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.