The Boston Invasion: Day 1

Look out Boston--on May 17 Summer came to town!

















My first picture in Boston!







On Beacon Street in front of the Boston Common (not Commons, as Kaci and I would both like to point out).














On the same corner facing the other way. That pose is kinda weird--looks like I'm doing "I'm a little teapot."


The Boston Common
The Common covers almost 50 acres and is the oldest and most famous public park in the US, dating back to 1634. It was used as a "common pasture" for cattle grazing, hence the name. The redcoats camped there before the Revolution--it's from there they left for Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Public hangings were held in the Common until 1817 when the gallows were removed. Mary Dyer, the famous Quaker, was hanged there in 1660 (along with three other Quakers) because it was illegal for Quakers to be in Massachusetts and she refused to deny her faith. She is said to be the only woman in the US to die for religious freedom, and there's a statue of her in front of the Statehouse across the street from the Common. Pope John Paul II said some famous stuff there in 1979 when over 100,000 people came to hear him in the pouring rain (I think that was his first mass in the US). Martin Luther King Jr. (BU's most famous alumnus) also gave a famous speech there, and the start of the Freedom Trail is located there. In 1830 cattle grazing was forbidden and it became a city park. Cool, huh? There's also the Revolutionary War Memorial, the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, and a statue of William Ellery Channing, the early nineteenth century Unitarian minister famous for his belief in a loving God. I have to mention that he was born in Newport, RI (since I've been there--heehee). He graduated from Harvard and then spent most of the rest of his life (39 years) preaching at the Federal Street Church in Boston. He's famous for two sermons: "Unitarian Christianity," in which he rejected the Trinity, and "Likeness to God," about human potential. Although he considered them extreme, Channing influenced the Transcendentalists, and had two Transcendentalist nephews.











In the Common in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse. There were news vans lined up in front of it that day, and Kace said there often are. It makes her feel important.














On another corner of the Common. The sign says Est. 1634. Pretty old, huh?










In front of the fountain, and an Irish immigration protest or rally or something.


The Public Garden (again, singular)
The Garden was est. in 1837 as the first public botanical garden in the US. It used to be a swamp land, but now it's a beautifully landscaped 24-acre park with a 4-acre pond in the middle. There's also a sweet statue of George Washington on a horse, and of course the Make Way for Ducklings ducks. There were kids playing on them so we didn't take any pictures. The Garden and Common are the northernmost end of the "Emerald Necklace," a string of Boston parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.








I was sad that the tulips were dying but it was still very pretty.
































I like this one...



And this one because Kaci's in it! :)







The statue in the middle of the fountain is a cougar and an eagle--or something like that.




The swan boats on the lagoon.






The swan didn't want to pose with me.













It was raining leaves!