Day 2

Boston Nat’l Historic Park

We woke up at a decent hour, before nine at least. We all ate breakfast and took some free advice from Linda and Tom as to how to go into the city, where to park, and what to see. We found our way out to the Mass Pike and proceeded east into Boston. We ended up parking in a lot sandwiched between buildings off Providence Street, a stone’s throw from the Freedom Trail and only $5 for the entire day (Sunday is the day to come into the city).

The Park System is well organized in this city. The Freedom Trail is a red, Oz-like line painted on the sidewalk that you follow throughout the city which takes you to most of the historic landmarks in the city and in Boston National Historical Park.

Boston Common

We first headed for the Boston Common, which was not at all what I pictured. I always pictured the Common as being filled with trees and very shady. Instead, it is wide open with yellow, trampled grass. The Common was purchased in 1634 by the city of Boston for military training and cattle grazing. We didn’t see any cattle today.

We visited a small information center here and continued on the trail. It was hot as hell out and the air was stagnant. We walked in the State House looking for something to drink, at least I was. This was built in 1795 and is a large brick building with small pillars and a gold domed top. Not much to see inside, only the indifference of the rent-a-cop sitting in his glass cage reading his paper. There are war memorials placed in every available space around this building and the neighboring commons.

Park Street Church & Granary Burying Ground

Next was the Park Street Church and the Granary Burying Ground. Here are the graves of the five victims of the Boston Massacre as well as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and many others. Some have simple slate gravestones, others, elaborate tombs and memorials. Many of the stones and tombs are in dire need of restoration, some have essentially fallen apart.

Soon after is King’s Chapel and Burying Ground, so named because King George III and Queen Anne presented gifts to the church in colonial times. The chapel is private (private = $) so we didn’t go in, but the burying ground, the first one in the colony, is not.

Old South Meeting House

The next major stop was the Old South Meeting House. This was built in 1729 and was the largest building in Boston. When town meetings grew too large for Faneuil Hall, the meetings moved here, the most famous being on December 16, 1773, when the new British tax on tea was discussed. After this meeting a group of men dressed as Native Americans went to the docks and threw all the British tea into the harbor. Britain retaliated by closing the port of Boston, the largest and most relied upon port in the colonies.

Roots of Revolution

The British became more defensive and felt the need to flex their political muscle. They had been trying to get the colonies to pay for the protection that they provided from the Indians and the French. They attempted to pass legislation through Parliament, which either imposed duties on goods coming to America or ensured British control by, for example, forcing Americans to quarter British soldiers.

The first of these was the Sugar Act in 1764 and the final was the Prohibitory Act of 1775, an act that placed an embargo on American goods and attempted to stop American shipping. By this time the colonists had had enough. In the mid-1760s, members of Congress protested in writing. By the early to mid-1770s, these protests became more reckless and focused in acts like the Boston Tea Party.

Each of these Parliamentary acts caused the colonists to become more hostile toward the British and protests, violent and non-violent, were on the rise. So it is here, at the Old South Meeting House, where the patriots, or treasonists, depending on your point of view, would meet in secret to discuss the British problem.

Old State House

The Old State House was built in 1713, and was the center of colonial government in Boston. It sits on what is now a busy city corner, but there’s a wide cobblestone alley where people can listen to the colonial era music being played or watch the soldiers dressed in colonial uniforms march in rank. Next to this building is the site where the Boston Massacre took place on March 5, 1770, further weakening relations between Americans and British.

Quincy Market

The Freedom Trail next leads to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. The market was full of people either shopping at the many shops, eating food bought from one of the many restaurants, or walking through, which is what we were doing. There were so many people that it reminded me of one of those pictures of blood moving through vessels. For those just walking through, the name of the game was to follow the mob.

There was outdoor entertainment and many people were walking around giving away small trial size boxes of Clusters cereal. They had on these silly hats with a squirrel on top, I wanted one badly. Faneuil Hall is where the meetings of the townspeople were held and the protests towards the British actions voiced.

North End

After walking under highway I-93, we were in the North End—the Italian section of the city. In this section is Paul Revere’s house (private), the Old North Church, the Paul Revere Mall, and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground.

Paul Revere’s house is the oldest house in Boston, built about 1680. He lived there from 1770 to 1800. Paul Revere took part in the Tea Party and made the historic ride out to Lexington and Concord on April 18, 1775 to warn the militia that the redcoats were coming. The following day the first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought beginning with the “shot heard ’round the world.”

Old North Church

Up a few blocks is the Paul Revere Mall and the Old North Church. The mall is full of trees and the shade felt nice. There was a breeze once in a while, but if you were out in the sun, it was hot.

