New England Day 14: Boston: Old North Church, USS Constitution, Bunker Hill

Friday, we continued our exploration of the Freedom Trail.

This mosaic marks the location of the Latin School, the oldest public school in America. It was established by Puritan settlers in 1635.

Statue of Benjamin Franklin overlooking the site of the first school.

Couple of nice statues in the plaza close to our hotel and the Old South Meeting House.  These celebrated Irish immigration due to the Potato Famine of  1845-1849.  Over a million Irish died and another million emigrated.

Matthew walking along the Freedom Trail. There is a red line, sometimes in brick, sometimes in paint, that runs the entire 2.5 mile length of the Freedom Trail and Matthew walked all of it!

Megan walking on the Freedom Trail.

Statue of Paul Revere on his horse. It's located close to his home, which we visited the previous day.

Our next stop was the Old North Church.

These stairs date to colonial days.

These ropes are used to ring the bells in the bell tower. It's impressive to see and hear. Paul Revere was one of the initial bell ringers for the church.

One of the original windows of the church.

One if by land and two if by sea....
We only went as high as the bell ringing level. The window where the lanterns were hung is much higher (up two more flights of stairs and then 4 flights of ladders) and is not publically accessible.

We also got to tour the crypt.

Example of what a coffin looked like. They put another piece of wood over the top.

They are redoing a lot of the tombs.

Courtyard of the Old North Church by the crypt.

The third lantern that was lit by President Ford on April 18, 1975 and dedicated to our third century of freedom.

A couple of shots of the Old North Church from the courtyard.

We toured the chapel of the Old North Church. There is a lot of information in the pews about what happened on April 18-19, 1775.

Bust of George Washington that Lafayette said looked like him.

Organ and clock. The clock is from 1726.

After, we visited Captain Jackson's Historic Chocolate Shop which is on church grounds. They showed us all the different spices they can add to the chocolate.

Cheese!

Plaque on the outside of the church.

Looking down the street at the Old North Church. Can you see the plaque from the above picture?

We stopped by Copp's Hill Burying Ground.

Skinny house!

Beautiful bridge connecting Boston to its suburbs.

We visited the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.

Exploring the deck of the ship.

Couple cannons at the back of the ship with the officers' quarters behind.

Megan and U with one of the many cannons.

Couple pictures of the officer's rooms.

Where the enlisted men would sleep.

U with the USS Constitution. It's really a beautiful ship!

Cute little tug boat!

Old safety ad.

The USS Cassin Young. We visited it a bit later as it was closed due to high tide.

We walked through Charlestown on our way to Bunker Hill.

Megan, Me and Matthew with the Bunker Hill Monument.

Matthew and U with Colonel William Prescott, commander of the Patriot forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Soldier Matthew.

The Adams cannon with the hole in the barrel. We saw the Hancock cannon at the North Bridge Visitor Center in Concord.

Views of Boston from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument.

Money people have squeezed out the windows.

It's a long way down! 294 steps. Better hope the grate is secure!!!

Memorial within the monument 

View up the monument.

Matthew and Me are almost as tall as the monument.

Matthew taller than the Bunker Hill Monument.

View of the Bunker Hill Monument from the Charlestown Navy Yard.

We then toured the USS Cassin Young. Those are some big guns!

Megan on the deck.

U helping Matthew aim one of the anti-aircraft missiles.

Matthew takes cover.

Couple shots of the USS Cassin Young from the dock.

We went to the USS Constitution Museum where there were a lot of hands on activities to teach about life aboard a ship.

Matthew and Megan learn how to caulk a ship. It's a multistep task that takes a lot of time!

Sailor U!

U, Matthew and Megan resting during one of their short breaks.

Megan and Matthew loved cooking food for us to eat.

Me's turn for a rest.

Megan, Me and Matthew rigging the sails.

Matthew learning how to sand the deck.

Model of the USS Constitution with all its sails unfurled. Beautiful!

We took a ferry across the harbor on our way back to our hotel.