Boston—Home of the Boston Tea Party, Faneuil Hall, Fenway Park and the Red Sox!

Boston—Home of the Boston Tea Party, Faneuil Hall, Fenway Park and the Red Sox! This is a city where taking the City Tour Bus is highly worthwhile. I had visited Boston before, but the tour guides filled in a lot of information that added greatly to the significance of each place on the map.

This city is a homeschooler’s delight! Every American should get to walk the 2.5 mile Freedom Trail at least once (check out www.thefreedomtrail.org). My favorite spot was the Old North Church where Paul Revere had the lantern: “one if by land, two if by sea.” It was great to see the Statehouse again. I was reminded of an earlier visit where my friend had told me about the citizens who meet to pray there regularly for their lawmakers. I also took a boat ride around the city. Surrounded by so much rich history, one could almost “see” the Tea Party taking place there in the harbor!

We ended up at Rabia’s Seafood and Oyster Bar in the historic North End for dinner—delicious! Afterwards, we unexpectedly encountered a parade. A marching band, singers and a float wound their way through the old streets, food carts parked on either side. We discovered that this marked the beginning of Saint Anthony’s Feast. It is a festival tradition, started in 1919, by Italian immigrants. It takes place every August and honors their patrons Saints Anthony and Lucy.

It was dark by the time we visited The New England Holocaust Memorial in Carmen Park. It is comprised of six lighted 54-foot high glass towers. They are etched with numbers representing the Jews who bore them. Having studied quite a bit about that period, I found it profoundly moving.

It symbolizes one of modern man’s most hideous failings. But it also reminded me of forgiveness—one illustrated so extraordinarily in the life of Dutch Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom. For her unforgettable account of those years, order online The Hiding Place. It was written with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, two of my favorite authors. Their book illustrates the power of forgiveness in a way that you will never, ever forget.