Wells, ME

Yes, we're getting more color. This is by the interstate as we drove from Foxboro, Massachusetts to Wells, Maine. It was a really pretty drive.

We went to a Trolly Museum and got to ride on this trolly car.

This is the inside of the car. There were two cars and most of the group went on the other car so we almost had this one to ourselves.

This is the other car through our front window.

Special, bumpy ride, but I thought of Grandpa. He worked as a streetcar conductor in Denver while going through medical school. This is an old postcard with him in the picture. My Aunt Eddie said it was taken about 1901-1902. Pretty cool.

Grandpa in his uniform. We topped off our day by spending the evening with our good friends, Jack & Sandra. What a cool day!

Boston

The first place we visited in Boston was the Kennedy Museum & Library (which really isn't even in Boston.) It was a beautiful building and very interesting. We spent about 1 1/2 hours inside and it wasn't enough time.

The oldest commissioned ship in the Navy today, the Constitution or "Old Ironsides." It was commissioned by President Washington in 1893 and is still in active service today. Talk about history! It's all wooden, but when attacked by the British in 1812 the cannon balls wouldn't penetrate the sides, so the nickname.

On the deck of the Constitution.



Below deck on the Constitution. There were about 500 men aboard ship because each cannon required 14-15 men to handle. Notice the size of the ropes, each cannon weighs over 5000 pounds and when fired they would roll back and the crew would have to drag the cannon back into position. Of the 500+ crew, two were cooks: one for the crew and one for the Captain of the ship.

Part of the crew. These are the uniforms they get to wear while on duty aboard the Constitution and yes, they are active duty Navy.

Our tour guide was also active duty wearing period uniform.

Paul Revere's house. The house was actually built in the 1600s and was 90 years old when Paul Revere bought it in 1770. Many of the furnishings in the house were donated by the family and were really used by the Revere family.

I took this picture because I thought the buildings were cool and didn't realize that Rose Kennedy grew up in the house on the right when this was an Irish neighborhood.

This church started out protestant, but when the neighborhood became mostly Irish it became a Catholic church and is still Catholic today. The service for Rose Kennedy was held in this church when she died.

Paul Revere Park with a statue of Paul Revere on horseback and Christ Church in the background. (Paul Revere didn't ride a horse in Boston and when he left Boston he went the other way. The statue faces this direction because it sits right across the street from the Catholic church and the mayor at the time was Catholic. He didn't want his fellow parishioners to come out of church each Sunday to see the backside of a horse.) The same sculptor who designed this statue also designed the angel Moroni that is on all LDS temples.

This is Chirst Church from the back and from Paul Revere Park.

 

This is Christ Church from the front and the steeple that the lights were hung in. With the narrow streets, it was really hard to get a good picture and impossible to get the whole church.

The organ was beautiful and we got to hear it played while we were in the chapel. The candleabra is one of many in the chapel and the only lighting in the church is by candle. The church still has Boxes instead of pews. The boxes were purchased by a family and decorated by the owner. The sides were fairly high because there was no central heating in the chapel and the walls helped keep any body heat in so the family could stay warm.

Thought this was interesting that Charles Wesley visited Boston in 1736.

These houses are right down the street from Christ Church. The little grey house was build by the brother of the owner of the house behind it. They had an argument so he built his house in front of his brother's so he could block his brother's view. This is the narrowest house in Boston.

 

As you can see the house is very narrow and the door is on side of the house. We also drove through MIT and Harvard and went by Longfellow's house and the state capital, but we were on the bus so I didn't get any pictures. Boston is a very confusing city with lots of narrow streets and very bad drivers. Today we head up to Wells, Maine and we get to see our friends Jack and Sandi. We're really excited to get to visit them in their home town and see some of the area.

Plymouth and Cape Cod

Yes, this is really Plymouth Rock!

This is the Mayflower and it is REALLY small!!!

Cute guy on the Mayflower.

Below deck on the Mayflower. The Mayflower was a cargo ship and the cargo for this voyage was 103 people. They stayed below deck in this space, wall to wall, with pallets on the floor at night.

Those who were wealthy enough to afford wood could build a shelf bed in the hold. Not great quarters and no privacy!

This is below deck also.

Period actors were on the ship. They did a really good job.

Howard coming down the gangplank. It was a really small ship.

This was in the Hiannas harbour. It is a lobster boat and was used on a TV show about lobster fishing.

This is the Chase Mansion. They own the whole point of land that this "house" is on.

If you look really hard you can see the mansion from the above picture. It really shows the extent of the land they own.

The is Hiannas Port where the Kennedy compound is located. The house middle left is Ted Kennedy's house, right next to it and a bit behind is JFK's house and clear over on the left hand side is the Shriver house.

Close up of Ted Kennedy's house.

As close as you can get of JFK's house.

This house is owned by the guy who owns the Gap, Banana Republic and a few other stores. Keep shopping girls!

The Shriver house is on the left side of the picture.

This is a small inn right across the street from the Sandwich Glass Museum.

The majority of the glass made in the world was made in Sandwich for many years. The musuem was really cool. We thought these glass pens were pretty cool and the ink well is really fancy!

How would you like a glass cane? Wow, pretty cool stuff. Tomorrow we head into Boston. I'm charging my camera and we'll try to take lots of pictures.

Mystic Seaport

On Saturday, we went to Mystic Seaport. The whole town is a museum and it's pretty cool with lots of "tall ships" and old houses.

And old bikes! How would you like to get up on one of these?

This is just one of the many tall ships in the harbor.

Quite a quaint little town!

Hope you can read this explaination of the masthead below.

This was actually on a ship at one time.

There was a whole room about the music aboard ship.

This doesn't look so big in the pictures, but it really is quite large.

The doctor's office was in the apothocary.

The Charles Morgan was the longest sailing wooden tall ship. They were only in commission for about 20 years, but this one was in much longer. They are rebuilding the whole ship using the same methods as they did over 100 years ago.



The original keel from the Charles Morgan. Yes, it is really long!

This is on deck of the Charles Morgan. It really is quite a large ship.

These are masts to be put on ships.

I just liked this shot toward the town of Mystic Seaport. It was quite a fun day wandering the streets and walking on the ships.