Boston ... my dogs are barking!

You know it has been a rigorous trip when everyone is EXCITED to be able to sleep in until 7 AM!!! The students enjoyed their "sleep in" and were up and out to Boston by around 9.

We started with a quick drive through the city. The bus stopped at the Boston Commons where we began our walking tour of the Freedom Trail ... also known as the Torture Trail (at least I am pretty sure that is what some of the students thought about having to WALK 2 1/2 miles! We are slave drivers after all ... we only gave them about 6 hours to complete the 2.5 miles, so the complaining was only to be expected).

We saw the Massachusetts State House, the Granary Burying Ground -- which has many distinguished guests: Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Robert Treat Paine. They also saw the first Public School site -- this is the school that Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams and John Hancock all attended. We walked to the Boston Massacre site - it was at this site that five people were shot and killed by British soldiers. Massacre: the vicious killing of a large number of people. Five people ... hmmmm. We also walked by Paul Revere's home, which is surrounded by cobble stone streets. It was a very pretty, picturesque walk! Lunch was at Faneuil Hall, where a lot of us had lobster rolls -- can't go to New England without having a little lobster!

After lunch there was a vigorous and refreshing walk to the Old North Church. It was here that Zach Bart wanted to know "What is so special about this church?" After telling him that this is where the lanterns from "one if by land, two if by sea" were placed he said, "Oh, is that all?"

Some of us walked from this site over the bridge and all the way to the Bunker Hill Monument ... a total of about 1 mile - There was only about 15 of the students who were willing to make the hike. We stopped at the other side of the bridge to take a picture, and the students posed as if they had just conquered Mount Everest!

At Bunker Hill Monument many of us hiked to the top -- a total of 294 very steep steps. The view from the top made the hike very worth while ... but it didn't keep my muscles from shaking violently.

Our tour guide informed us that the phrase "My dogs are barking" comes from the fact that shoes in the 1600s were sometimes made out of dog skin! Yikes ... poor Clifford. By the end of all of this we definitely had some barking dogs ... and crying students ... apparently "nobody walks in L.A."

Our tour guide showed us the newest addition to Boston - a huge bridge that was supposed to help with traffic over the river. This city project cost about 15 billion dollars -- an amount that forced the government to put into action a "luxury tax" of 6% (on things like alcohol and cigarettes). She then informed us that this fancy new bridge did not help the traffic at all, it sometimes took her 45 minutes to drive what would normally be a 20 minute drive! As we drove around the city she kept announcing on the microphone, "If you look out the left window you will see all of our city traffic. Look at all that traffic! And that is after a 15 billion dollar bridge that was supposed to get rid of traffic! Can you imagine driving in that??!!" We tried to explain that we were from Los Angeles and that YES we could imagine driving in that!!! Alas, she did not seem to understand and continued to repeat -- over and over and over again -- how much traffic the 15 billion dollar bridge caused!

Some of the students (several actually) decided to wear Laker jerseys ... in Boston. At one point a man loading a truck began to tell students to take their Laker shirts elsewhere. Our kids tried to defend their team's honor (which was obviously what they were hoping to do when they put the shirts on in the morning). As the students walked away the man waved his arms and said "Ahhhh forget about it!" It was a very Bostonian experience.

Dinner was at the Boston Hard Rock Cafe. There was some kind of Ducati showing ... so after dinner the students surrounded the bikes and took pictures -- images of these beautiful motorcycles falling down in a domino effect were flashing through my mind -- we made it through with out getting into any Boston Biker Fights ... phew. I have never seen one, but I can imagine a Boston biker might be VERY VERY scary.

After dinner we headed home for swimming and packing ... this is our last night on the East Coast trip and we are all very sad to be going home ... at least I know I am, I wish I could stay here in this hotel with 57 8th graders for weeks and weeks ...

It has been a great trip. The students have been excellent, but we are all happy to be heading back home to our families. I will send out one more blog after I get home -- by then, however, you will have your son or daughter back and they can tell you all about our East Coast trip in person!