August 5, 2013

This morning started at 4:30.  I have signed up for a 2 mile open water swim in Lake Placid, NY that I incorporated into our vacation so instead of not worrying about exercising, we got up this morning and went over to the Middleboro YMCA so I could swim and Scott could workout.  I was in the pool by 5:30 and managed to get about 3500 yards in.  Afterwards, we had breakfast in the camper and then headed to the train station to catch a train into Boston.  Lorelei was pleased to have a double decker train, we sat on top, and the ride was nice and smooth the whole way in.

We were in Boston by 9:30 and headed through Boston Common over to the Massachusetts State House.  It was massive building and was one of the best decorated we have been in.  They had a cool room with all of the flags in Massachusetts that was called, surprisingly, the Hall of Flags.  The dome was also a great piece of stained glass and represented the 13 original colonies.  After our tour, we strolled through downtown and followed a lot of the Freedom Trail even though we didn't realize we were on it until we got to Faneuil Hall which is the National Park visitor center.  We looked at the junior ranger books but when we realized int was going to be about 3 more hours of retracing things we had already seen, we decided that the badge was simply not worth it.  Lorelei is on this quest to get all of them but when they stop being fun, it is time to reassess.

So we decided to take a lunch break at a Panera Cares, which is just like a regular Panera in the food but works to provide food to underprivileged and the price is a suggested donation instead of a required amount.  We paid for our food and gave a little extra and had a much needed break from the walking.  Next, we walked down to Long Wharf to catch the ferry out to the Boston Harbor Islands - Georges Island.  Fort Warren, which guarded the harbor during the Civil War, WWI and WWII is here.  We explored the fort and managed to complete the junior ranger books.

The 3:30 ferry back to Boston returned us to Long Wharf and then after a little souvenir browsing and finding nothing appealing, we headed back to the train station to get a ride back to the FunV.  We figure we walked about 4 miles today which doesn't sound like a lot but all of us are tired and sore.  The best part is no one really complained until the very end.  And those complaints were alleviated when we grabbed sweet tea and ice cream at McDonald's.  The kids were happy to get back to the campground with daylight to play in and enjoyed the bouncy pillow while Scott and I cleaned and setup camp for the night.  A nice family dinner, showers and our beds never felt so good.  Driving day tomorrow visiting parks on the outskirts of Boston.