Boston Day 5

Last day in Boston, I'll do more of the same and put the pictures up first.  It's too much effort to try to work them in at the appropriate time.  (Read:  I'm lazy)

View from the boat on the way out of Boston to George's Island.

More views from the boat.

Was trying to get a shot of that egg shaped structure.

Egg shaped structure?

Ship got in my way.

Egg Structure.

Egg structure again.

The boat guide, didn't know what ship this was, but it was still pretty cool.

Ship and egg structure.  2 for 1!

Ship.

View from behind the boat.

Pulling into the dock at George's island.

The shape of the Fort was such that you couldn't be anywhere where someone wasn't at your back.  The narrower openings were for muskets and the larger openings were for cannons.

View of the largest opening into the Fort.  The door was originally built with a drawbridge and portcullis.  You can see the openings where the ropes were.

The other side of the gate shown previously.

Same as above.

Replica cannon facing towards the only entry to the fort.

George's Island has a very narrow channel and passage of channels that give you entry into Boston Harbor.  This was a natural defense formation and played a key role in determining where the fortifications would be placed.  I want to say that it's only 300 yards from one island to the other.

View from George's Island.

This was an opening for the counterweight for the large cannon.  It took 57 seconds from when a shot was fired to when it would be ready to fire again.

Sponsors of the JFK digital archives.

Huge flag at the JFK library.

Today was our last day in Boston and it was turn for J and I's activities.  He really wanted to go to the JFK library.  He's got a few presidential libraries under his belt.  We were close enough that it really was worth the trip.

We started the day though on one of Boston's Harbor Islands, George's Island, home of Fort Warren (Website Here).  (The order, George's then JFK's library, was determined early.  There are only shuttles every so often from the harbor islands and the library would be kicking us out at 5pm, which would then in turn in turn get us in gear to get to the airport for my 7:30pm flight.)

The Fort was pretty cool, though it never fired a shot in anger nor was a shot ever fired upon it.

It seems like one of those "Cold War" type scenarios.  Fort Warren was very heavily fortified so much so that I think it was more of an intimidation Fort than anything else.  It's no longer manned and the fortifications have been removed but overall, it was still a very impressive structure.

We heard an exhaustive amount of information regarding the island and the fort from a park ranger.  The Boston Harbor Islands are state parks but a part of federally protected land, so the park rangers are actually federal and not state employees.  I thought that was very interesting.  Our time on the island was pretty much limited to the walking tour of the island wherein S got pretty lobstered, so it was probably good that we didn't have much more time to spend there otherwise she'd have suffered a lot more.

After the island, we went to JFK's presidential library (Website Here) was actually on the site of the University of Massachusetts campus, which I found to be interesting.  It was right along the water though, which made for some pretty cool views.

I didn't know much of the life of JFK nor that of Jackie O.  I know a great deal more now.  I guess whatever I assumed Jackie to look like was from what I had seem in movies.  Turns out that was not the case.  I think to get the full impact of the museum was lost on me.  I'm not a political person...at all.  Also, I wasn't alive for the life of the president.  So much so that my Dad was only 1 when he passed and my mom wasn't born yet.

After that we head out to go to the airport.  We got dinner at the Earl of Sandwich (Website Here).  Then I was off to my flight like a shot, I actually got into the 'A' boarding group so I wasn't able to say goodbye to my travelmates, other than S.  Which I suppose is all just as well for me.  I'm not good at goodbyes.  I don't know why, I know I'll see them all again soon enough, but still after 5 days of hanging out, you get to form a bond with people and you get used to having them around.

Not trying to get sappy.  Promise.  It's just why I'm not good at goodbyes.  I prefer to do it like a Band-aid.  Super fast without looking back.

And so ends the Boston saga.  Well, after a flight and finding the car and driving from Baltimore back to Pennsville, and then unpacking.

Hasta.