Will H's USA Trip

Sunday was a sunny, warm day, perfect for checking out the Boston Freedom Trail, a 2.5mi path through downtown that passes several historically significant locations: Boston Commons (park), the Massachusetts State House, Park Street Church, Granary Burial Ground, King's Chapel and Burying Ground, Benjamin Franklin, Old Corner Bookstore, Old South Meeting House, Old State House, the Site of the Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Copp's Hill Burying Ground, USS Constitution, and the Bunker Hill Monument. State House - originally completed in 1798, it's been expanded several time since then and serves as the seat of the state's governing bodies.  The dome is copper, gilded with gold leaf. Granary Burial Ground - established in 1660, the site currently has about 2,300 markers but up to 5,000 people are buried there including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and the victims of the Boston Massacre. Kings Chapel - founded in 168...

Boston is one of seven ports featured for the 2017 Rendez-Vous Tall Ships Regatta.   There's around 40 sailboats of various shapes, sizes and ages.  Some are over 100 years old, others built within the last decade.  Some are replicas, others the real thing.  Most if not all appear to be commercial ventures designed to attract adventure tourists to sign up for a trip.  As near as I can figure, the event is a large marketing effort designed to entice folks expose folks to the opportunity to sign up to sail on one of these vessels. The city participates in the event by allowing the vessels to dock around the port for public tours and setting up outdoor party areas for people to gather, watch, listen to music, eat, drink, shop, etc.  On Saturday all the vessels enter the port in parade formation, most of them fully rigged for sail.  My room mates had a connection at the Legal Seafood harbor side location, so we set up shop on the balcony deck...

Quick Update - Visited the Sam Adams Brewery on the south side of town in Jamaica Plains. The local brewery specializes in the small batch specialty beers.  The mass market production breweries are in Cincinnati, OH and Lehigh Valley, PA.  The Boston brewery has free daily tours, but there's a $10 early morning tour with an extending tasting that I decided to attend. The tour was typical of all the other breweries I've visited.  I think I've seen about a dozen so far and they're all starting to run together.  The tasting room is nice though and the guide was entertaining.     

Made the requisite visit to Fenway Park to witness a Red Sox game in person with the locals.  Fenway is the oldest operating park in Major League Baseball.  Since opening in 1912, it's been renovated and expanded several times, but because of it's age and constrained location, it still has one of the lowest seating capacity limits in baseball (less than 38,000).  The team is very popular here and tickets are harder to come by than in either of the New York stadiums I visited.  After fees, I ended up paying $40 for bleacher seats in the outfield, more than twice what I paid for the Mets or Yankees for a lower tier game against the Phillies.  Against the Yankees the price probably would have been doubled again. They have a pretty big pregame scene outside the park leading up to the game. There are some oddball features in the park, including a section of the grandstand that faces away from home base, many obstructed view seats, and the famous Green Monster ...

Day trip out of the city to Gloucester which is about an hour northeast on the coast of the North Shore of Massachusetts.  The city was initially chartered in 1623, before Salem and Boston.  However, it was quickly abandoned for greener pastures until a more permanent presence was incorporated in 1642.  The city became more well known in the middle 18th century as a fishing capital thanks it's proximity to the Grand Banks, one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.      Today the town still has a big fishing presence, but it's also a summer destination for tourists. Gloucester is home to the Gorton's Seafood company, purveyor of the countless fish sticks I consumed as a kid. There are several interesting buildings around town, though being Sunday they were either in use (churches) or closed (town hall & museums)      Today commercial fishing is a risky job (The Perfect Storm movie is about a boa...