Battleships & Boston

Location:
Battleship Massachusetts & Boston

Dates:
May 31 - June 2

Who:

Three adults (John Koslosky, John Ivory, and Cliff Rose) lead seven scouts through it all (Dean P., Jeremy R., Brian F., Matt T., Ben T., Matt I., Chris I.)

Notes:
This was not our typical overnight - Sleeping on a Battleship, hiking through a city, swimming in pool, and donuts for breakfast. (We've got to do this more often!)

Although it was a slightly smaller crew than we had last year, we still had an excellent time. We stayed in almost exactly the same berthing conditions as 2001, just on the port side instead of the starboard.

We traveled out on Friday, and spent the night on the Battleship Massachusetts. For the scouts who'd not seen it before, it was a brand new adventure, and one that we believe helped bring to life the sense of bravery, sacrifice, and heroism that the men of World War II shared.

As luck would have it, the troop from Deerfield was there the same evening as us, although they came out by bus instead. Either way you do it though, there are plenty of things on board to interact with. A second trip there was definitely worth it.

Saturday, we left the ship and drove to an MBTA stop outside of Boston, where we took a train/subway car into the city. For some of the scouts, this was their first time on the T. They did their best to blend in (notice the stern, confident, "we're-not-lost" looks and the hats turned backwards).

The first and last stop of the day was Fanuel Hall for food! In between, we hiked overland to the Museum of Science, where we saw the planetarium and the iMax theater.

On the hike back to Fanuel Hall, we navigated our way through the Farmer's Market while they were closing shop for the day, where you can get 2 pineapples for a dollar and similar deals. It's pretty amazing if you've never seen it before.

This was the maiden voyage of The Mega-Tent! The giant beast on the left above was able to hold all of the scouts at the same time for the overnight. The one on the right was used simply to hold gear. We ended up using the same system while at Cedarlands, with excellent results.

Unfortunately, I never got to take pictures of it, but everybody was able to enjoy the pool, once again kindly provided by long-time and dear friends of Troop 14 - The Haligans. Our special thanks to them for hosting our Saturday overnight, and providing us with donuts before the drive home.

(As always, clicking on many of the pictures above will bring up a larger image.)