Massachusetts

Tuesday, 10/2

Tonight we saw Hamilton in Boston. As we went south from Portsmouth we stopped at our campground in Salem to check-in and have a better idea of our route/destination for tonight well after dark. We continued south to Boston heading for Fenway Park to take a tour of the home of the Boston Red Sox. We only got lost twice.

The tour of Fenway was cool. They are in the post season but we didn’t know that when we were planning our trip so we’re not planning to see a game while we’re here. Fenway is the oldest ballpark (1912) and one of the smallest capacity (37,755) since it is not a stadium. Lots of history.

Traffic in Boston is horrendous. Our progress to Fenway wasn’t helped by the RV GPS disagreeing with the iPhone and the iPhone changing instructions every other second because of developing traffic. Once we were in the right area we easily found a metered parking space and we arrived with plenty of time to have lunch before the Fenway tour. In addition to the traffic being really congested, the people here seem to interpret a red light as “one more car can go through”. This means that people can’t necessarily move forward on a green light which just backs the traffic up even more. And, they don’t know how to merge.

Getting from Fenway Park to our reserved parking space was more straightforward (and traffic was better). The RV can’t fit in a parking garage so Serena found a surface parking lot that was reservable via ParkWhiz. We had a .7 mile walk to/from the theater.

We have finally seen Hamilton and it was fantastic. It was very helpful to have listened to (and read along with) the soundtrack as we’ve been travelling. The story is great but it would have been harder to follow if we didn’t already know it. The songs were running through our minds for days afterwards which we didn’t mind a bit.

Wednesday, 10/3

We are in Salem because it was the most convenient place for camping after Hamilton. It happens that October is Salem’s big season; there are bright orange “residents only” parking signs everywhere. We could have explored downtown which is in the throes of Salem’s Halloween/Witch season (we did see one person in a puritanical costume). Instead we slept in and relaxed and then used our MoviePass at a local mall theater.

We ended the day at a local sports bar watching baseball. Unfortunately, our “local” team the Oakland A’s lost to the Yankee’s so they are now out of the post season.

Cool “Christmas Tree” in Salem.

In between the movie and baseball we went to a tiny neighborhood in Salem which is the location of an outdoor museum (http://puntourbanartmuseum.org/). There were more than a dozen LARGE murals and a few dozen more small ones. There were some seriously beautiful murals and really talented artists involved.

Cool right?

Now look at one of the eyes up close.

Portraying something so realistically as reflective without using silver/reflective paints is amazing. This is done all in shades of black/white/gray (with blue highlights).

One of the smaller murals (guesstimating 8’x8’).

Another of the smaller murals.

Thursday, 10/5

Met friends of Serena’s from college for lunch today in Dedham, MA then continued south to Rochester, MA. We met our Rochester friends (Mark & Randall) back in 2002 when we were all on a Grand Canyon boat trip. Our visit overlaps tonight with Randall’s brother and his girlfriend (Bruce and Katharine) who live in Anchorage, AK. We spent a lovely evening on the patio enjoying mild weather.

And, it’s a small small world. Katharine mentioned that her cousin teaches at UC Santa Cruz and is currently on sabbatical and had recently visited Alaska with his family. Serena was immediately on alert and asked the cousin’s name. Katharine’s cousin Jeff is married to our friend Sarah with whom Serena worked closely for years. Serena has been following their travels on instagram; Katharine and Bruce had not but they got caught up.

Friday, 10/6

Mark was working today but Randall is retired so she toured us around. The New Bedford Whaling Museum has a very special temporary exhibit that we went to. “Spectacle in Motion” is a 1275’ long painting depicting a round-the-world whaling voyage (the voyage happens to start in New Bedford). Originally audiences paid to see the painting scroll by - this was before movies. It was very educational and super impressive. It was painted in 1848 and is the longest painting in the world. It would be longer but one of the five scrolls has gone missing. Link for a 2-minute video about the painting.

This is one of the four scrolls that were on display.

After the spectacle we wandered around New Bedford looking at historical buildings and reading interpretive signs. Then we did a brief tour through Fair Haven.

One of Serena’s fave movies - The Way Way Back - was filmed in this area. We shared the film with Mark & Randall tonight.

Saturday, 10/7

Mark owns a trimaran sailboat and today is beautiful and sunny so we went sailing across Buzzard’s Bay. We had lunch moored at Peewecket Island. And that pretty much sums up today.

We’re on a Boat!

Aye Aye Skipper!

deck hand

The name of Mark’s boat and artwork by Randall.

