Boston- Friday, May 2, 2025

      I spent a lot of today feeling guilty about not being there for Julie.  She had her knee replacement surgery today, and I had previously agreed to come to Boston with the 8th graders.  She said I should go, anyway so I did. 

     Breakfast in the hotel for the kids was pretty good.  I solved a mystery from last night too.  During the night, I went and took a sip from a Diet Coke I had brought, but then I felt like I was going to throw up and I didn't know why.  It turns out that the refrigerator in  the room was set very high and the pop was being super-cooled in the bottle.  It's temperature was below freezing, but it couldn't freeze because of the pressure in the bottle.  I had seen this kind of thing before, and even done it on purpose a few times.  If you poor it into a glass, it turns into a slush almost instantly.  Last night, however, it was turning into a slush in my stomach and my stomach didn't like that.

     Our first stop today was "The Freedom Trail."  Even though I just did it with Brian S. two weeks ago, I was looking forward to it.   It would be nice to hear about places from a knowledgeable guide.  There were also places that we didn't spend much time at that I wanted to see a little more like the site of the Boston Massacre or the South Meeting House, where the Boston Tea Party began.  Brian and I had rushed through both of those because he was looking for a place to go to the bathroom.

     We were dropped off at the aquarium again, mostly because there is a spot where the buses can pull up.  That is very near Faneuil Hall, which is sort of in the middle of the Freedom Trail.  I figured that we were probably going to do the south half of it, where most of the sites are.  To my surprise we turned north and wound our way through some of the North End neighborhood.  The tour that we got ended up being a North End tour, with a few Freedom Trail highlights.  Each bus had a tour guide.  Ours was a former 8th grade teacher, so I was expecting he would be ok.  However, it was difficult for him to find places for the tour to stop in the urban neighborhoods.  When he did stop, construction work and city noises often made it hard for everyone to hear.  Also, he ended up taking us to three Paul Revere sites-- the equestrian statue, the Old North Church, and North Square across from the Paul Revere House.  I thought it was an odd order to take them in and an odd choice for our only three stops on the actual Freedom Trail.  We did get a chance to go in to the Old North Church, which I had never done before.  We sat in the box pews, which was interesting, and listened to a different soft-spoken guide give a dry recitation about the church and its roll in the community and Revere's ride.  I was left wishing that we had gone south to the other sites.

     We turned south again after the Old North Church and completed our circuit.  We ended at Faneuil Hall, the combination market and town meeting house.   There is a lot of construction being done there, so even though we went up to the second floor, we mostly just got to see the meeting room in the process of being worked on.   After that the kids got a chance to go to the nearby Quincy Market where they could buy lunch.  I was too tired after our walk and wasn't really interested in standing in line so I ended up postponing my lunch.

       We got back on the buses and headed to Fenway.  This time a tour guide rode on our bus instead of the other.  The bus followed the Freedom Trail as it started to drive away.  I was wondering if our guide was going to actually going to say anything, and as we were approaching the Old State House, I took the bus's microphone in frustration and started telling the kids that it they should recognize it as the scene of the Boston Massacre from the picture that we use in class.  The guide then started telling us a few dry things about the Freedom Trail as we continued.  At the same time, he was trying to give directions to the bus driver.  I'm not sure if we got a little lost, but he took us on a more circuitous route to Fenway.  It ended up costing us shopping time in the Red Sox team store later, which disappointed some of the kids.

      The tour of Fenway Park was the highlight of the day though.  That was partly because the guide that we got there was so good-- and not just because of the lackluster guides we had so far.  He admitted to being a Yankee fan, and had a fun sense of humor that brought some life to the baseball history he was telling us about, specifically because he knew that not every student was going to be a baseball fan.  We heard about the Yawkey family and got to see the unique field from lots of different perspectives.  Highlights were sitting in the expensive seats above the Green Monster and seeing the red seat where Ted Williams's homerun beaned a sleeping spectator- the longest homerun in the history of the park.  The tour ended in the Royal Rooters Club, which served as a museum of artifacts.  Among its collections are homerun balls signed by every World Series winning team since 1920.  I liked an exhibit about music at Fenway, but was surprised and disappointed when "Sweet Caroline" played and none of the sleepy kids sang "Bah bah bah."  It had been overcast this morning, but the sun came out just before our tour here, and it would have been a great day for baseball.  I was sorry we didn't get to see a game.  The Red Sox just lost two out of three games in Toronto, but they were returning today to play a game with the Twins tonight.  We saw some batting practice and one ball ended up in the seats above the Green Monster just as our other tour group was there.  The other social studies teacher got it. 

      The buses brought us back to Quincy Market where we had two hours for the kids to shop.  It seemed like a little too much time to me, but the kids enjoyed it.  I took the opportunity to buy some pizza slices, since it was 3:30 and I had only had an Atkins bar for lunch.  I went back into Faneuil Hall and strolled along the stores in the North and South Markets on either side of Quincy Market.  Most of them are stores like you'd find in any mall, so I just went to the ones that looked like they sold Boson specific items.  I saw the statue of Red Auerbach lighting a victory cigar as his Celtics won.  Mostly I just sat and watched the people until the kids gathered again.  

      While we were at Quincy Market, students had an opportunity to change their clothes for the cruise ship we were going on this evening.  Originally, I wasn't going to change but I put on my Boston tie that I had bought here back in 2002.s

       The dinner and dance on the cruise ship is something of a tradition on all of the 8th grade trips I've been on.  The chaperones always feel like it's part of the trip that they don't need, but the kids always love it.  The ship we were on was called the Spirit of Boston.  We were on the lowest deck.  There were two other groups above us and one of them was having their prom.  The food was good.  I tried what I thought was lasagna and was surprised to find it was actually chicken parmesan.  I enjoyed it, either way.  The music on the boat is always loud, but I was more interested in seeing the skyline and sights, so I posted myself on the top deck for most of the trip.  After we cast off, we headed south.  It was a little cloudy by the sun could be seen going down behind the skyscrapers.  We made our way far enough that the planes landing at Logan Airport were going right over our heads.  Somewhere around the fort on Castle Island we turned around and headed back north.  We Tobin Memorial Bridge we turned around and headed back.  Among the sites that I recognized were the Bunker Hill monument, the Old North Church and the spot where we were for the drone show two weeks ago.  The distinctive suspension of the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge was brightly lit, but it was hard to see the USS Constitution in the darkness.   While I was on the upper deck, one of our students was brought up by other chaperones.  He head knocked his head on the dance floor and they were afraid he might have a concussion.  He ended up ok, but it was a little scary for a bit.   

     I didn't get a chance to talk to Julie until I made a call on a borrowed phone during the boat cruise.  She said everything went well over all, but there were some "bumps."  She didn't want to talk about them then.  I hope that they weren't bumps because of my absence. 

     We go back to the hotel at close to 11:00.  The chaperones taped the kids in their rooms.  Because of reports we had gotten last night, the kids also had their windows taped.  I don't know why the hotel would put a school group on the first floor.   Apparently, the unfortunate people who were among us last night were either moved or they checked out because no one got scared by Mr. L. outside their window at night.  The chaperones then debriefed in the bar in the lobby and talked about our impressions of the activities and events of this trip and suggestions for changes to make for the next one.