Leslie and David's Wanderings: 19 August 2022 Old Iron Sides

Our plan was to go into Boston to visit Quincey Market and get lunch, check out Faneuil Hall, then walk to some of the revolutionary war sites. But after circling around the area for an hour, we could not find any place to park the Behemoth. The ceilings in the parking garages were too low, and the street level parking lots too narrow for the Behemoth. After an hour, we gave up and headed for the Charleston Naval Yard. We found easy parking there and headed for the Charleston Naval Historic Park. After watching the film in the visitor center and exploring the exhibits, we headed over to the USS Constitution. The USS Constitution is the oldest warship afloat in the world and is still an active ship in the US Navy. She is manned by US Navy personnel even though she is docked at a NPS facility. We came aboard around midship and walked around the top deck. David went down to the gunnery deck and then down to the crew quarters. The USS Constitution was last refitted in the historic number 1 dry dock nearby in 2017-2019. They take her out for a sail on the harbor 7-8 times a year. She was last taken out last weekend. We wish we could have seen that! Built between 1794 and 1797, she was the first ship to go into the historic number 1 dry dock when it was completed in 1834. For being 225 years old, she is in amazing shape. She has almost been dismantled multiple times in her history, but has been saved by the American Public through fund raising efforts each time. Nearby is the USS Casson Young, a WWII destroyer, now a floating museum. We walked down to see her, but did not go on board. We then toured the USS Constitution Museum before heading back to the Behemoth. We were both starving by now since we did not get lunch in Quincey Market as planned. Realizing we were near Bunker Hill, we picked out a pub on the way to the monument, got lucky and found a place to park, and stopped in for an early dinner. We then drove over to the Bunker Hill Park, but once again could not find a place to park the Behemoth. So we drove around the monument before heading for home. Traffic was horrific so it took a while to get back, but Etta was very happy to see us.