Boston National Historical Park
Playing tourist in your hometown can sometimes lead to incredible experiences. Having lived in Massachusetts for a majority of our lives it was a lot of fun to head into Boston to tour this park and witness it from a tourist's perspective. There are many sites along the Freedom Trail, which is the primary highlight of the park, that we didn't get a chance to stop and explore them all. If you are coming in from out of town, we definitely recommend you make it a weekend trip and spend at least two days learning about the Boston Revolution and seeing all the park has to offer.
While we typically like to hit up the visitor center first at a NPS site, we decided to start our journey at the Bunker Hill Monument and climb the 294 steps to the top to take in the aerial view of the city and the park. The steps may seem a bit daunting and challenging (especially while carrying a toddler on your shoulders), but it is well worth the view! From there we started our travels along the Freedom Trail, which is either a red brick or red painted path, that takes visitors on a 2.5 mile walk throughout Boston with stops at 16 historical sites along the way.
The Charlestown Visitor Center and the USS Constitution were the next stops for us. It was a beautiful day to walk along the waterfront and tour the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. On a whim we decided to skip the walk in to downtown and jump on the water shuttle which took us from Pier 3 in Charlestown over towards Long Wharf. I love when we throw spontaneous mini adventures like this into our park visits. Logan loved the boat ride and it was great to view the skyline from the water.
A quick trip to the Fanieul Hall Visitor Center and then we were off to see the Old State House and the Boston Massacre Site, before back tracking along the Freedom Trail to cover the part we skipped while on the water shuttle. The last two stops in our day were to the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church. Personally, I did not think the house tour was worth the value but the Old North Church was very interesting (and the geek in me who loves the movie National Treasure came out too).
We only visited about half of the sites along the Freedom Trail but that is the great part about how this park is set up. You can customize your visit to the sites that interest you, and take as much or as little time as you need you need at each location.
Learn more about Boston National Historical Park: https://www.nps.gov/bost/index.htm
