Boston


We visited Boston in April 2007 with the goal for Chris to complete the 111th running of the Boston Marathon. But there are lots of other sites in this historic city. Here is Sharon in the Boston Common park at the start of our city tour.

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We followed the "Freedom Trail" which is a walking route that checks out lots of highlights. NPS Website Here is the old state house with its gold dome.

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There was quite a bit of advertizing for the upcoming race. Here's a favorite banner.

Ben Franklin was born here. Here is a statue dedicated to one of the founding fathers of the country

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For the navagationally challenged, the Freedom Trail is marked with a stripe of paint or bricks.

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Da Man who is a hero of the first day of the revolution. Paul Revere.

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Here is the Old North Church where the famous lantern, "One if by land, two if by sea", was hung to alert the colonists that the British were coming!

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The USS Constitution war ship is here in Boston. Commissioned in 1797, it is the oldest ship on active duty in the world. Her web site

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For a sailing ship, this thing was massive. 204' long, 220' tall with 500 crewmen, and 44 cannons.

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It still can sail and they take it out in the harbor in summer months.

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Nearby is Bunker Hill, site of one of the first skirmishes of the revolution. A 221' tall obilisk was built as a memorial

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Contrary to intelligent pre-marathon planning, we just had to climb the stairs to the top. Here Sharon scopes out Boston from the high perch.

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After that we walked the beautiful old campus of Harvard and attempted to absorb some of the brain power in the vacinity. MIT is nearby too.

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A full blown nor'easter storm engulfed the region on Sunday. Here is the ominous headlines.

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We went to the marathon expo to get situated before the race. Then ventured outside to the finish line. Running with an umbrella crosses your mind in weather like this!

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It was best to stay indoors so we visited the New England Aquarium which was pretty cool. Here is a strange looking seahorse/plant/alien looking dodad.

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Monday dawned with 50 mph winds and sheets of rain! They bused 20000 runners from downtown out to the starting area in rural Hopkinton and waited a couple hours in a big tent. Met people from all over the country including a fellow 1991 NIU alumni!

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But miraculously, the storm tappered off right at the start! Besides soggy feet, the conditions actually weren't too bad except the occasional wind gust. Here is a shot just before the gun went off to prove Chris was indeed in Hopkinton. No Rosie Ruiz episode in the works!

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Photographers were situated along the course which goes through small towns as it heads east towards Boston. Here are some shots snatched. Midway, about Mile 20 and the finish line.

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This race was likely a one time shot so a digicam was brought along to capture the memory on video. 10MB Movie. Click to play or Right Mouse click and do a "Save Target As" to your PC.

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Here is the route the race takes.

On our last day in Boston, Chris checked out the JFK Museum and also his company's office located in the western suburbs while Sharon did a little shopping downtown. And we polished things off with a nice dinner with one of Chris's coworkers and his wife near their home at Harvard.


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