Quarantine Time!

Hello! Here I am checking in from my quarantined house. A great time to write is when you are at home trying not to get sick. If you haven’t read my Cape Cod blog post…click here to read it! If you have read it already continue onwards and enjoy the next portion of my ramblings.

After the Cape Cod trip I wanted to keep viewing National Park locations in Massachusetts, but most of them didn’t open until early May. Unfortunately in early May I wouldn’t be able to see them because I’d be at Philmont! (Not a bad thing, just I wouldn’t be able to see anything in Massachusetts) Luckily there was a few that were basically 100% open like the Boston National Historic Park. That’s where the Constitution is at. The USS Constitution is a huge ship to put it simply. In order to go inside I needed to go through a metal detector like in the airport and have a photo ID. It’s an active military zone so that’s why there is extra security. We went to the visitors center first. The volunteer at the info desk was super nice and was a friend of my 8th grade history teacher. After getting a stamp and patch I proceeded to go outside to get a better look at the ship. I haven’t been on it since I was very young so I was pretty excited. I got to sit in what looked like a meeting area like I have at work. The ceiling is super low for a guy like me at 6’2″ so getting to sit down was nice. We got to descend down really steep stairs into the hold. I would probably get 1000 concussions if I lived onboard. After I went to the Constitution I headed to the next destination.

We had to drive to the Boston Common parking garage, which ended up being a short 10 minute walk away from the Boston African American NHS. I learned about Frederick Douglas there. He was a pretty incredible writer and the museum had some really really old original works by him. He also took self portrait pictures. There were a lot of prints of him and a bunch of old cameras like this one. I can’t imagine hauling around BB8 and this massive piece of wood with a lens. After we looked around for a little while we (my Mom and I) went out to dinner at the Boston Burger Co – Boylston. I got a pretty legit chocolate milkshake and an amazing burger. I’d totally recommend going there. After that we took the green line back to the Common, got the car, and headed home.

The very next day we drove to Salem to see the Salem Maritime NHS. Salem is known for witchcraft so I kept my eyes and ears on the lookout for witches. This park is basically a park and a historical building. That is the vast majority of national parks on the east coast. Out west you might find a few ruins in the middle of the scenic nowhere. The ‘scenic nowhere’ is somewhere cool, but has no civilization nearby. Anyways, here is the park. It was a great day out and there was a lot to look at nearby like the Customs House. When you arrived by ship or whatnot in Salem you’d first go there to check in per say. By the way I was absolutely DYING of heat in that fleece. After we saw that I thought we needed to see the Witch House. It was on the other side of town and so we walked a short mile or so over there. On the way we stopped at the Salem wax museum. My Mom is a massive Nathaniel Hawthorne fan. She got to meet him in person. It was a little smelly in the wax museum, but interesting. It was almost a step by step story of the book I read in high school: The Crucible. I’ll give you a super brief rundown.

So there was a girl who people thought was a witch so she went on trial, lost, and died.

~I thought it was a boring book~

Next we went to see Nathaniel Hawthornes grave for ourselves. It was just as cool as it sounds. A bunch of gravestones in the ground. My mom was fascinated by all the original graves that marked the location of people put on witch trials. Not super interesting for me.

Next we went to see the ‘witch house’.

Supposedly this house had a witch in it, but I’m not believing that for a second. It was like any old historical house. You have a bunch of rooms to walk through and an attic that is off limits for storage. Probably a witch up there. It was a nice house, which made it seem like there was a rich person in it once. This about concludes the Salem trip.

Around the end of April 2019 I went to see the start of the AT trail near Mt. Katahdin in Maine. I didn’t get to hike the mountain because we weren’t that prepared. Now I have all the national park stamps from Maine!

Right before I went back to Philmont I wanted to see my brother since I most likely wouldn’t see him until Christmas. On the way up I stopped at the Springfield Armory And learned how to shoot a musket. It was surprisingly much heavier than I thought. Also you can see that I have my famous red shorts on! :3 Then my Mom and I headed off towards New York. We met him at Hamilton College. Then went to eat at a cool BBQ restaurant in Syracuse before we went to see the movie Avengers Endgame. It was fantastic and almost moved me to tears. I managed to keep my streak of no tears in movies however! The next day we went to Ft. Stanwix National Monument. I got to fire my first cannon of the year. Boom! So the story at Fort Stanwix is interesting. There was a bunch of troops stationed there, but nothing happened for a super long time and they were sent home after a sort of mutiny occurred. That’s the short summary.

That’s what I did during my break from Philmont 2019 while I was home. I got back to Philmont around May 1st and proceeded to plan my next set of trips right away. I’ll write about that next blog.

Teaser photo!