On my last morning in Boston I managed to get yet another good run in. I went further than I had before and explored a bit but didn't find anything mind-blowing to report back on. Back in the hostel I collated pictures, ate breakfast, and waited for Leeann to show so I could take her to Salem before heading to Philadelphia. She finally came down around 10 and I went to get my car from the parking garage. Luckily my homing sense was working at least a little bit because I managed to find the car and bring it back. When I got back to the hostel it turned out that Leeann had decided she was coming to Philadelphia with me so we loaded up and headed out to Salem.
We went to the Park Service visitor's center where I learned that there is a lot more to Salem than just witch trials (duh). There used to be a lot of ship building that went on here and then of course it went through an economic downturn but is now back on the upswing. There were a lot of neat old houses there that had been saved and restored. Well, they looked nice from the outside because we didn't go into them. The next stop was this Salem Witch Trials museum. This place was a total crap-ola. On the way in we heard someone saying that the presentation ended up being the biggest waste of money they had ever seen. We figured we'd go anyway but our opinion was basically the same. The building was an old church so they took the large open area and had put up dioramas on the wall of the time period and had flat benches on either side of this open space you could sit on. The voice acting was terrible...one of the women was supposed to be screaming in terror but sounded like she was in the throes of an orgasm. As the story progressed they spot lighted another diorama. Of course instead of having this all on one wall they did it in a circle about the entire space so you had to get up in the middle of the presentation if you wanted to see the rest of the dioramas. Following the presentation they led us out this back door for the next part of the tour and I seriously thought they were just taking us into the gift shop. We only went through about half of the gift shop and then we entered this room with more static displays and some guy talked about how witches had evolved over time. Although this wasn't as crappy as the diorama presentation we still ditched out early and wandered the streets to find something to eat. Turns out there is a neat hot dog shop that serves different styled hot dogs from around the country. I had a Texas dog which came with chili, jalapenos, and bacon. I've never had this sort of hot dog in all my years in Texas but it was still good as was the Chicago dog I got.
After we ate we hopped in the car and left Boston behind us. My plan was to route the trip through Rhode Island so I could goto Newport and see some of the houses which would also put me into Connecticut so that I could say I had visited another couple of states on my trip. Newport was very pretty and quiet. I could see that it would be quite busy and crowded in the summer. They have several mansions you can actually go in and tour but we just drove around looking at them and then left town. Dinner was in Connecticut at a Bennigan's where I got their yummy monte cristo sandwich. There's is the best I've had and we don't have one in Salt Lake so I usually try and stop for one when I can.
By this time it was dark so the drive through New York City was a breeze as was the trip through New Jersey. The hostel we were heading to had this strict midnight deadline for checking in...the person at the front desk just leaves at that time so I guess you sleep in your car if you don't make it. We called as we were getting close to make sure they would hold on for a couple of minutes and I think we made it there at 12:01 a.m. The room was super cheap at $19 so I wasn't too miffed that they wanted to charge for towels. That's why I'd bought that nice pack towel in the first place!
Since I had to call Rob I went outside after we got settled into the room and while I was talking to him I noticed this guy walking around. He was sort of an unsettling fellow. His left arm was crooked against his body like it was crippled and he was walking with a limp. I seriously wondered if he was going to knife me! He came over and asked about the receptionist and I said she'd gone home. Turns out the guy had come from France to visit some friends and the bus he had taken from Washington D.C. had taken two wrong turns which made him several hours late and then the taxi driver seemed to just be driving him around aimlessly so he didn't make it in time. I whipped out the GPS and we called a few hotels and found him a room and then I drove him there. He was in fact crippled because he had had a seizure while he was working in D.C. and had been in rehab for several years. He also told me that he had tried to desert the army when he was younger (most European countries have mandatory stints in the armed forces) but they caught him and sent him to Cambodia to work in the peace corps. Interesting fellow. Anyways, I was glad he was able to get a room and I drove back to the hostel and watched some TV before turning in.
D
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Freedom Trail Pt 2
My second day in Boston started off with another great run. This time I went a bit further and came back through a community gardens. These were started as victory gardens during WWII and have either been kept up or re-created since then. Plenty of veggies as well as flowers.
Back at the hostel I went through the normal breakfast/internet routine. Leeann came in at some point and instead of going to Salem she wanted to go do the Freedom Trail. Since I wanted to re-trace it myself we went out together. This time I got to be the tour guide! We spent more time in the commons than I had the day before and found some neat statues including a large one dedicated to veterans of the civil war. We went by the new State House which had a large Boston Celtics banner on it. I thought it was quite crass to take a historical building like that and place something so out of place on it. Putting it on the city hall is one thing but this seemed totally inappropriate and really destroyed the historic context for me. On a funny note, one of the entrances is called the Hooker Entrance so named for General Joseph Hooker. After googleing that I found that I'm probably the millionth person to pick up on that joke :)
Since Leeann wasn't as interested in the history of the place as I was (if you were from Australia would you be?) we made swift progress down the trail. I did get to spend more time in the burial ground and found out that the obelisk with Franklin's name on it was actually for his parents and not for Ben Franklin. We stopped by the grave yard at King's Chapel and basically walked the rest of the stops to Faneuil Hall. I stopped in at the park service building directly opposite the Old State House to pick up a pin for Melanie and when I came out Leeann had acquired a couple of rubbermaid vacuum sealer's from some people who were giving them away. Score!
