New England -- Day 6 Boston Freedom Trail

Raef, Zach, Eli and I walked 95% of the Freedom Trail today. Yes...I made my kids walk almost the whole darn thing. They did pretty darn good, actually. I was really surprised. They had fun following the path because they knew just where to go.

There is a lot to see on the trail and I was surprised at how much of it I knew pretty well. This first one is of the kids in front of the grave marker for James Otis, the father of the Revolution.

Raef is posing for a picture in front of the podium at Fanueil Hall. Zach is not pictured because I put him in time-out for excessive kissing of Eli. Sometimes it can be a real problem. He just loves to kiss Eli...all the time...in the wrong places...and when it really gets on my nerves.

After Fanueil Hall, we found a lovely park along the way that had water. So we stopped for about 20 minutes and the kids got soaked. Even Eli got in on the action a little bit, and he really enjoyed the cool water. The city has built all of these new parks where the freeway used to be before the Big Dig.

After the water park, we made our way past Paul Revere's house. It looked too small to navigate with a stroller, so I just opted for a picture with my boys. It is a very small house in the cutest part of town, the North End.

This is the Old North Church...you know, "One if by land, two if by sea." The plaque above the door actually says that.

I really wanted to go on the U.S.S. Constitution, but by the time we got there Eli was sound asleep in his stroller and I didn't want to wake him up. The only way we could go on the ship was if I carried him. If I did that, he most certainly would have awoken and I think I would have been miserable because it was a long ways back to the hotel.

Complaining was minimized with strategic stops for candy and ice cream. I think I spaced it out well. The only thing that was a drag was that we had to walk back over a hot bridge to get to the subway. The kids loved the subway so it was a nice change of pace, plus I didn't have to listen to them complain about how they didn't want to walk anymore. Carrying them was not an option.

When we got back to the hotel, Raef decided he wanted to do a backflip and he actually did one. I couldn't believe it. What an amazing kid. I filmed him doing his 2nd backflip ever.