Post by Ella.
After a living history tour of the Freedom Trail (see Grubb’s post “The city that gobbled the revolution “), we headed towards the harbor for our Duck experience.
If it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a DUKW. Okay, so it bumps and shakes instead of waddling, but it does swim. A DUKW is a six-wheel-drive amphibious bus/boat created as a modification of the military 2+1⁄2-ton CCKW trucks used during World War II and the Korean War.
We shuffled to our assigned seats on the DUKW, the Arborway Alex, and into the Boston traffic we went. Our guide’s narrative was rich with tales steeped in Boston’s history interspersed with corny dad jokes. But hey, he tried hard to keep us entertained as we inched through the car-clogged streets. We saw the 23-carat gold encrusted dome of the state capitol building and the circle of stones demarking the site of the Boston massacre where 5 people were killed by British soldiers (while the rebels called it a massacre, the British referred to it as the unfortunate incident on King Street). We saw historical churches along side Dunkin’ Donuts (87 DDs in Boston) and then we arrived at the Charles River, where, after a refresh of the safety speech, turning on of the marine radio and several complicated maneuvers involving gears, we were floating like a boat, propeller roaring, nearly drowning out our guide.
We floated by the Science Museum and through a set of locks meant to prevent the Back Bay area from flooding. We barked at another DUKW as it putted by while they quacked at us. I dunno. It’s a thing I guess. We ended back at our landing and our captain/driver again performed some magic with gears and propellers and then we were driving once again through Boston traffic
Ducks, boats, and Boston are forever connected (for me) with the great children’s classic Make Way for Duckings. The Boston Common has bronze statues of mama duck and her ducklings as well as the swan boats to tour the pond. We did that 8 years ago and stayed at the Parker House in the Presidential Suite because they lost our reservation.
Great book. Fun memories. And the Presidential suite – nice!