I don’t think I mentioned before, but I am on the 13th floor. And it’s labeled the 13th floor.

I took the trolley tour today from 11 to 4. It’s a two hour tour. I got on at Copley Park, which is where my hotel is, where Trinity Church is (which I toured yesterday), and where the Hancock building is, the tallest building in Boston. Within my hotel room is a photograph that manages to get both part of Trinity and part of Hancock, even though they are across the street from each other.

We went by the Mary Baker Eddy library/complex. They have a world globe you can walk inside. I thought of Grama Rill when I went there.

I got off to see Paul Revere’s house. It has been rebuilt, as parts of it were destroyed in a fire and when they rebuilt, they were trying to put it back to its original looks. It was originally built to replace the parish house for Cotton Mather. But the Mathers bought other land and built there. Paul Revere bought it before he was famous and/or rich, in 1770 and lived in it with his wives and his sixteen children until he sold it in 1800. There was a silversmith there today showing off how to make a spoon. It was amazing. Takes lots of time. And the man doing it is a master silversmith who still makes silverware by hand.

After that I walked around the corner to a little restaurant that could seat, at most, thirty people. It had signs outside saying it had been voted North End’s best neighborhood restaurant. That’s what I was looking for. So I went in. I was the only customer, which was a bit scary. No social proof that it was a good place to be. And the menu was fairly limited. Lots of wines, not a lot of beers. I had tap water.

I ordered the penne with meatballs. It was about the only thing on the menu that I thought I would really enjoy.

The waitress brought me a bucket of bread. Good to eat, but tough. My jaw was tired of chewing when I gave up. She also brought me a carafe of water and was good to refill my water regularly.

Another group came in who were walking the freedom trail. Then three girlfriends. Then another couple. It was about half full when I left.

I was reading my Kindle, so the waitress asked about it. We talked about the kindle and using it to replace books. One thing people have said to me a lot is, “Don’t you miss holding books?” I enjoy talking about it and showing it off.

My meal was penne and meatballs. When they brought it in, it came in parchment. She brought out a knife and fork to cut it open and peel it out.

Then I went to see Christ Church, which is called Old North Church. It’s the oldest church in Boston. It was built in 1713. The church has a crypt with 1100 bodies in it. Mostly British soldiers killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

There they told us how wrong Longfellow’s poem was. Newman and another guy hung the lights up. William Daws and Revere rode.

Then I got back on the trolley tour. I got off at Old State House, which is right near where the Boston Massacre took place. Most of it was burnt in one of Boston’s fires. So, it’s not really as old as they say it is. But it’s the oldest standing government building in the United States. I don’t remember when it was built.

Did you know that the subway in Boston is the fourth oldest in the world? Only the subways in London, Glasgow, and Budapest are older. Amazing. I didn’t know that.

Saw the relief honoring the 54th, the company the movie Glory is about. The actor they got looks very much like the actual Colonel.

I didn’t walk the Freedom Trail. It’s 2.5 miles, which is a nice walk and fairly easy, except that I only brought high heels. Not interested in going hiking in those, since the little I did yesterday and today got my feet cut up. (In different places, since I had two pairs of shoes, but still. Ouch.)

Ron asked if I’ve even gone to my conference. I have. Twice. I’m going again tonight and to two meetings in the morning. There just wasn’t much that I was interested in here and I didn’t want to stress myself out going to things that weren’t interesting.

So I’m going to what I think are the best panels and that’s all. (I’d have gone to more if there had been more that caught my attention. One of the ones I went to I was only interested in one of the discussions.)