Sunday, 10/8

We are in Massachusetts cranberry country and it is harvesting season. As we were driving, we happened to see a couple of cranberry bogs flooded for harvesting and the cranberries floating therein. Today we got up close to some cranberries - they are basically a groundcover plant with the berries hidden in the greenery so seeing them from the road as we drove by was not interesting or enlightening.

We also took a tour of filming locations for The Way Way Back including having lunch at the pizza place where Owen (Sam Rockwell) first meets Duncan (Liam James). We met the owner who doesn’t have screen time but his voice is in the movie and he still gets residual checks for that. Mark gave us a bit of a tour of Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he teaches engineering. And we stopped by at the tail end of the Cranberry Festival in Wareham.

Cranberry bog (not flooded for harvesting)

Cranberries up close

A pivotal scene in The Way Way Back takes place on this water slide.

Jeff was not trying to climb the fence, just getting above it so he could take a picture.

Canal near the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The tall bridge lowers when the train comes through but otherwise is up to allow boat traffic.

Monday, 10/9

Our plans for Boston got a bit derailed when Jeff lost his phone Saturday while sailing - presumed to be somewhere underwater in Buzzard’s Bay. We are spending a few nights south of Boston in Attleboro with Serena’s friend and former UCSC co-worker. Today, instead of parking at Seth’s and taking the commuter train into the city for sightseeing we went to the Verizon store. We could have gone to town in the afternoon but a 45-minute each way train ride for a ½ day in Boston coupled with damp weather led us in a different direction.

We used our MoviePass to see Collette in nearby Providence, RI (it’s literally just down the road from Attleboro, MA). Afterwards we had some fantastic Greek food and then ended up at Seth’s house.

Tuesday, 10/10

Today was mostly about Jeff’s replacement phone. It arrived a bit before noon and we needed help getting it going. At the Verizon store the wifi was down so it took two hours using an employee’s cellular hotspot to get everything installed. It was certainly too late to train into the city* so we did some shopping and went home to make dinner for our hosts. We had a pleasant evening sharing travel photos (ours from Italy & Spain and theirs from South Africa).

*It is a 45 minute one-way train ride from Attleboro to Boston + 15 minutes each way walking to/from the station. And for the two of us it is $21 each way.

Wednesday, 10/11

Today we finally went to Boston. It was a lovely sunny day (a bit too warm in the sun). We started at the Boston Common and Boston Public Garden before meeting our Free Tours on Foot guide for a tour/walk of the Freedom Trail. It was a very good tour and at the end Jeff got a recommendation for where to get a Lobster Roll so that made our lunch decision easy. We weren’t initially planning to walk the entire Freedom Trail but that’s what we did. It was nearly 8pm by the time we got back to the house, but we did manage to most everything we wanted. Tomorrow we head south.

The Granary Burying Ground

LOTS of people are buried here and no one really knows where or how many. It was common for families to be buried on top of each other and another name added to the headstone. People also leave headstones they find elsewhere and they get “planted” by the staff. Among the “famous” are: three signers of the Declaration of Independence, nine governors of MA, five people killed in the Boston Massacre, Benjamin Franklin’s parents (he is buried in Philadelphia though he was born here), and Paul Revere.

The Old State House (what we would call the State Capitol).

The Lion and Unicorn are symbols of royalty for England and Scotland respectively.

Statue of Sam Adams in front of Faneuil Hall (market place and town meeting hall).

Bunker Hill memorial atop Breed’s Hill (Bunker Hill is in fact the next hill over). Why?There was confusion among the US commanders about where to set up fortifications and fight. They did eventually decide for Bunker Hill but the one who went and did it went to Breed’s Hill instead.

View from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument (Jeff climbed the 294 steps; Serena did not.)

USS Constitution

“Old Ironsides” is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.

There are four miles of rope and nearly an acre of sail on this ship. When it does leave the dock it is towed rather than under sail. But it is still floating and still staffed by US Navy personnel since it is an active duty ship.

Big Gun deck

Sleeping deck

Navy personnel on watch wear period uniforms.

Sunset view of Zakim Bridge from where we were walking on the Charlestown Bridge.

FYI - Massachusetts is home to VERY large liquor stores.

This was not the largest we went into. The larger one was possibly around the same size as the Santa Cruz downtown CVS.

And we’ve run into a new thing at several grocery stores as we’ve been travelling - underage cashiers cannot sell alcohol so they call over an older co-worker to do that transaction.

And some more leaf peeping pix just because.

No promise that this is the end of the colorful foliage.