Events of Tuesday, October 19, 2010

          Today we woke up in our lovely hotel, having been allowed a bit of a sleep-in morning. We showered, dressed, packed up, and trooped down to the hotel’s fabulous continental breakfast. Then we raced back upstairs (half of us on the elevator, the other half running the stairs – stairs won, just for the record) to brush our teeth and hide our valuables. Then we drove the RV to the Bunker Hill Battle Monument. After driving around for considerably less time than we did yesterday to find parking, we parked and walked to the Monument. In the Monument Lodge, we read up on the battle’s hero, Joseph Warren, as well as other famous officers and soldiers of the battle. Then a park ranger gave us a little talk on the Battle of Bunker Hill, in which we learned that the battle actually took place on Breed’s Hill, and that the Americans built a fortification on the hill to protect themselves from the British, who were planning to surround the Americans in Boston and thus quell the rebellion.

          After that enjoyable educational experience, we headed across the street to the Bunker Hill Battle Museum. A multitude of loud, uninterested teenaged students filled the place soon after we had entered. They made me miss my friends from school, but they also made me wish they would just leave. And leave they did, less than fifteen minutes after they’d come. Soon we had the place to ourselves again and were able to enjoy a lighted, narrative diorama exhibit.

          Then we walked the Freedom Trail backwards towards the USS Constitution, in Charlestown. After a quick lunch at a local park, we went through airport-like security and then entered the world's oldest commissioned warship afloat. We received a very informative, all-inclusive tour of the ship, along with about eighty other people, led by a young naval officer from Oregon named Tracy. We learned that the ship was almost 213 years old and had never been defeated in any battle. The warship had fought in several major battles in both the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars. It is known as “Old Ironsides” because a cannonball hit the side of the ship and merely bounced off, after which a sailor shouted jubilantly, “Huzza! Her sides are made of iron!” On the tour, my favorite part was the views we got of the captain’s quarters, in those days, truly a luxury suite.

          After that, we proceeded to the USS Constitution Museum. We saw many treasures in the gift shop, and the introductory film was informative and enjoyable. Then we wandered the exhibits, reading, observing, and learning. But the best part of the museum was yet to come. Upstairs was the interactive, hands-on children’s learning area. A bleating goat being lowered over the staircase by a simple rope-pulley system met us as we went upstairs. Afterward, we quizzed one another on whether or not we could pass as sailors on the USS Constitution. Next, we played dress-up with a couple sailors’ shirts. We scrubbed a wooden plank using sand and “holystones” (bricks, essentially). Subsequently we learned how to rig a sail by first watching a video and then following the step-by-step process. First we walked out on a tight rope only a few inches off the ground, while the real thing has sailors balancing high above the ship’s main deck, even in high winds. After that we gathered the sail and pulled the rope around and tied it tight, and did this a few more times at different spots along the sail, and walked back along the rigging and dismounted. It was very fun and actually somewhat challenging. The adjacent area involved the sailors’ way of life. With a few hammocks on which to rest, Mom elevated her swollen ankle while the rest of us fooled around, trying to see who could swing their hammock the highest or longest. I played the ship’s cook (one man serving at times over five hundred men) and fixed up a typical meal for my family, which consisted of play food, including squishy beef and wooden bread and vegetables, served in tin pans. The ship kitchen also featured tin cups, from which the sailors on the USS Constitution would have drunk their grog. Grog is rum or whiskey mixed with water, sugar, and lemon or lime juice, to prevent scurvy.

          We next strolled into a tiny theater and watched an informative movie about the ship’s best, most dramatic battle in a surround-sound, multimedia presentation with quotes from the men who witnessed the fighting. After this came a room with the stories of the sailors and officers who called the Constitution home. All too soon, it was time to leave, as our two-hour parking spot was about to expire. You have no idea how hard it is to find parking in Boston! We got a ticket by the way, for parking right in front of a sign that said no parking there today because of street cleaning. But that was earlier in the day.

          After we left the museum, we drove and parked our RV in the hotel parking lot so we could do a load of laundry – underwear and socks‼ – and had dinner at “home”, if you can call it that. We cleaned up dinner and had an abbreviated math session with Dad. After yet another race up to our fourth-story hotel room, we turned in early to be ready for our long day tomorrow.