268. Chelsea: Chelsea Naval Hospital Park

There was the Bunker Hill Monument, and over there was the Prudential Tower. And if I walked far enough around the corner, which I did, I could stand almost directly under the Mystic River Bridge. It was a place of landmarks.

Just across the river sat a tanker, the Overseas Sifnos, flagged in the Marshall Islands. One tree in the park looked as if it had sunk directly downward and settled in at the height of its first limbs.

The site, of course, had history. A hospital, built high on the hill abutting the park, was constructed exclusively for the nation's sailors in the 1830s and remained in service for nearly a century and a half. Among its patients were one past President, John Quincy Adams, and one future President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Today, the hospital and its grounds have mostly been turned over to residential concerns, but it is possible to discern some of that old history as one walks even just the park itself without invading the privacy of the people who live alongside it. I divined what I could as I said my hellos to strangers, and hit several of those awkward moments when I ran into people for the second and third times. You know, when you get stuck saying something like, "What?! You again!" Believe me, you're better off just smiling and nodding. There's less embarrassment all the way around.

And, if you're counting, that's another county down. Buh-bye, Suffolk.