The mall is a long courtyard made of brick, a wide brick walkway, and brick walls about 10 feet high. Behind these walls are people’s houses and apartments, which are also red brick. Along its walls are quotes by famous Bostonians and sitting in the middle of the courtyard is a statue of Ben Franklin, who grew up in Boston.

Looking up above the walls, I could see people’s shaded windows and some even left their laundry strung out to dry. There are also small, well-kept gardens in some of the remote corners of the courtyard. I remember thinking this wouldn’t be a bad place to live.

At the end of this courtyard is the Old North Church. This is the oldest standing church in Boston built in 1723. As we were walking around to the front, a female priest walked out of the front doors into the bright sun. Sergio said he was taken by surprise, he was not used to seeing female priests.

Up the street from the church is Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. This cemetery was started in the 1660s and in the 1770s was used by the British as an emplacement for the cannon that fired upon Bunker Hill.

Still following the red-striped road, we walked over the Charles River and into Charlestown, heading for the Charlestown Navy Yard. It was cloudy out now, and I was hoping it wouldn’t rain. There was a lot of action in the area, I figured it was for the upcoming Forth of July weekend, but who knows, maybe it’s always like this.

On one side of the yard was a revolutionary war re-enactment troop marching, playing songs, and shooting muskets now and then. On the other side was the modern Navy band playing Anchors Away and other navy tunes. The two groups seemed to be in competition with one another. The Navy had its portable recruiting office (a tractor trailer) sitting in the middle of things, air conditioning pouring out of its doors.

We walked into the USS Constitution Museum and looked around at the free information they had, but there is a fee for the museum. We walked outside and headed for the water and the ships. We walked out to the World War II Destroyer USS Cassin Young. This ship is part of the park and people can just walk right on, which is what we did.

We toured the deck, the sleeping quarters (crammed like sardines), the kitchen, the laundry, communications (all hi-tech about 50 years ago), the Captain’s office and quarters, and other parts of the ship. The entire time I was wondering how people lived like this for months at a time. There are anti-sub torpedoes and depth charges on deck, and 1940s big band music blaring over the loudspeakers.

Next we decided to get in line for the USS Constitution. This was a fifteen minute wait, but was well worth it. Our tour guide was a character. He told us that this ship is still commissioned in the US Navy and it is the oldest commissioned ship in the world (it was completed in 1797).

This means that the crew lives on the ship and are naval officers whose primary duty are these tours. Our guide was from the south and liked audience participation. He was dressed in the uniform of the 1800s Navy—white uniform with powder blue stripes and a black, wide-brim hat. He told us many facts about the ship, its voyages, and the people who served this country on her decks.

The ship has three decks: the Spar Deck (top), the Gun Deck, and the Berthing Deck, and below these is the Orlop, or the Hold. Its mainmast height is 220 feet, the ship’s total length is 204 feet, and it could reach 13+ knots.

Unfortunately, the ship was in dry dock being renovated so we could not appreciate the complete USS Constitution, all of her masts had been taken off. The colonial crew consisted of 450 navy, 55 marines (those men over 6 feet tall), and 30 boys. The boys ran the gun powder from the lower decks to the Gun Deck and performed other similar tasks. The boys either volunteered or were given to the Navy by their parents who received their first year’s income of $96 as an incentive.

The ship never lost a battle. It guarded our trading vessels in the Mediterranean against the Barbary Pirates of northern Africa, and outsmarted the British in the War of 1812. It got its nickname “Old Ironsides” because the British cannons that fired upon her, hit her side, and bounced off into the sea.

Our tour guide had numerous other facts about the ship. Why the bathroom is called “the head” in the navy: the bathroom on the ship was at the head of the ship, off the billet head. Sailors would have to climb out to the tip of the ship where a tiny hole was awaiting. Imagine this in rough seas, or even calm seas. Why are marines called “jarheads”: In those days you were a marine if you were over a certain height. These men would constantly jar their heads on the low beams of the deck above, thus, jarheads.

Bunker Hill

After the informative USS Constitution tour, we moved on to the Bunker Hill Monument. This provided us with a nice walk through some of the old neighborhoods of Charlestown. This is an old, well-maintained residential area. The houses are very nice, probably very expensive too.

By the time we arrived at the hill, which, by the way, was called Breed’s Hill not Bunker Hill, a demonstration had just ended. Shots were being fired as we arrived. The hill is covered with grass atop which sits a small visitor center adjacent to an obelisk monument—294 steps, no elevator. Neither of us felt any desire to climb to the top on such a hot day.

