Tags
boston, constitution, historic, massachussets, National Park, photo, salem, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, travel, witch
We stayed in nearby Littleton, MA as traffic around Boston is horrific. We drove thru the heart of Boston a few days earlier, and its crazy to say the least. Vancouver is small potatoes compared to the size of Boston. We rode the Commuter Train into downtown Boston.
Too bad its not hockey season.
After looking at all the Bruins memorabilia in TD Garden, we strolled across the Charlestown Bridge over to the USS Constitution.
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Naby, named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America. Constitution was launched in 1797, and is still an active duty US Navy Ship today. Constitution gained the nickname “old ironsides” when British Navy cannon balls bounced off the wooden sides of the ship.
But this is the work that goes into those pictures…..
Given our luck of viewing Ships around the world (Alabama, Tokyo and now Boston) they are always hidden under scaffolding.
Constitution entered dry dock in May 2015 for a three year restoration.
After a short viewing here, we hopped on a water shuttle across Boston Harbour.
The water shuttle dropped us off at Long Wharf in downtown Boston. We checked out the apparently world famous Fanueil Hall and the nearby Marketplace. In the marketplace area, Aya found a UniQlo
We started our day off in Salem with a visit to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. We didn’t know what to expect here- but it turned out to be very interesting.
We walked along a very long pier and viewed the Friendship of Salem Tall ship at the end. This ship is a replica of a 1797 East Indiaman ship.
The Friendship of Salem was interesting to look around, but we have seen a few ships like this before, most notably in San Francisco. But this ship is just a small part of the Historic Site and what is really significant about this area. At the land end of the Pier is preserved United States Government Customs House.
These ships would travel the world trading or buying goods to bring back to the United States. When they returned to the US they would have to pay duty before they could offload their goods. In the early 1800 they were paying over $18,000 in duty so you can imagine the value of the goods.
The eagle now perched atop the building is a replica, but the restored original is displayed inside.
The Witch trails is what originally attracted us to Salem, but there is not much to photograph and share. We did attend the above museum to learn about the story- which is fascinating. To sum it all up, a few kids playing around and accusing people of being witches resulted in 19 people being hanged. The townspeople were convinced one of the accused men was the Devil. If you are unaware of the history here- it is an interesting read.
We were so hot after walking around all day we needed a cold beverage. Lucky for us Bunghole Liquors (Store) was close by