Bunker Hill - The Boston Tea Party attractions are currently under renovation and will reopen only in summer 2010. Until then, I did the next best thing and headed to the North End, to Charlestown, MA. This is where the famous Battle of Bunker Hill was fought and a monument erected at the spot. I climbed 294 to the top for a panoramic view of the Bay State. 
Museum of Fine Arts - Because not visiting here would be simply inexcusable, I spent a day tat MFA learning about Greek culture and trying to understand artwork. For example, did you know that the Ancient Greek buried their dead in a large stone casket of sorts, called a sarcophagus, which etymoligically means, flesh-eating. The building is beautiful and the different sections eclectic, with modern and much older displays in separate rooms. But the layout left me befuddled so I was going back and forth to make sure I had seen everything.
The USS Constitution - After I came back from Bunker Hill, I told my professor about my trip and he sent me back to Charlestown to see the grand USS Constitution or the oldest commissioned warship in service, at the Navy Shipyard. Turns out, the word "scuttlebutt", which means rumours, comes from the double-butted water cooler aboard Navy ships such as this one, where sailors would swap stories and gossip.
The Cassin Young - Alongside the USS Constituion and also open to public viewing was this ship, which personally I found more interesting. The interiors have been restored and preserved remarkably well.
To get to the shipyard, Pu and I took a ferry from Boston's Long Wharf across the blue Charles.
John F. Kennedy's birthplace - Who knew that the former president, whose entirely family are originally Bostonians, was born just a few streets away from where I stayed! 85 Beals Street has been converted into a national site for public viewing, complete with a guided tour by uniformed rangers. Rose Kennedy, the president's mother, bought back the family home from the owners at the time and reconstructed the interiors according to what it was like inside, when Kennedy was a little boy. All restoration, down to the details of the linen, were done from memory and have been tried to mirror the originals as closely as possible, we were told.
JFK Museum - A tribute to America's royalty, the JFK Museum in Dorchester documents the life of the Kennedys.
4th of July - During the summer, the Fourth of July celebrations allwoed M and I to watch fireworks by the Esplanade. Although that meant a four-hour wait and it was far too cold for that time of year, even if we were by the water, the firworks were beautiful.
The Freedom trail: To know more about Massachusetts' significant contribution to American history, I took a tour of the freedom trail or a red brick pathway that has been laid out in Boston to connect points of historic importance. My tour guide was a portly gentleman dressed in traditional colonial attire. From him, I learned that "Beacon Hill" got its name from the practice of raising a torch at the center of the hill to warn locals of an approaching army or attack. Since Boston was surrounded by so much water, commniucation was difficult. Since then, the hill has been leveled and the proud Massachusetts Statehouse now stands there. Quick historical clarification - when Paul Revere went riding through the town ot warn people, he didn't say, "The British are coming," because they were all British! What he did say was, "The redcoats are coming." Very different.
Follow the red brick road - The Freedom Trail.
My tour guide at Paul Revere's Tomb in the Granary Burial Ground by Boston Common.
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