Day 98, May 3, Boston’s Freedom Trail

Three amazing things:          

1-Sometime in the 1950’s, Bostonians worried that their irreplaceable historic sites would soon be gone. So they created the 3-mile long Freedom Trail to preserve and link 16 sites from Bunker Hill to Paul Revere’s 1690 home to the oldest churches and cemeteries in the country. We engrossed ourselves in the major events leading up to the Revolution beginning in Boston Common, a lovely green park, and following the red brick trail through the city, precluding the need for maps or cumbersome navigational tools. We made a quick detour to the sobering New England Holocaust Memorial with its 6 chimney-shaped structures representing the furnaces at concentration camps complete with steam billowing up to represent the incinerators which burned night and day. The Freedom Trail is a brilliant undertaking, and we thoroughly enjoyed our day, capping it off with dinner at a low ceiling and timbered tavern in operation since 1790.

2- To know me is to understand my complete apathy towards organized sports. It never occurs to me to find pleasure in watching others play games. I’d much rather play basketball than watch someone else do it, let alone pay them exorbitantantly to do so. I suppose I was born without the gene all else of America seems to possess: any ounce of enjoyment from cheering for a team. The whole thing quite frankly befuddles me. So taking Aaron to one of the worlds most iconic stadiums, Fenway Park, to watch the Boston Red Sox play the Los Angeles Angels may have been the ultimate sacrifice. Ticket prices were astronomical, the Uber ride there spendy, the crowds untenable, but when I had to pay $6 for one bottle of Coke…well let’s just leave it that Aaron had a wonderful albeit expensive evening. And I enjoyed my book! 

3- The USS Constitution, the oldest warship afloat in the world, sits at harbor in Boston and is free to tour. Dubbed “Old Ironsides” from her indestructible fight during the War of 1812, she sits beautifully and proudly awaiting to amaze and delight visitors. We were fascinated and spent an hour throwing questions at the US Navy sailors aboard her gleaming upper decks and two lower floors. Don’t miss this if ever you’re in Boston.

Good deeds:  Parking in Boston proved to be the biggest dilemma of any we’ve had in the larger cities. The truck is tall due to the kayak carrier, so garages are out, and street parking is scarce. After over an hour of stressful searching, we finally scored a space, but it wasn’t close to any of our destinations, hence the need for several Uber rides throughout the day. We decided our foreign-born drivers could use some cash, so we tipped big all day. As well, I do believe that I was the sole soul in Boston to speak the words “excuse me.”

Sad but true: Looking upon the immensity of the crowds at Fenway, we existed the game prior to its end, made our way quickly as far from the stadium as we could, and attempted to schedule an Uber ride back to our parked truck across town close to The Garden where the Boston Celtics were also playing. After waiting 45 minutes for an Uber rider to accept my request, it occurred to me that no drivers wanted to spend an hour in congested traffic as the Celtics game ended at the same time jamming all streets.  It was now 10:30pm, but without options, we undertook the hour walk to the car on foot.  Long story short, we finally flagged an Uber to the parked truck then drove an hour back to Bambi only to discover that our key card wouldn’t work to unlock the campground gate. Past midnight now, I found someone to open the gate but by now was much too frustrated, keyed up, and overtired to even attempt sleeping. If anything can challenge our patience and energy, it’s big cities.