Our first day in Boston and we start with a hop-on/hop-off trolley tour. Our hotel is just around the corner from stop number 3. I'm about to veer off the pedestrian crossing as there aren't any cars coming but Colin points out a sign that says it is illegal in Boston to jay walk. Darn! We see quite a few of these signs on our travels! There are 19 stops and it takes around 2 hours but our driver is excellent. We were expecting a recording to listen to but no, our driver does all the narrating and he's excellent! He is witty, entertaining and very knowledgeable. In fact, he's so interesting that we decide to stay on the bus for the entire circuit. Along the way, the driver points out the Bunker Hill bridge, a 10 lane bridge over the Charles River completed in 2003. It looks very much like the Anzac Bridge in Sydney. As I get off the bus, I tell him Sydneysiders facetiously call ours 'Madonna's Bra'. "I like that," he says grinning at me. "I'll use that on my next tour!" Boston was founded in 1630 by Puritan settlers and is one of the oldest cities in the US. It has some beautiful old buildings, the oldest one being the Old State House, built in 1712-13. It was here that the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from the balcony in 1776. And Boston was the site of the famous Boston Tea Party, a protest staged by the American colonists against what they saw as an unfair tax on tea imposed by the British. It lead to the American Revolution. From here we walk past the New England Holocaust Memorial, built to foster the impact of bigotry and the outcomes of evil during the second world war. Our trolley ticket gives us discount to the Tea Party Museum. This is an interactive museum where entry is in to the 'Meeting House' to hear the story of the night of December 16, 1773 - the night the ships were raided and the tea thrown overboard! Actors play the main roles but members of the audience can volunteer to play one of the colonists at the meeting. Mohawk disguises were handed out in 1773 and, armed with our disguises, we he'd off to Griffin's Wharf and board one of the ships to dump the tea overboard!! There were several children in our group and they're given the task of throwing the boxes of tea overboard. Of course, they all enjoy that part. (The boxes are actually tied to the ship with very long ropes for ease of retrieval!) This takes about an hour and then we explore the museum itself which still has one of only two surviving tea chests on display. In the gift shop, I buy a two cup tea pot! Now I can make cups of real tea for the rest of our trip. Because America has plenty of good quality timber, many of their houses are made of timber rather than brick like ours in Australia. I love all the different colours the houses are painted. It gives each house its own individual style and uniqueness. We walk past many of these lovely old homes on our way back to the hotel. We also find an amazing supermarket called the Whole Foods Market near our hotel. Fish, fruit, meat, deli, nuts, everything is absolutely delicious. For more information on the Trolley Tour www.trolleytours.com Boston Tea Party Museum www.bostonteapartyship.com