Boston

The fam went to Boston to walk the 3day, and as we do, we decided to be tourists for a couple of days. My intent was to write while we were there, but I didn't. So now that we're home I'm going to give it a shot to remember what we did. 

We left Seattle on the 2nd (Memorial Day). Flying to the east coast takes all day and so we didn't get there until well after 8pm. Our mission was to do and see and do some more. The best part of taking off... this low carb thing made two things possible on the airplane. 

1. I fit comfortably in the seat without pulling up the arm rest
2. I didn't need an extender for the seat belt

Both those things bug the crap out of me when I travel and now that I've lost weight, traveling is comfortable again. 

We flew JetBlue for the first time. I gotta say...I loved them. I'd fly them again. 

Day 1 - Sept 3
The first order of business was to check out the breakfast at the hotel. Nothing overly exciting but it's nice having a free breakfast. It not only cuts down on cost, but time. If you have to go eat breakfast somewhere every day you lost time. Eating in the hotel before you leave...piece of cake. 

We knew the one thing we absolutely wanted to do was the hop on hop off trolley. We do these type of tours every where we go. It's the best way to really see the city and decide what you want to go and see more of. But to get there we had to take the Transit to downtown Boston. 

The "T" as it's called is super easy to navigate. Once you get your ticket, the documentation every where made it easy to figure out where we were going. The shuttle driver from the hotel gave us the stop we needed and off we went. 

We exited the T into the Boston Common. It was HOT and MUGGY. 80F with 89% humidity...Lord.  I'm sure I lost 50 lbs in sweat that day. it was somewhat miserable to be honest. 

After spending the bulk of the morning and early afternoon on the trolley seeing the sights of Boston, we stopped at Quincy Market to find a bit of lunch. Quick to decide we stopped at Ned Devine's.  I had "chowdah" and y'all...the best chowdah I've ever had. I got no photos of it because I inhaled it too quickly. 

Today was also Janet's birthday. We didn't do much celebrating during the day but after we got back to the hotel, we took her to dinner at the Blarney Stone - looked up restaurants in the area of our hotel and found this. 

I was still delusional that I was going to stay on my low carb plan for vacation (despite the chowder earlier) and had these fantastic steak tips. They came with mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts. I didn't eat either.  This would be the last of me really focusing on staying low carb. Didn't last too long. It's hard when you travel. 

Day 2 - Sept 4

Same as Day 1. We took the T to Boston Common. Only today was all about the Freedom Trail. 

We used the hop on hop off trolley to get to the beginning of the trail at Bunker hill. We walked and walked and walked…then we stopped to have lunch in Little Italy. Fantastic pizza.

But the best part was after when we stopped at Mike's Bakery. We'd seen the boxes all over and wondered what it was all about. Cannoli…that's what it was all about. We swung and all got one. Janet and I split a chocolate mousse one. OH….MY…GOD…I have never tasted anything as good. It was so not sweet and so flavorful. In fact, we were so entranced in eating it we almost walked right past Paul Revere's house…

After we came down from our sugar high, we continued a bit more on the trail. Eventually we had to get back to the hotel because we were headed to my nephew Danny's house for dinner.

Driving out there was an adventure. These drivers here are insane. Lanes are really guidelines. As are traffic lights apparently. Super aggressive drivers who all seem to understand some unspoken rule about traffic "laws" being just guidelines. In fact, the only time they really honk is if the light has turned and you haven't already started going BEFORE it turned. 

On our way out there we saw a thunder storm starting to roll in. As we got closer we saw lightening and heard thunder pretty regularly. Then driving into their driveway we walked into the house and literally the clouds opened up. Two LOUD lighting/thunder strikes happened within feet of his house. The downpour was impressive. Then about 3 minutes later it was gone and it was sunny again.

Danny and his husband Keith entertained us and fed us empenadas and crostini with mozarella and tomatoes on it. Both delicious. Little Lenora was a doll. So enjoyed spending time with them. My thought the entire time is Mom would have been in heaven. She wouldn't have wanted to see anything in Boston she only would have wanted to spend it with Danny and Lenora. 

