her arms around my legs and looks up at me whining like this several times a day.

 We made it through a little more than half of the sites on the trail, including a tour of the Old City Hall (from which you can see the site of the Boston Massacre) and then decided to call it good...the girls were over it!

 So we headed to the Boston Public Gardens. The girls had been looking forward to this visit for weeks because they love the book Make Way for Ducklings and I had told them that we would be able to ride the swan boats and see the statues of the ducks.

Unfortunately we were about two weeks too late to ride the swan boats; they only run from late Spring until the middle of September. Bummer! But we still got to see the statues, and the girls played and played with them. They kept pointing at different ducklings and asking "Which one is this?" Then we'd start from the beginning - "Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack, Quack" - until we got to the right duckling. They also loved sitting on Mrs. Mallard.

 When we told the girls it was time to go they of course protested. Cailyn finally agreed that if she could leave her Purple Blankie to keep the duck warm that she would come. No, that is not a typo. And if you know anything about Cailyn, this should tell you how much she LOVED these ducks! Her Purple Blankie has basically been attached to her since she was born.

 We walked around the pond and over the bridge

(Oh, and I stepped right into the middle of a marriage proposal while taking these pictures! I backed up and crouched down right in the middle of the couple and their friends or family who were watching from a few yards away, seconds before they all made their presence known to the girl by coming up and hugging and congratulating her. Whoops!)

 where we had a good view of the little island where the Mallard family lives in the book.

 Then we got up close to the swans...even if the boats were shut down, the real swans were still out (:

 Then Rylee noticed this statue on the other side of the bridge and said "Mom, there it is! That's what we were looking for!" She had seen a picture of it on the cover of a Freedom Trail pamphlet we picked up earlier in the day; she knew that is was a map of sorts and asked me if the statue is what the map was taking us to. I was surprised that she recognized and remembered it!

As we headed for our car, Cailyn danced her way across the bridge and through the park singing to herself.

I just love this girl! She is totally in her own world and loves all things girly. I loved watching her sing and dance and twirl her way through the crowds.

Oh, and notice her dress. It was a much warmer day than the day before when I made her wear the terrible jeans, so she got to choose this. Heaven.
Also, hear Rylee asking to take a picture or video of Cailyn? That is one of her favorite hobbies these days - taking pictures and videos on my phone.