We were resting for a minute or two when a ranger came out with maps in hand to tell us about the Battle of Bunker Hill and what Boston was like 220 years ago.

He told us the dramatic story of the soldiers who defended Bunker Hill. With only enough ammunition for one or two volleys, the Americans on the hill were watching the British surround them by moving troops through Charlestown (west of the hill) and by ship to the shore thousands of feet away southeast of the hill. The troops in Charlestown ran into resistance from the residents, but this would only delay the troops, not defeat them.

On the morning of June 17, 1775, the troops from the ship began marching toward the hill, four to six in a row and hundreds in each column. The Americans, who had spent the night fortifying the hill by digging redoubts, were waiting for the troops to get close enough. They were commanded, having only enough ammunition for one or two volleys, to hold fire until they could see the whites of their eyes.

They did just that, and took aim on the British ranks. Because the British were so close, the American troops were able to take out a considerable number, forcing them to flee. The British retreated and both sides regrouped.

The situation was desperate for the Americans. With no ammunition left they were shooting anything they could get into their musket, including small rocks and buttons. Eventually, the Americans were forced to retreat. Only after the war was the influence of this battle fully realized.

Yes, it was a loss for the American troops, but the Americans had weakened the British forces in Boston and destroyed the notion that the British, the most powerful force in the world, were unbeatable.

The ranger was quite informative and wanted to take his watch off but promised he wouldn’t. If he did, he thought he might be there all day, and he probably would have. He was trying to keep it under 15 minutes but I think we were there for about 25 or 30 minutes.

Now we were at the end of the trail. We walked through Charlestown to get back to the bridge to take us over the Charles River. Charlestown looks like a tight community. The firemen were sitting outside the immaculate looking station with the trademark dalmatian. Although the houses were built in the 1800s (the British burned Charlestown so everything is 19th century here) they look as though they were recently built, since everything was so clean.

We got within a block of the car and decided that it would be smart to get something to eat in town before we hit the road. We walked back to Quincy Market and got a sandwich. Finally, I found where they were giving out the free Fresca. All day long I’d seen tons of people walking around with cans of Fresca, all over the city. I didn’t think Fresca was that popular, I mean nobody drinks that stuff. After seeing all the free Clusters cereal that was being given out, I figured they must be giving Fresca away somewhere. Well, we finally found the Fresca people. We grabbed a few, got some food, then grabbed a few more. Sat in the large square near the market and ate on a park bench. After a quick rest we were off; we still had a lot to do today.

Onto Maine

We found I-93 and jumped on it north, out of Boston. Then we took I-95 north into New Hampshire. New Hampshire is very quick on the highway but just so you don’t forget it, the state makes sure you stop for a minute to pay for the 15-mile New Hampshire Turnpike. The last two miles of the state are free.

Finally, we arrived in Maine. This drive isn’t taking as long as I thought it would. Not to be outdone by New Hampshire, Maine has a little turnpike of its own. It’s 100 miles long, but we would only stay on 50 miles till Portland.

There we would stay on I-95 while the turnpike continued north to Augusta. Maine was nice—a lot of dense forest. No trashy barns with vines exploding out of the collapsed roof, or sun-beaten blue school buses sitting in tall grass with the trademark white spray-painted “For Sale” in the two front windows. Won’t see that up here.

We finally arrived in Freeport. Why, you ask, were we heading for Freeport? Our plan was to camp this week, but we had no tent. We came to Freeport because that is where the L.L. Bean factory store is. We were going to buy a tent here and use it for the rest of the week. By the time we entered the store the sun was on its way down; I’d say it was about 7 or 7:30. After doing a little shopping, looking at all the different varieties, I decided to go with the tent we bought last year. Picked up a thermos too.

We headed for the Bradbury Mountain State Park to see if they had any space. We took ME 136 north and followed the signs to the park. The signs led us onto a dirt road where we saw the Blueberry Pond Campground.

I drove in and when the woman there said they had space, we both sighed with relief. I could see the two of us driving around in the dark looking for a campground all night. This place boasts half-acre sites, not bad. It is heavily wooded around here, and the frogs (both tree frogs and water frogs) were welcoming us with quite a concert.

I settled up with the owners and called home—today is Dad's birthday. By the time I returned it was just about dark and the trees surrounding us didn’t help matters. It’s a good thing I bought the same tent because tonight we would be setting up the tent in the dark. Had a little trouble sleeping tonight; I could hear an owl far off in the distance. I’ve never heard this type of owl before, I’d better stay inside the tent tonight.