A little over two years ago, my family got a chance to take a trip to the New England area of the United States because of a benefit my father had gained at his workplace. While we were able to experience the sights and entertainment of New York, Boston, and Washington, attending a Blue Man concert and a viewing of the play “Chicago,” I would like to focus my account of this trip on a period of several days spent in and around Boston, Massachusetts.
After spending two days in New York, my family took a flight into Boston, later in the day. Because my father’s company is quite gracious, we stayed the nights in Boston at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, given what the hotel dubs “Gold” accommodations. The next day would be our first in Boston.
Because I enjoy history and related topics so much, with the Revolutionary and Civil wars being my main points of interest, we as a family visited the neighboring town of Lexington to begin our travels in this state. Here we quickly arrived at what the people of Lexington call the Common, a patch of grass centered in the middle of the town. What makes this seemingly normal area different, though, is that fact that on that same patch of land, the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired. It was here that American Minutemen (who were primarily farmers with few or no weapons) challenged an army of British soldiers on April 19, 1775. To remember this extraordinary event and those who had stood up to the might of the “Red Coats,” as the early Americans called the British, a statue stands in the likeness of a minute man at the front of the Common.
To follow this certain historic movement, we drove a short distance to Concord, where a national park was formed to preserve the importance of the area and the battle that took place between the minutemen and British. In this park, the Minute Man National Historic Park, stands the Old North Bridge marking the spot where several regiments of minutemen and American soldiers alike stood against a small force of light infantry British units. The area was incredible, and it was hard to not to imagine regiments of American farmers trying to fortify a nearby hill with British units charging from the direction of Lexington. For this particular skirmish a statue is constructed, again in the likeness of a minuteman, nearby.
After this venture, we returned to downtown Boston to explore some of the earlier events of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Visiting the Old North Church, we were able to see the steeple in which Paul Revere would have asked Robert Newman to hang one lamp if the British were approaching by land, and two if by sea. It is also from this area that Paul Revere would begin his famous midnight run to warn colonists and revolutionary leaders “The regulars are coming out!” This sense of historical importance resounded in the area, as it was here that actions taken by our ancestors would begin to create a free nation we call today the United States.
As other members of my family had other interests, we spent the rest of the day exploring downtown and later eating at the well-known Hard Rock Cafe, or as locals jokingly call it, The Massachusetts Institute of Rock, a spin-off of the local University, MIT.
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