Zollinger Adventures: Liberty Trail Edition of the Boston Chronicles

So, after spending the day in Newport, we made our way to Boston and did the Freedom Trail. There literally is a line of bricks snaking through the city showing you where all the cool historical stuff is located. 

Boston Common, the oldest public park in America. They used to hang witches here. (They don't do that anymore) 

Park Street Church. Most of the old churches we saw still have active congregations, which I think is cool. 

I didn't expect this, but one of my favorite things on the trail was all the old cemeteries. All the monuments in these cemeteries were from the 1600s and 1700s. This is Granary Burying Ground, where John Hancock, Paul Revere, Sam Adams, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are buried. Other graves we saw were John Winthrop, the Mather family, and Mary Chilton...the first woman off the MAYFLOWER. Yeah. The Mayflower. 

Look at this beautiful tree. 

Boston Massacre memorial. 

Paul Revere's family pew. No big deal. 

Old State House, where the Declaration was first read in Boston. 

Paul Revere's house. I love how these historical places are just tucked in among more modern buildings. It gives East Coast cities a special character that you just don't see as often in the West. This is where Paul Revere started out when he saw the two lanterns. You know, The British are coming! The British are coming! I feel like a lot of sites in Boston claimed to be where Paul Revere rode, though...so who knows. 

Paul Revere statue by the Old North Church. 

Taking a little break. Look at this cute guy. 

When you smile so hard your paci falls out. 

Look at these adorable apartments just tucked in an alcove between the Paul Revere monument and Old North Church. What must it be like to live here? Fun, I'm guessing (and expensive). 

Feeling artistic-y. 

The USS Constitution, or Old Ironsides. It's the oldest warship still in commission, which is cool. Active duty Navy guys take you on and let you tour it. They still take this baby out to sail every once in while! Cool stuff.

Brynn and me, swabbing the deck. 

We took a little boat through Boston Harbor so we wouldn't have to walk the whole trail back to the subway station. 

That night we went to Fenway Park and watched a Red Sox game. Greg is a Yankees fan, so this was Enemy Territory. But, you know, iconic park and everything. I'm pretty sure this was Greg's favorite thing we did all day, even though the Red Sox killed the Astros. 

I'm pretty sure this is Greg's favorite picture we took all day, too, so I'll save it for last. Big Papi, striking out. It looks like we had amazing seats. We had good seats, but mostly we were just messing around with the zoom lens on the camera. Have I mentioned how much I love that thing? 

Zollinger Adventures: Newport Edition of the Boston Chronicles

Greg STILL has paid paternity leave left, so last week we took a little jaunt over to Boston. Oh, yeah, and we stopped in Newport and Quincy and Old Orchard Beach and Portland too.

It was awesome. 

I have loved living on the East Coast and having the opportunity to get to do things like this. Sometimes I think maybe I'm starting to take all the traveling for granted. Yes, it's been crazy to move so much in the last few years, but I wouldn't trade the experiences we've had for anything. There's a brief time in our lives when it's so easy for us to pick up and do things like this, and I'm happy we've taken advantage of it. 

Plus, we have the cutest traveling companion ever.

This little baby is so easy, we can drag her just about anywhere. And we do. The other day we counted, and Brynn has been to 19 states so far, plus the District of Columbia. That's not including airports. 

I have so many pictures and so many memories I want to store here on our little blog that I think I'm going to have to break up posts. Otherwise there would be about 200 pictures here and, let's face, that definitely qualifies as an overload. 

First on our trip was Newport, Rhode Island. I've wanted to go here and see the mansion houses ever since my slightly-obsessed history teacher in the 10th grade showed us about 100 slides of him visiting the summer cottages of the Gilded Age millionaires. So there was no way I was going to pass this up. Newport is an adorable sea town on an island. We got tickets to tour The Breakers and Marble House, both built by Vanderbilts. They definitely did not disappoint. 

The Breakers 

So the Newport Historical Society has just barely started allowing people to take pictures inside the mansions, as long as you sign a release saying you won't sell the images. I felt pretty snazzy walkin' around with my fancy pantsy camera, signing releases and stuff.

Beautiful, right? And over the top, but also beautiful. It reminded me of that one time I went to Europe. 

Funny story about this bathtub. It is made from a solid piece of marble. So to get it ready for some rich Vanderbilt guy to take a bath in it, they had to fill it and empty it multiple times to get it warm, because the marble would make the water cold instead of the other way around. Crazy. 

The ocean view. 

I think they have enough pots, don't you? 

I'm still just amazed at the awesomeness that is my camera. I wish I was more confident in my ability to shoot in manual all the time, but I'm still learning. It's still pretty fun, though. 

Marble House 

The Gothic Room. It was basically a personal museum. Greg really liked this room, although I  thought it was a little bit creepy. 

The lowly servants' staircase. 

Easily the best picture we took all day: 

I love the ocean. Sigh. Guess I'd better move to Florida soon.

We decided this was an engraving honoring the Greek women who changed diapers. Look closely: 

A great day with a great baby! 

That night we drove into Boston and stayed next to Harvard, and the next day we did the Freedom Trail. I hope to get those pictures up tomorrow! 

Two Very Different Books

Still trying to keep updated on the books I've been reading. In the last few weeks I finished two very different books. 

So, I'll come straight out and say that I don't think this book ^ was very well-written. But it's about the social context surrounding birth, and that's always interested me. A few parts I skipped or skimmed, mostly because certain parts were very blunt. I don't have any problems with bluntness (is that a word?), especially when it comes to birth and fertility. I think anybody could ask me anything and I'd be willing to talk about it. But some sections were just hard for me to read based on past experiences. I have a complicated relationship with the topic of giving birth. I think most, if not all, women who have tried to have children or have had children could probably say the same thing. 

So I found this little YA novel in the Springfield Township library. It's the second in a series. I read the first one--The Thief--when I was a young teenager and loved it. I loved it so much I must have read it three or four times at least, but I didn't even really know there were more. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with this one. While I was reading, I kept thinking, Well, that's stupid, or, Hey, that doesn't fit the character at all! I can't decide if the first book was really better or if my taste has just improved in the last ten years. Even though I kept being annoyed while reading, I have to concede that I'm definitely interested in reading the next book. Easy adventure books are a necessity every once in a while.