The Baalands: Boston, Salem, and Battleship Cove

July 2009 -- Boston or Memphis? I gave Mom a choice. She chose Boston. It was a lot closer. Only an 8-hour drive. Memphis is still on my bucket list. Graceland. We stayed a day or two in Boston, then went to Salem. On the way home, we stopped at Battleship Cove, also in Massachusetts.

We stayed on the outskirts of Boston and used the public transportation system to go into the city. We took a Duck ride. Ducks and open-air buses are always my favorite way to see a city. We walked around the historic district. We ate in the bar that inspired the TV series Cheers. We enjoyed street performers, especially a group called YAK.

Faneuil Hall was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams and others encouraging independence from Great Britain. It hosted America's first town hall meeting. It is sometimes refer to as the "Cradle of Liberty." Of course, now they want to change the name of it, since it was named after a man who owned slaves.

Faneuil Hall and statue of Samuel Adams

In Quincy Square, there is a plaque honoring Larry Bird. Larry Bird was an NBA and Boston Celtic legend. I had to get a picture. I was a big basketball fan during the Bird-Magic era. Speaking of sports, I was disappointed that I didn't get to tour the iconic Fenway Park when we were in Boston.

Salem
Salem is famous for the 1692 Witch Trials. More than 200 people were accused of witchcraft. Twenty were executed. Eventually, all were exonerated. The Salem Witch Museum is Salem's most visited museum. The museum uses life-sized dioramas and first person narrations to tell the story of the witch trials. It was a good museum, as museums go. Other than the museum, there wasn't too much to see (in Salem) related to witches.

There are many historical cemeteries in Salem. The Old Burying Point Cemetery is the oldest and one of the oldest in the US, c. 1637. It is the final resting place of many notable Salem residents, including judges involved in the witch trials. The Old Burying Point Cemetery is the only place with an original gravestone of a Mayflower passenger

Salem is also home to the House of Seven Gables, a 1668 colonial mansion made famous by Nathan Hawthorne's novel of the same name. Hawthorne's birthplace is nearby. The mansion was built by a wealthy sea captain and merchant. It is open for tours. It was a so-so attraction.

House of Seven Gables

Battleship Cove
I'm glad we stopped at Battleship Cove. It is a maritime museum in Falling Water, Massachusetts. It has the world's largest collection of WWII-era naval vessels. I'd seen WWII-era planes before, but not ships. The centerpiece of the collection is the USS Massachusetts ("Big Mamie"). During WWII, no Navy personnel were killed in action while aboard the Massachusetts. The USS Joseph P. Kennedy is also docked at Battleship Cove. The highlight of its service is the naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The USS Lionfish is a WWII-era submarine that was commissioned on 1 November 1944. It serves as a revered monument to all submariners. The Hiddensee was originally a Soviet naval ship (missile corvette) before being transferred to the East German Navy and eventually a unified German Navy. It was really neat to see how different it was from American ships. American sailors were pampered compared to their counterparts in the East. The ship is no longer at Battleship Cove. It was sold for scrap metal because it was deemed too expensive to maintain.