Panthers enjoy a brush with Boston

On their tour of Boston, Discovery Middle School students rode on the Duck-Boat through downtown streets and on the Charles River. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Witches, hospitality and revolutionary sites combined for an exciting tour of Boston by students from Discovery Middle School.

Matt Brewer arranged the trip. Brewer teaches eighth-grade social studies and coaches the eighth-grade girls’ basketball team.

Thirty-six students and six adults took the optional trip at their own expense. Brewer contracted with a tour service, EF Tours, based in Boston.

The Discovery entourage flew from Nashville for their four-day trip. When they arrived in Boston, they traveled by motor coach and stayed at the Spring Hill Suites Marriott in Peabody, just north of Boston.

The tour was jam-packed with sightseeing and visiting historic landmarks. “We visited the site of the Boston bombing, North Church, the USS Constitution, Museum of Science, Plymouth Rock, Mayflower II, Lexington/Concord Museum and the cemetery where Paul Revere is buried,” Brewer said.

For one hour, the group saw Boston on the amphibious Duck-Boat Tour. “We spent about an hour touring the city on the Duck-Boat, and then it took to the water on the Charles River,” Brewer said.

The Discovery group also visited Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house, North Bride and Salem Witch Museum. “Probably the most fun was the early English Plantation. The (workers) stayed in character for 1630s’ English. Harvard University was a highlight for the students,” Brewer said.

Eighth-grader Brett Manis enjoyed “walking around the city and seeing how much things in Boston have changed in 300 years.”

“It was really fun,” Kassidy Locke said. “I loved the information our tour guides gave us. I also enjoyed seeing how different Boston is compared to Madison.”

Boston impressed the Discovery students. “However, it’s not a city many of them would want to live in,” Brewer said. “They were not impressed with traffic but were thoroughly impressed with the kindness that the native Bostonians showed to us.”