10/9/2011

We took the train back into Boston again today. The first thing we did was to go to National Park Service, Charleston Naval Yard. Established in 1800, it was one of the country’s first naval yards. It played a key role as the navy moved from wooden ships to steel ships and over 200 warships were built here. The U.S.S. Constitution (also known as "Old Ironsides") is in dock there and is the oldest U.S. Navy ship in use. They take her out about 4 times a year. This ship was built in 1797. It saw action in the early 1800’s protecting shipping from the Barbary pirates. It is a frigate ship. Since this is still a commissioned ship, the tour guides were enlisted navy men.
There is also the U.S.S. Cason Young that was there in dry dock. It has been decommissioned and it is a destroyer. They also had a guided missile frigate ship, the U.S.S. Stephen W. Groves, which was commissioned in 1982 and built by the Bath Iron Works. This ship is usually not here and we got to tour it. This is the 2^nd oldest frigate ship in the Navy fleet still being used. On the tour there was a sailor standing with an automatic rifle. This tour also was led by enlisted men. The ship has been used to capture pirate ships off the coast of Somalia. It captured five of them and for each one they have painted a skull and cross bones on the hull. One sailor I talked to told me they used the large gun on board to blow a pirate ship to pieces where it sat when captured. I said that must have been fun and he said it was!
We walked a couple of blocks over to another National Park Service site on the Freedom Trail. This was the monument to Bunker Hill. The British won this battle but later George Washington forced them out of Boston. There is a 221 feet granite obelisk built in 1843 that has 294 steps to the top, and we climbed it.
It was 2 pm and time for lunch, plus I needed water, so we walked down the hill a couple of blocks to the Warren Tavern and had burgers. This tavern was built before 1780 and is the oldest building in the area. Paul Revere and George Washington used to go there.

We got back on the train and rode to Boston Harbor and walked along the Long Wharf. We wanted to go to the Boston Tea Party Museum but it is closed for renovation. We took the train again to Boston Common and walked to the Bull and Finch. This is the bar that is in the opening shots for the TV show, Cheers. Cheers never was filmed here, the outside was only used. This place has about 1 million visitors per year. Most think the show was filmed here. They sell Cheers t-shirts and stuff. We shared a beer -- it was a mad house. The buses dropping people off were never ending. We walked back through Boston Common and took a picture of Park Street Church then got on the train back to the truck. We were in need of some groceries so we stopped near camp at a store.