Day 3 - Sept 5

Today was all about finishing up the freedom trail. We started at Boston Common and walked the second half. During that time we stopped at the state house and had a tour of the building. Impressive for sure. Some beautiful architecture to be sure. Our tour guide was awesome.  Total Boston accent. In fact he said "horse" three times before I understood what he was saying. 

Afterwards, we walked down the street to Beantown Pub and had lunch. Clam chowdah again, along with a side of boston baked beans that were disgusting. Blech. Thank god I ordered the deep fried pickles too. The chowder was good, but not as good as Ned Devine's.

Janet had two funny sayings during lunch that had me in stitches...

"Can I dip my spoon in your chowdah?" and "Anyone want this big pickle?" I don't know why both struck my funny bone, but they did.

After that we visited one of the oldest cemeteries and it's where all the patriot were buried. I love old graveyards and what not. This one did not disappoint. 

We noticed many of the tombstones had a skeleton head and wings behind it. It was, apparently, depicting something but we had no idea what. I had to do some research to find out. 

Turns out...they're called "death heads" 

"A death's head, often with wings and/or crossed bones, was a stylized skull. Some have speculated that winged skulls were intended to symbolize a combination of physical death and spiritual regeneration. ... The death's head, a non-religious symbol was the first imagery employed in gravestone carving."

Now you know...

After that Lori and Janet were in full 3day mode so we left them there and Kathy and I headed back to the hotel.

Except on our way, we had to see ONE more stop on the freedom trail and while it was being renovated it gave Kathy and excuse to go get more cannoli from Mike's. I hung out in Faneuli plaza and watched people. We decided to take the metro from there. Which had us taking the orange line to the red line. While trying to find the orange line I swear it felt like we were walking to the downtown crossing to get the red line. In fact, by the time we did get the orange line, it was just one stop down for the red line.

The 3Day - Fri through Sun

The next three days were all about the 3day. Boston is NOT a place to try to stalk. So Kathy and I found the cheering stations and cheered from there. 

The closing was fantastic. The park was very cool. 

After we all headed to No Name Restaurant for some seafood. Interesting little restaurant. It was recommended by many of the trolley drivers. It was good, but not a place I'd have to go back to. 

Post 3 day Janet, Kathy and I were spending Monday and Tuesday seeing a few more sights around the Boston area. 

Monday Sept 9 was all about Salem. The BEST part about Salem was that my good friend from my childhood Christy joined us. She and her family live in Webster and she met us at the hotel and road with us to Salem. 

Salem wasn't what I expected. For some reason I had in my head it's just a historic little town and nothing else. We took the trolley around town to see the sights. We didn't get much about the Witch trials. We didn't have time to go into the museum which bummed me out a bit, but I was tired and I didn't want to have everyone wait for me. 

We ate at the Tavern on the Green - supposedly the best burger in town. It was good, but wasn't the "best" in my opinion. 

Tuesday, Sept 10 we headed to Cape Cod

It was so freaking beautiful. Well, Cape Cod is the land mass, the towns we stopped at were Hyannis and Provincetown (P Town). We drove around Hyannis to see the mansions and the Kennedy compound. Amazing. None could we afford and most guest houses were bigger than our houses. Impressive. 

We stopped at this little Cafe called Wimpy's for lunch. Again...more fantastic chowder. I had fried shrimp too - which I can't resist ever. 

We continued driving around the cape and ended up at the very tip top of the "toe" of the boot. Walked onto the beach and dipped our toes in the sea...well Kathy and Janet did. My delicate little feet were not happy about the sand/rock combo. 

So that's that. The Boston trip. I really didn't want to go because work was so chaotic and I hated leaving the team down one soul...but it all worked out. I got a chance to do a lot of thinking about work and came to some good decisions that put me in a good place now. 

Next trip...well I'm heading to Gold Beach in November for a scrapbooking thing with my scrap peeps.