Adventure | Blue Moon

Boston

Renée had been looking forward to seeing the 4th of July fireworks in either NYC or Boston since the start of our trip, and with the way our schedule lined up, Boston seemed like the best bet. I contacted a few spots about getting a mooring near the wharf in the inner harbor, but they were all fully booked and put us on a waitlist. We reviewed our options and ended up deciding to anchor off Castle Island instead.

The trip through the Boston Harbor Islands was stunning. I hadn’t realized how many small islands were in the outer harbor. It’s easy to see why this area was such a popular harbor back in the day with all the old sailing schooners.

Castle Island was a lively anchorage, with ferries and pleasure boats buzzing past at all hours. For the first 24 hours, Logan was using its southwest-facing runway, so planes were flying low overhead every 100 seconds or so. We got a kick out of watching them on Flightradar.com, checking out what type of plane it was and where it was headed. During cocktail hour, there was a steady stream of flights bound for Europe and Asia, which had Renée and me reminiscing about our own adventures across the pond.

Along the horizon we could see the distinctive egg shaped tanks which are part of the Deer Island treatment plant. This $3.8B facility is part of a larger “Boston Harbor Project” which treats wastewater from over 43 Boston communities, was mostly completed in the year 2000.

We brought the dinghy ashore and landed on the outer beach at Castle Island. While Renée and Piper tackled some math problems on a park bench, Reese and I hiked over to the nearby Stop & Shop to grab a few provisions. Wandering through “Southie” reminded me of the reasons I love this part of Boston. The streets were quiet with several little neighborhoods, where people were out on their stoops chatting with neighbors and grilling. I am guessing 4th of July energy influenced things, but the whole vibe was very enjoyable.

We learned a new “hack” for how to skin a mango where you use a cup to remove the skin. Reese mastered it immediately!

We enjoyed a couple of gorgeous sunsets over the Back Bay skyline, a view that brought back fond memories from our 10+ years living in Boston during and after our time at Northeastern.

Finally, the big event arrived as the sunset on July 4th. We had an unbelievable view of fireworks all along the shoreline. I think most of the people along the water were launching off their own private fireworks shows. The Boston (Charles River) fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:40 and we were surprised to see the show from Winthrop start at 9:20 which were also super close over by Logan Airport.

It is such an old person thing to say, but one of the best parts of the whole thing was being able to walk downstairs afterwards and be in bed 5 minutes after the show ended instead of waiting in traffic on the way home!

All in all, visiting Boston on Blue Moon was a fun experience we will remember the next time we are down there by car.