By this point in the trip, Michael was pretty used to maneuvering the trailer into city centers for capital visitation, but something said Boston was NOT going to be forgiving, and boy was that the case. After fighting for some time to find parking near Beacon Hill and Boston Common, we finally made it to the Bullfinch-designed capitol building. Although our guts have usually led us to opting for a self-guided option whenever possible, we saw there was a plethora of young and eager guides ready to take us through the capital, and we were also told that without a guide, there would be some areas off limits, so we accepted the offer. Our luck of the draw was not a good one as our young guide was flippant, talkative, and honestly had trouble answering many questions, the answers to which could have been found had he just read the self guided tour book. To his credit though, he did point out some things we would have missed such as the Sacred Cod in the House of Representatives (yes folks - they have a Sacred Cod) and the Teagle in the Senate. You see, at the time the Boston capital was being built, the founders in their wisdom were still debating whether the national symbol should be the bald eagle or the humble wild turkey. Hedging their bets, the architects chose a mythical Teagle - the body of an eagle and the not-so majestic head and neck of a turkey. It is a sight to behold.

Leaving the capital and our strange guide behind, we walked down the hill with our remaining time on the meter to Boston Common. Once the center publich space for the fledgling town of Boston, the site now features small ponds, boating, music venues, and plenty of picnic space - something like a much scaled down Central Park or a scaled up One Mile.