NEW ENGLAND BLOG July 4th, 2021 - BOSTON

07/04/21- A decent night’s sleep and the rain is slowly passing.  We were juggling what we should do today and it dawned on us… why not celebrate Independence Day by checking out the Boston Navy Yard that is filled with American history.

We took the subway as far as we could then walked across the bridge to Charleston.  The rain was spitting on and off so unsure how the day will unfold, but at least it’s nice and cool to walk around in.  On the way, we stopped at the Bunker Hill Monument that heavily resembled the Washington Monument in DC.

We then set our GPS to the Navy Shipyard and it took us on a fifteen minute journey through a run-down part of town and to a non-populated building.  Realizing we probably needed to put in the Visitor Center, we quickly turn course and locate the main attraction area.  It’s now pushing 3:30pm but luckily the Museum and ships were still open to view.

First up was the USS Constitution Museum.  We were not impressed by it at all as it seemed like a children’s interactive place, so we funneled our way out and headed straight for the USS Cassin Young Destroyer.  The line was very short and the ship was quite small compared to the battleships we saw in Pearl Harbor, and the smell of grease was ever present, but it was interesting to walk around and get a sense of how living on one of these could be like.

Then we head through security to enter the Visitor Center and USS Constitution ship.  This one was much larger, looked like a pirate ship (built in 1797), and gave us a nice tour of the living quarters below deck.  Upon exiting the ship, the sun finally poked through the clouds giving us a gorgeous blue sky as a backdrop.

We hit up a few monuments while looking around for a restaurant.  Many have lines of people going out to the street, which we avoided, before settling for one called the Bell in Hand Tavern.  I ordered the Reuben sandwich (my first one ever) and absolutely loved it.  It consists of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and thousand island dressing on rye bread.  Oh my god!

Somehow, after the very good meal, we managed to get to our hotel for a few before going back out to see the fireworks.  The show was scheduled for 10:30pm at the Boston Commons Park so that is where we went.  Wouldn’t you know it, the rain started up again.

The park area was blocked off in the center and it took us a bit to walk around to find a good spot, but once we saw the loads of people packed like a concert we knew we had hit it.  What virus?

Ten thirty rolls around and no fireworks.  After a minute or two, boos started ringing out, but it was all done in fun as nobody got out of hand.  Finally, ten minutes later, the first firework boomed in the air and everyone started cheering as loud as their lungs could go.

The entire show lasted about thirty minutes and was by far the most spectacular fireworks display I’ve ever seen in person.  When planning this trip I heard Boston was the place to be for the fourth of July and it did not disappoint.