Boston and Lexington- Saturday, March 14, 2026

      Our beachy room last night was fine.  It did have odd one-way shades on the windows that looked out to the walkway outside our room.  When the shades were pulled down, we could still see out but people walking by couldn't see in.  Even so, it gave you an uneasy feeling and Scott dreamt people looking in at least once during the night.

     Abby was anxious to go swimming this morning and kept asking how many more minutes before breakfast and then how many more minutes until the pool opened.   Breakfast had fewer choices than other hotels we've been at, but it was a cheaper hotel.  We were more impressed with the room that breakfast was in.  It was cute, but also had big windows that looked out onto the ocean.  The pool was also a nice space, with high wooden ceilings, but the water was quite cold.  Only Abby went in, and she was ready to get out after a short time.

    We had originally talked about going down to the beach, but we weren't exactly sure how.  We drove through the nice little town of Plymouth but it looked like there was a lot of work and construction going on along much of the water.    That's probably fine because it was really cold and windy, with the temperature only in the 40s.

     Scott's first stop today was Castle Island.  We drove through South Boston again, past the hill of Dorchester Heights.  Castle Island is now a peninsula, but in 1776, it was the site of the British fort, Fort William.  The redcoats used it to dominate the entrance to Boston harbor and retreated to it after events like the Boston Massacre.  It was an appropriate place to end our self-guided Evacuation Day tour because this fort was the last site that the British left on March 17, 1776.   British engineer Captain John Montresor helped to blow up Fort William so that the Americans couldn't use it.  We knew Montresor's name because he had designed the redoubts at Fort Niagara and the fort at Fort Erie as well.  (Unrelated trivia- Scott's former boss at Fort Niagara had a little black dachshund named Montresor.)   Later it was replaced with the fort that stands there now, known as Fort Independence.

     The best thing about the fort at Castle Island is that there was a huge parking lot with lots of parking spaces available.  Julie practically cheered when she saw it.  We walked once around the fort and viewed it from the outside.  We found the entry way, but there was some construction work going on inside.  One of the workers let us peek in through the door in the sally port, but we weren't able to enter the fort today.  Even so it was a nice stop, if only for the parking.  There was a cute playground below the fort but Abby wasn't interested in playing today.  For one thing, the gusting winds were making it quite chilly.  Even more so, she was getting freaked out by the airplanes over head.  They were taking off from Logan International Airport, just across the water from us, and she didn't like how close they were over our heads.

     We got back in the car and tried to follow the GPS directions through Boston.  The traffic was lighter than it was yesterday, so that was helpful, but we still missed turns here and there. 

     We headed to the Visitor Center at Lexington, west of Boston.  The battle there was in 1775, not 1776, so there wasn't any real connection to the siege of Boston and Evacuation Day.  However, none of the sites we had been to these past few days had gift shops, and Scott remembered this was a nice one.  When he visited it last April with Brian S. on the 250th anniversary of the battle, it was packed so full of people that it was impossible to look around.  Scott took some time to look here today, though it actually seemed smaller than he remembered it.  Abby got a pressed penny with Lexington's 250th logo on it from a machine.  She also was interested in the large diorama of the battle and Dad took some time to explain what was going on in it as best as he could.

     We took some time to go shopping in Lexington before hitting the road.  Abby and Julie liked a shop called the Crafty Yankee.  Mom bought Abby a set of travel magnetic tiles, similar to the ones that she plays with all the time at home, but smaller and in a metal case.  Abby also got a small round jewelry case with a picture of a cherry on top.   Julie got a tip on a place for lunch nearby.  It was an Italian place named Mario's.  Abby got her favorite, spaghetti, and Scott enjoyed a Buffalo chicken calzone.  Scott also got a Sam Adams because he didn't want to leave Massachusetts without getting at least one.  Julie got a ham sub.  We stopped at CVS for some treats for the car and also at a bakery and a candy store called Liberty Sweets.   Among the treats Julie got there were "double salt licorice" drops, but she didn't see the "double salt" part.  She didn't like them.  We made a bathroom stop at the visitor's center again before hitting the road.  Julie made one more stop at Starbucks and used her "stars" to get both a new cup and a drink.  We left Lexington shortly before 2:00 and hope to get home at a decent time tonight.