Sonya's Blog - Day 120 - Old Ironsides

Sonya's Blog - Day 120 - October 20th - Old Ironsides

Back to Boston today, it is our last day. We had to drop Kizmet off at the dogsitter's house first and we were running behind. As a result, we missed the commuter train. We decided to drive to the subway station instead, but when we got there the lot was full. We drove to the next station and that lot was full as well and had a line-up of people waiting to be let in. So we decided to drive into Boston. Everything was going well until we had to start crossing bridges, then things moved pretty slowly. We wanted to visit the USS Constitution and Museum today so we decided to park over there. The lot was pretty big, so we had no problem getting our truck in.

The USS Constitution has the nickname Old Ironsides because she was virtually indestructible in battle. She was built in the late 1700's and became famous in the war of 1812 because the cannonballs could not penetrate her hull, they just bounced off. She is in dry dock right now because every 25 years they do repairs and the repairs will take until 2018. They do tours of the ship, but the tours will not starting until 2:30 PM today. The Museum was open so we wandered through there for a bit. The Museum and tours are free, but they encourage you to make donations. We made our donation and carried on. It was a neat museum. They had a section on the war of 1812. They kind of glossed over how the British Canadians burned down the White House and made it sound like we should be all sympathetic to them. All I gotta say is I guess they shouldn't have tried to invade Canada. They had a section on what it was like to be a soldier on the USS Constitution, a movie about all the different roles she has played throughout history. You could design your own ship and take it into battle. There was also the standard museum type artifacts and painting about the ship and her history. There was also a place to sign your name on some brass plating and this was being installed on the boat during her repairs. We signed our names with the fancy etching pen, it was really hard to control. It looks like 5 year olds signed our names.

It was getting close to lunch and Blake wanted to go to Cheers, which is by the Boston Public Gardens, which are right beside The Boston Common. We left the museum with the intent of coming back later for the ship tour. We hopped on the tour bus, as our tickets were still valid, for the jaunt to the Public Gardens. It was interesting to have a different tour guide, because even though we had passed these sights before he gave us new information. We passed a large brass tea pot (right beside a modern day Starbucks) and that is the original location of the East India Trading Company. Soon enough we were at the Public Gardens. The bus let us off right beside a statue of Edgar Allen Poe. The statue is life size, therefore he was a very tiny man or they got the life size wrong. We wandered through the Public Gardens and enjoyed them. We got a picture of the Make Way for Ducklings statue from the book of the same name by Robert McCloskey. The names of the ducks are: Mrs. Mallard and Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack. So cute.

We found Cheers, which is actually The Bull and Finch Pub, which has been in that location for a very long time. When the creators of Cheers wanted to create a new sitcom about a pub in Boston they went on the search for the perfect pub. They visited many local pubs and decided the Bull and Finch was the perfect spot for them. They used the outside of the pub for the street views and then they had a studio set for the inside of the pub, which looks nothing like the inside of The Bull and Finch. The owner of the pub, due to the popularity of Cheers, made a "set" pub upstairs and then opened another one in Quincy Market, which is near Faneuil Hall. We managed to get a table right away and order lunch. It was okay, just pub food, but Blake was excited.

After lunch we walked through Boston Common and checked out the sights. We found The Freedom Trail and followed it to one of the graveyards. They have two very old graveyards in Boston and we went to the one that has Mother Goose and Paul Revere buried in it, as well as the five victims of the Boston Massacre. We walked around and looked at the old gravestones, some of them have sunk into the ground so much they are almost buried.

Once we were done there we went to the Harbour for our Harbour Cruise. This was included in the price of our tickets for the bus tour. We arrived just in time and hopped on the boat. The sun was shining and it was 18 outside so it was a lovely time for a cruise. Plus, it stayed in the harbour so I should be okay. Our tour guide was very good and well spoken. It was a nice peaceful tour. It was interesting to go to the east side of the Harbour (Charlestown) because this was once a bustling place and now the docks are dilapidated and run down.

The boat stopped at the USS Constitution and we were allowed to disembark there. We hopped off to get in our tour of the boat. They also had the WWII ship open for touring, The USS Cassin Young. The tours were just about to close for USS Cassin Young, but they let us onboard for a quick tour. There were many large guns. We could also see the radio room, the sick bay, Captains Quarters, Officer Dining room and the Main Kitchen area. We hopped off that boat and went onto the USS Constitution. Due to the fact that the boat is under repair right now, all the guns are off the boat (cannons) and the masts are down. We could go on the main deck and also below one deck (there were 2 more levels belowdeck). We had a look around and then they were offering a quick tour of the boat. This is an active Navy vessel so all the personnel on the boat were active servicemen. The tour guide talked about the boat and it's gloried history. He also talked about how they still sail it today and it has no engine, so they have to learn to sail, they climb the rigging (the highest of which is 200 ft in the air) and do everything like in the past as there is no engine on the boat. They still sail her around when she is not in for repairs. Our tour guide had been in the Navy for 7 years and had spent 2 tours in the Pacific (each for 7 months). When he got to Boston he didn't know anything about sailing a ship and had to learn everything on the job. He was wearing the uniform of Navy Personnel from the 1800's. We then got a picture of the bell on the ship, which is used to keep time. Every time the bell rings a 1/2 hour has passed and shifts/jobs change every 4 hours. The lady in the picture with the kids is in modern day dress uniform, and she is in dress because she is currently the Officer in Charge on the ship. Once we were done on the ship we looked around the museum a bit more and then headed back to the dock to do the rest of the Harbour Cruise.

When we were done on the cruise we headed over to Quincy Market to have a look around. It is mostly just shops and fast food outlets. It wasn't so exciting so we started walking back towards the truck. We walked through the North End (which is Little Italy). It was quite different at night. The restaurants were busy and there were more locals walking around. We found the bridge we wanted to cross and got some pictures of The Boston Gardens, the Converse office and the bridge we were on.

​We got back to the truck and started our long commute out. As a bonus, we got to go through the tunnel which was part of the Big Dig. Boston used to have freeways that went above ground, but they didn't have enough capacity for the number of cars that were traveling into Boston. They decided to build a freeway underground to relieve that traffic burden and take down the unsightly above ground freeways. It took many years and went well over budges, but it has cleared up a lot of the traffic woes. First we went over the Monument Bridge, the supports are shaped like the Bunker Hill Monument and that bridge leads you straight into the tunnel. The traffic was moving much better than this morning and we made pretty good time getting back to Kizmet.

Kizmet was wonderful at the Dog Vacay place and they were sad it was their last day with her. She and Austin (their white German Shepherd) played hard all day and Kizmet was spoiled rotten. She came back happy and tired and promptly fell asleep.

We drive to New York tomorrow. I spent some time mapping out our route and making sure we were not going near New York City. As it turns out, our campground is North of Newark, New Jersey so we are okay there. Freeway the whole way, so we should have no problems.

Sonya