An unexpected highlight of our Boston trip was the tour of USS Cassin Young on the Monday that we were supposed to take a Megabus up to Burlington, Vermont. After waiting over an hour or so for a bus that never came, we made alternate plans. The morning took us down to Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, and in the afternoon, we explored the Charlestown Naval Yard where both USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young live.

Since it was a Monday, the Constitution was not open for tours. USS Cassin Young is open daily for main deck visits from 10am to 4pm. 45 minute ranger-led tours bringing visitors to areas of the ship not normally open to the public are conducted daily at 11am, 2pm, and 3pm. We were lucky enough to catch the last tour of the day announcement over the loud speaker, so we speed-walked over.

Our ranger guide was awesome. I loved that the focus of his tour was on the effects of war on everyone - from the folks back home to the men on the ships. He had plenty of knowledge and definitely not enough time to share it all.

We started the tour on deck with the history of the ship and its use in the war and then headed down below to check out the eating, sleeping, and bathing situations.

We went from the seamen’s quarters to those of the officers’. From three people stacked on top of each other in a room of 10+ to rooms of two to single person rooms - what a big difference!

During the tour, the guide would point at or mention something that looked interesting. He would then proceed to tell us that he wasn’t going to talk about it. What a tease! Even though plenty was covered on the tour, there was still so much more. We had to skedaddle soon after the tour though because they were closing it up for the day.

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The 45 minutes went by quickly, and it was the best zero dollars we spent in Boston. Can you believe it? Free! It’s definitely one of the many reasons I support the National Park Service