Spring Break in Beantown

Scottie here! I was one of the lucky winners of a random draw for a trip to “Beantown” Boston for Spring Break! The prize contest was held by Amelia Airheart’s airline, An Plein Air, as a spring promotion. Wow, does she have a lot of great marketing ideas! (Some of the other Stuffies at home suspected that the contest was rigged by a certain plaid hatted creature. To them I say, “better luck next time!”)

At any rate, we had a wonderful time. One day we took a 6 mile hike (actually we took a 6 mile backpack ride and got to see all the sights along the way). The Golden Bunny on the canopy of a building was one of our most exciting discoveries. The Bunny couldn’t be talked down from the building, so we just ventured on.

While some of us were enjoying a huge luncheon, Loonie and Amelia really enjoyed Boston Harbor. They made some calls and looked for relatives. I think they didn’t have much luck because it was a cold, windy day. During lunch, I did overhear a plan to visit France and Ireland in early April. I told Amelia she should come on that trip, since there are many lakes, ponds, rivers, and seas over there.

Great news, all you snow survivors! On our walk around Boston, we found one of the first signs of Spring- crocuses!  Lucky for us, the bees had not yet emerged, so we were pretty safe in smelling the fragrant flowers!

One exciting place we saw was the Old North Church. Inside the church, we had a very special tour provided by Matthew (a college friend of Phil’s who is the Rector). We don’t know exactly what a Rector is, but I’m pretty sure it means someone who’s an expert in history and storytelling and talking. He sure knew a lot about this building and life “back in the day”!

Something we learned about living in the past is that they didn’t have heating vents in 1723. Churchgoers would bring a “hot box” that included a heated brick or even coals to keep warm.  We’re not sure how they carried these metal boxes full of burning things… sounds pretty dangerous to me. Maybe that’s why this sign says, “Do not touch!”

Matthew also told us that the Old North Church is famous in American History. They hung lanterns in the tower to warn the Patriots that the British were coming- “one by land and two by sea.” In other words, two lanterns= the British were sailing into Boston Harbor; one lantern= British soldiers were coming overland. (What if they were coming both ways at once? Three lanterns?) Outside the church was a big courtyard with a  bronze statue of Paul Revere. From the size of it, he must have been pretty important! 

Our favorite part of the courtyard was this banner where we could pretend to be on the tower. “One squirrel by land and two Stuffies by the sea!”

As we sat down for a rest, we caught site of some kids having fun riding tricycles. They were zooming around and racing. It looked super fun! There was one especially determined girl that kept winning. She was kind enough to let us sit on the winning vehicle and pretend we were racing!

We only have one complaint about our time in Boston. For a place that has a food-related nickname, we saw NO beans and had very few snacks during our time. We did eat some pretty amazing food, but we’ll save that for next time.

Hope you’re enjoying your Spring Break, wherever you may be. And that you have many, many, many more snacks to eat!

-Scottie, Amelia Airheart, Loonie, and Snowball