From Faneuil Hall we wandered along the trail to Paul Revere's house, stopped for pictures, then carried on to the Old North Church and Copp's Burying Ground. We didn't really stop at either of these sites and kept moving across the Charlestown Bridge to the Charlestown Naval Yard. This was one of the largest and most active shipworks in its time but is now open to the public as a museum. Admission is free and you can visit a few ships in the harbor. We grabbed a lobster roll for lunch from the deli on site but it wasn't nearly as good as the one I had at the lobster pound in Maine. After lunch we took a quick tour of the USS Constitution. This is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. If they wanted to, the US Navy could put her out to sea tomorrow. The ship was neat to see and the tour guide did a great job of explaining how the sailors lived and operated on the boat.
After the tour we took some pictures of the area and the went up to the monument at Bunker Hill. This was the site of one of the first major battles of the American Revolution and even though the British one it was quite costly to them and showed that Americans were truly willing to stand up and fight. On an interesting note, the battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill but is named for Bunker Hill because that's where the American general was supposed to construct fortifications. He thought that it would be better to construct them on Breed's hill however so that's where the site is. The obelisk affords a great view of Boston but has 294 steps leading up to it so make sure you're up to the task. Many people arrived at the top panting and had to sit on the bench in the observation room to rest.
Bunker Hill marks the end of the Freedom Trail so we just wandered back through the city with plans to go eat at the original Cheer's bar. Originally called the Bull & Finch pub, they changed the name once the tv show took off to alleviate confusion. The exterior is the same that you saw in the show but the interior layout is different. In fact, it's hard to find anything in the pub to show that you are in Cheers except for the etching into the glass behind the bar. I had the Boston baked beans which aren't really anything to write home about and Leeann had some really tasty chowder. For dessert we tried the Boston Cream Pie which was, again, not really that great but at least I tried the two signature 'Boston' dishes.
That evening was pretty tame. I had planned on going to the art museum which is free on Wednesdays after 4 but decided thhat my feet had had enough walking about and that I wanted to get to bed a little early so I would be fresh for the drive to Newport and Philadelphia so I just stayed in.
Boston pics
D
Back at the hostel I went through the normal breakfast/internet routine. Leeann came in at some point and instead of going to Salem she wanted to go do the Freedom Trail. Since I wanted to re-trace it myself we went out together. This time I got to be the tour guide! We spent more time in the commons than I had the day before and found some neat statues including a large one dedicated to veterans of the civil war. We went by the new State House which had a large Boston Celtics banner on it. I thought it was quite crass to take a historical building like that and place something so out of place on it. Putting it on the city hall is one thing but this seemed totally inappropriate and really destroyed the historic context for me. On a funny note, one of the entrances is called the Hooker Entrance so named for General Joseph Hooker. After googleing that I found that I'm probably the millionth person to pick up on that joke :)
Since Leeann wasn't as interested in the history of the place as I was (if you were from Australia would you be?) we made swift progress down the trail. I did get to spend more time in the burial ground and found out that the obelisk with Franklin's name on it was actually for his parents and not for Ben Franklin. We stopped by the grave yard at King's Chapel and basically walked the rest of the stops to Faneuil Hall. I stopped in at the park service building directly opposite the Old State House to pick up a pin for Melanie and when I came out Leeann had acquired a couple of rubbermaid vacuum sealer's from some people who were giving them away. Score!
From Faneuil Hall we wandered along the trail to Paul Revere's house, stopped for pictures, then carried on to the Old North Church and Copp's Burying Ground. We didn't really stop at either of these sites and kept moving across the Charlestown Bridge to the Charlestown Naval Yard. This was one of the largest and most active shipworks in its time but is now open to the public as a museum. Admission is free and you can visit a few ships in the harbor. We grabbed a lobster roll for lunch from the deli on site but it wasn't nearly as good as the one I had at the lobster pound in Maine. After lunch we took a quick tour of the USS Constitution. This is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. If they wanted to, the US Navy could put her out to sea tomorrow. The ship was neat to see and the tour guide did a great job of explaining how the sailors lived and operated on the boat.
After the tour we took some pictures of the area and the went up to the monument at Bunker Hill. This was the site of one of the first major battles of the American Revolution and even though the British one it was quite costly to them and showed that Americans were truly willing to stand up and fight. On an interesting note, the battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill but is named for Bunker Hill because that's where the American general was supposed to construct fortifications. He thought that it would be better to construct them on Breed's hill however so that's where the site is. The obelisk affords a great view of Boston but has 294 steps leading up to it so make sure you're up to the task. Many people arrived at the top panting and had to sit on the bench in the observation room to rest.
Bunker Hill marks the end of the Freedom Trail so we just wandered back through the city with plans to go eat at the original Cheer's bar. Originally called the Bull & Finch pub, they changed the name once the tv show took off to alleviate confusion. The exterior is the same that you saw in the show but the interior layout is different. In fact, it's hard to find anything in the pub to show that you are in Cheers except for the etching into the glass behind the bar. I had the Boston baked beans which aren't really anything to write home about and Leeann had some really tasty chowder. For dessert we tried the Boston Cream Pie which was, again, not really that great but at least I tried the two signature 'Boston' dishes.
That evening was pretty tame. I had planned on going to the art museum which is free on Wednesdays after 4 but decided thhat my feet had had enough walking about and that I wanted to get to bed a little early so I would be fresh for the drive to Newport and Philadelphia so I just stayed in.
Boston pics
D
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