Gene and Jan's Long Trip Too

Our 2 nd morning in Boston we walked the “Freedom Trail” which took us past many Revolutionary-era historic landmarks.  We started at the Boston Common, the central public park in downtown Boston.  Dating to 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States.  At the end of the Common is the (new) Massachusetts State House where the legislature meets. Adjacent to the Common is Park Street Church.  The founding of the church dated to 1804 when the “Religious Improvement Society” began weekly meetings with lectures and prayer.  The society organized the church and laid the cornerstone on May 1, 1809 with construction completed by the end of the year.  Its steeple rises 217 feet and remains a landmark visible from several Boston neighborhoods.  It remains an active church with a congregation of 1,000 members. Near the church is the Granary Burial Ground containing the graves of many prominent men active in the formation of the United S...

We spent 1-1/2 days at Boston.  The first day we chose to visit Cape Cod and see how the rich and famous spend their summers.  The traffic patterns in Boston makes travel difficult, old narrow roads that twist and wind, so our trip to the Cape took about 90 minutes.  Our first stop after reaching the Cape was at Sandwich, Massachusetts.  Many towns in the state are named after city's in England. ( I guess the 16th century colonists weren't creative enough to think of  original names.)  The grist mill above was built by Thomas Dexter in 1654 to grind corn into meal, the most important crop of that period. Across the street was the The First Church of Christ , a Congregational Church, founded in 1638.  When Elvis Presley cut his first gospel music record, a photo of this church was selected for its cover.  Then we traveled to Chatham, a seaside town at the southeast corner of Cape Cod.  Incorporated in 1712, its population of 6...