Yup, we made it to Boston. Beantown. Home of Paul Revere and Whitey Bulger and that closet genius Will Hunting. Full of people who don’t seem to care about how utterly offensive those cheating Patriots and their dirtbag owner are to real Americans.
The short cruise down from Salem was uneventful, just as we like it.
The Salem ferry zoomed up from behind at thirty knots. We got out of the way.
The Waterway Guide warned that entering Boston Harbor is scary and dangerous with boats and confusing markers and such. Meh. Piece of cake.
On our way back from the pet store we stopped at Bunker Hill. There’s quite a monument here despite the fact that the good guys lost the battle, perhaps because the loss rallied the revolutionary spirit and we kicked the British back across the Atlantic shortly thereafter. Although we didn’t see anything connecting the hill to Archie and Edith or Meathead’s wife, we still went up and down the 294 steps, which seemed at least double that number to us because we were carrying sacks of canned dog food. (We might’ve left the bag unattended at the entrance but folks around here are a bit touchy about that sort of thing.)
Since we’re tourists after all, we also stopped by the Old North Church. The place that gave us “One if by land, two if by sea.” There was a large number of other tourists milling about in our way, but it’s a great bit of history anyway.
The story we learned as children is that Paul Revere was watching from his house for the lantern signal, then leapt on his horse for the midnight ride to rally the troops from the countryside. After seeing how his house is surrounded by Italian restaurants and condos that completely block the view of the church steeple, however, we find that story a little implausible.
The marina where we’re docked is part of the old Navy Yard, and the USS Constitution is just down the street.
The Constitution is a commissioned naval ship still in active service, although it’s made of wood and the cannons are plugged so it probably won’t be of much use in WWIII. Well worth the tour of the museum and the boat anyway.
We didn’t actually plan to visit a place where everybody knows our name, but found ourselves in such a place by accident. Sort of. Doug would’ve had a beer just to say he had a beer, but we were tired and ready to go home. Plus this is just a replica Cheers so why bother?
Unfortunately the places made famous by Al DeSalvo and the Tsarnaev brothers were too far away to walk. And after what the M.T.A (now known as the M.B.T.A) did to poor Charlie, we weren’t taking any chances on the subway.* We wouldn’t have had time anyway after Dana waited what seemed like hours to get cannolis from Mike’s.
Boston is a fascinating town and the view from down our dock is awesome. We’d love to stay longer but we’re moving on to Plymouth tomorrow.
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* Everybody sing along!