We kicked off our celebration by attending the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Old State House. It was a lovely and patriotic ceremony.
We took off on a “hop-on/hop-off” trolley tour of Boston next, and promptly “hopped-off” at the Charlestown Navy yard to catch another historical tribute. The USS Constitution (the oldest floating warship, nicknamed “Old Ironsides”) makes an annual turn-around sail and fires a 21 gun salute on the 4th of July each year.
There she goes! By the way, Trav now refers to me as “Old Ironsides”…he claims I nicknamed myself after we saw the ship, but don’t believe him!
There’s a pretty good museum at the Navy Yard, and another warship you can actually tour. It also boasts a great view of the city of Boston.
We hopped on our tour after the Navy Yard, saw quite a bit more of the city, and made our way to Fenway Park. The Boston Red Sox were playing the Baltimore Orioles, and the game was sold out. We actually were able to pick up some pretty decent seats (the game was an un-planned detour on the trip) and made our way into the game. Trav took approximately 50 pics of Fenway Park, and here are the highlights:
It was a HOT 4th of July, but I can’t think of anything more American than a baseball game at Fenway!
We eventually made our way back to our hotel (we stayed at the Omni Parker House, home of the Parker House dinner roll and the location where Jack proposed to Jackie) and dressed for dinner.
We ate at Atlantic Fish Co…..mmmm, the fresh seafood in Boston is amazing! On our way to fireworks after dinner, we walked through Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Love these adorable brownstones:
And finally, we made it to the Boston Pops performance, which featured country singer Toby Keith as a special guest (Lady Gaga was in town the night before and I kept hoping she would make an appearance! No such luck.)
Happy 4th of July America!
