A few months ago, Denisa and I were looking for a time to go down to Boston to take Michaela to the temple for her first time. We had hoped to be able to go with a group in January, but that didn’t pan out, so we wanted to be sure to get there soon, since she’d been looking forward to it so much. Of course, “soon” is a very relative term when we’re busy, and the first time that actually worked was April 19th. So we booked the hotel and forgot about it.
Friday was a bit of a hectic day. I had a library meeting in Bangor that lasted until 2:30. Once it was over, I drove back home (about 1.5 hours), rested for a bit, and then we all drove down to Boston (3 hours). The Residence Inn upgraded us to a 2 bedroom suite, which was pretty nice of them, and I spent the rest of the evening trying to catch up on all the work I couldn’t do during the day, since I was in meetings and the car.
In the middle of all of that, I read about the 250 year commemoration that evening of Paul Revere’s ride. We had somehow managed to book ourselves time in Boston the very night that anniversary happened. Which meant that the next day would be the 250th anniversary of The Shot Heard Round the World. I did some calculations to see how hard it would be for us to get to Lexington, though I also figured the place would be mobbed, because who wouldn’t want to be there for such an auspicious occasion? It’s the whole reason Minuteman National Historic Park exists in the first place.
It looked doable, but I decided to play it by ear and see what the family was thinking.
We got up in the morning, had breakfast, and headed over to the temple. You need a recommend to be able to go in, meaning you’ve been interviewed by a church leader and deemed worthy to go to the temple. (Basically, you’re following all church teachings.) We had checked with everyone before we left to make sure it was squared away. Or at least, we thought we had. Literally in the parking lot of the temple, I realized we’d never actually printed the current recommends for Denisa and me, and then when we were in the temple, we realized Daniela’s had expired last month.
After some hiccups, it all worked out. Michaela had a great experience doing Baptisms for the Dead (for her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother and two great-aunts), and things were looking good. I pitched the idea of Lexington to the family once we were finished, and they all agreed it was worth a shot. It was supposed to be a 10 minute drive. I assured them that if it seemed like there were way too many people there, we’d just bail.
There was zero traffic. The only glitch was the fact that they’d closed the parking lots of the park down for the reenactments, so we had to park about a bit away from the visitors center. Other than that, we just walked in and got to see a bit of the happenings. We watched a video about the events of April 19, 1775, and I was super excited that it all had worked out so well. I was also amazed that so few people were there. I guess with all the rest of the events going on in the world, milestone anniversaries pale in comparison. Then again, one big takeaway I had from the video and the site was that things that don’t seem like much at the time can end up being hugely impactful in the long run. Sometimes the actions of individuals don’t make much of a difference.
Sometimes they change everything.
In any case, it was a great weekend, and I’m glad it all worked out. I told the girls that I couldn’t have planned that any better if I’d sat down and plotted it out for months in advance. Yay for luck!