Bunker Hill & Mr. Bartley's Burgers

When we went to bed on Monday, both of us were knackered, feeling every minute of our combined one-hundred and forty-three years. After nine hours on a wonderful king-sized bed, we were raring to go again. The Freedom Trail has two sections. Most of the sights are in Boston, but the last three are in Charleston, across the river. Our first stop was Bunker Hill.

After another great breakfast (coffee, juice, eggs, sausages, toast, a waffle and a piece of coffee cake), we skipped down to the T sign, blessed with a breeze and 34% humidity, loaded our Charlie Cards with another day's travel credits, and then jumped on the Red Line for downtown.

At the Downtown Crossing stop we switched to the Orange Line going north, and got off at the Bunker Hill Community College stop. We walked up hill a few blocks and arrived at the Bunker Hill Monument with the statue of Col William Prescott who commanded the Colonial troops. He's famous for the (possibly apocryphal) saying "Don't fire 'til you see the whites of their eyes."

On the north side of the obelisk we were able to find a bench in the shade and listen to the story of the Battle of Bunker Hill on the National Parks Service app, which I highly recommend. It tells the story of the battle from the perspective of three of the participants: Peter Brown, a farmer from a hamlet 20 miles north of Boston, Peter Salem, a slave from Framingham who fought in Col John Nixon's unit, and Lt. John Waller who commanded the British attacking the hill.

On the night of June 16th, 1775, on the top of Breed's Hill, overlooking Charleston Harbor, the Colonists worked through the night to build a fortified structure called a redoubt. When Saturday morning dawned, the British ships in the harbor began shelling the hill with their cannon. Waller led the charge of British troops up the hill. The Colonists, many of whom were excellent marksmen, had the high ground and they especially targeted British officers. In the end, the British took the hill, but it was a pyrrhic victory, with over a thousand British losses compared to less than 300 for the Colonials.

Our final stop on the morning tour was the USS Constitution, or Old Ironsides. Walking down through Charleston to the river we admired the fine brick row houses and the lovely parks that make up this neighborhood.

I especially liked one park which had a fountain and fence ornaments of the "sacred cod" which hangs in the Massachusetts State House.

At the Charlestown Navy Yard we had to present our identification and don a mask for the first time on our trip. Launched after the revolution (in 1797), the USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat in the world.

Although still manned by an active duty Navy crew, visitors are allowed to go down below and view the captain's cabin and the cannon. I had to walk hunched over the whole time to avoid hitting my head on the beams.

After viewing the ship we were loathe to retrace our steps back to the underground. Instead, we paid $3 (senior discount for both of us) to take the ferry into downtown Boston. We landed right beside the Aquarium MTBA stop. We got on the Blue Line for one stop, where we switched to the Orange Line for another, and finally picked up the Red Line for Cambridge and Harvard.

Our first order of business when we got off the Harvard stop was lunch. We ate at Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage right on Harvard Square. Above each seat were yellow stickers listing celebrities who had sat at that particular table. Owen Wilson and Chelsea Clinton sat at our table.

After lunch we walked across to Harvard. It was the the day after commencement, and so there were large tents all over campus being taken down. I tried to walk into the library, but my OCC faculty ID wasn't accepted in place of a Harvard ID. (Just kidding; I left when I saw the sign.) We took a picture on the steps instead.

We wandered around the mostly deserted campus with other parents who had come out for graduation. One sight I wanted to see was the Saunders Theater where the Harvard Computer Science class, CS50. is taught each year. I've seen the inside (on recordings) but I wondered what the outside looked like. It's certainly more impressive than the MBCC building where I teach.

Since we couldn't get into the buildings, we left after an hour or so and caught the train back to our hotel. Today, we're heading for Lexington, Concord, Salem, and Portland, Maine.