New England Road Trip, Part 1: Submarine Force Museum

From my travels, August 4, 2021.

The boys’ grandparents – affectionately known as “Nene” and “Baba” – had wanted to take the boys to Boston to explore some colonial history, as well as some of the history of their family from their mom’s side. Regular readers will know that I’m all for a trip like that!

We loaded up the van and got on the road north. Along the way, I wanted to stop off and show the boys the Submarine Force Museum – which I had visited once with my family as a kid – and was excited to share with my own boys.

Among the favorite attractions within the museum for my crew were the dummy sub controls and actual working periscopes in a more interactive section. The periscopes stick out through the roof of the building and allow a 360-degree view around the building. The boys had fun looking for our car out in the parking lot – and John said he wanted to install one at home.

The true highlight of the museum was of course getting to go aboard the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571). The boys and their grandparents had never done anything like that. It’s much roomier than the WWII-era USS Becuna that the boys and I had visited in Philadephia a few years earlier.

I think that everyone had a good time learning and experiencing some new things on our first stop – especially considering that the museum is free. From Groton, CT, we continued north through Rhode Island, and got to our hotel in Lexington, MA that evening. We had a nice dinner out at Red Heat Tavern, and then settled in to rest up for the activities we had planned in Boston the next day.