Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Tea Party 07... OLFD festivities

I watched the ticker til 3 am, a few of us did, some stayed asleep this is what happens when you try to sleep on tea party money bomb night....





this is the screenshot of the ticker at 3am....

















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we were expecting a huge storm and it had barely started, so i wasn't really prepared for this in the morning....
















so we pretty much thought we were snowed in so the guys made breakfast and coffee...



















then a couple guys with trucks came and played in the snow on our street and eventually the snow plows came so the guys shoveled us out of the driveway, we ended up riding with someone else though since they drove out of their way to get us thinking we would be stranded. It was slushy but we made it pretty well, heres a picture going into the boston tunnel



















the first place we stopped was quincy market which is right across from Faneuil Hall where the rally was being held, The market was really cool, I imagined what it was like when the founding fathers walked the streets of boston and what parts were original and what parts were not, Im fairly certain that the starbucks was probably there for sure, otherwise what would have kept sam adams and daniel webster energized? :)


another cool thing in quincy market...





so just walking around quincy market jay and I found plenty of other ron paul supporters including our OLFD roomates frank (tulsa, OK) and justin (poplar bluff, mo)who came with us, we were standing inside talking and drinking coffee when all of a sudden we see the crowd gathering in front of Faneuil Hall with, you guessed it, Ron Paul signs... there were people everywhere and the people inside the market were gathering at the windows to see the spectacle outside, this is what we could see...





















then the granny warriors showed up








We went inside to the Hall and the energy was so amazing, I went to the Iowa straw poll and it was one of my first big events so of course i was excited, but it was so much like a competition parts of it were hard to enjoy. But the looks on peoples faces just made this so different, you could see in their eyes they were at their first big event, the electricity in them made me remember how it was the first time and it was so great to be a part of. if you would like to see for yourself watch this.....




heres a pic i took from the top of fanieul hall...



















heres Jay and Norman (campaign staffer) with John McManus, the founder of the John Birch society...












































here is our group of OLFD members in a group, some couldn't go but we still had a good showing...












here are some of the rest of the pictures of the rally and speeches











After that we marched (loudly) to the state house for the boston tea party official reeinactment heres the video, and some pictures.








It was really funny because i had no idea about the reenactment of the debates over the tax that was to be imposed on the tea in boston back then, and I honestly didn't know much about the history of it either, I was worried all day about not getting to put tea in the harbor and after the speeches were over, and I was trying to round everyone up for the group picture (not an easy task) Jim gave me two tickets to go to the state house and watch the reenactment, so i was worried i wouldn't make it because we were already late. We finally marched there, and they were very welcoming to us even though the show had already started... some went in and some stayed outside, Then I didn't see anything about them officially dumping tea in the harbor (which they normally do, i was told) and so I asked someone who appeared to be somewhat in charge and they said in fact no one would be doing that this year. I was never so disappointed considering this is WHY i wanted to go so badly. we all had plenty of ron paul tea bags though so we organized a march to the harbor to put in our tea bags, we chanted the whole way, trudging through snow, slush, ice and ice water puddles to get there but you would have never know it because everyone was so energetic, just like the march at the iowa rally but with less people. We lost about half our group

heres the video and some pics...




















Jay and I with our tea





































afterwards we headed back to where we heard the other ron paul supporters who didn't follow us to the harbor went, which was a restaurant and tavern called the green dragon.




















outside all the signs had been lined up outside the bar in the snow





















Coincidentally It happened to be VERY OLD, as a matter of fact it first opened in 1657 and was a "hotbed meeting place" for none other than.... you guessed it the founding fathers, can you imagine? It was even called the "headquarters of the revolution" by Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and Daniel Webster. My feet were walking on the same floor, I was sitting at the same bar, I could not have possibly been happier about that, and I had to get a sam adams to commemorate this amazing event in my life

here are the pics of everyone ....

























and I thought i would throw in a few pics i took in boston...









So I hope you enjoyed my version of the events in boston.... heres to the 6 million dollar man!!