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Tips4theTrip: See this historic hall in Boston? Don’t miss it. Or misspell it.

Faneuil Hall, Boston. Photo shot in July 2015.

Faneuil Hall, Boston. Photo shot in July 2015.

(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
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In the heart of historic Boston, a hallowed hall has endured since revolutionary days. Faneuil Hall.

But even after paying a visit last summer, I had to look it up to spell it right. What is it about that Frenchified procession of vowels that my brain can’t retain?

The building and name go back to the middle of the 18th century, when Peter Faneuil built it as a marketplace. It was rebuilt after a fire about 20 years later. These days street performers like to work in front of its redbrick walls and tourists browse dozens of shops and restaurants. Samuel Adams, one of many political leaders to speak in the hall over the years, is memorialized with a statue nearby.

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You can always count on travel to teach you something -- but what? Travel is the substitute teacher who didn’t get the lesson plan, the adjunct lecturer who goes off on Pinochet, the grad assistant who trashes your poetry, then hands out cupcakes. If only you’d had a clue what was coming, right?

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I’m building a gallery of guidance from new and old adventures in the West (and the rest of the world). The photos are mine. As for the attempted wit and wisdom, it’s dead serious, except for that which isn’t.

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christopher.reynolds@latimes.com

Twitter: @mrcsreynolds

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