Boston 2008 - Day 5 - August 8 - My feet just want to watch more Project Runway

Last day with lots to do so it was an early start. 8am and off to Dunkin Donuts for more coffee sold to us by a cheery Spanish woman (and yes, I used my skillz to converse briefly). Then the long walk to Boston Common and the park to visit The Ducks and begin a l-o-n-g day on The Freedom Trail! It's 2.5miles and allegedly takes about 4 hours to finish with all the things to read and photograph. It's a beautiful and fascinating walk but we have decided that it should have been done closer to the beginning of the trip rather than the end. Either way, it was enjoyable. The last stop was Bunker Hill. There's an ice cream truck at the bottom, which we giggled at...until we climbed the 294 steps to the top of the monument! After all that, it was time to head back to G'vannis for lunch (chicken parm, veal parm and pinot grigio) and gelato at Mike's. Took an inadvertent and round about way to the harbor to get sweatshirts (Boston for me, Harvard for Todd) before getting on the train back to Copley - wanted to tour Trinity Church, the library and Berklee, but only made it to the library before our feet all but gave out. Back to the hotel!

Three hours of American's Next Top Model and we were ready for pub food! Torrential rain and a lack of desire to walk landed us at The Pour House on Boylston & Fairfield. Good beer, great wings, the Sox game and opening ceremonies...couldn't have asked for a better end to our vacation!

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Notes from after the trip:
*Todd actually said the title of today's post. Yes, our feet hurt that badly.
*We missed out on Fenway, the Sam Adams Brewery and Berklee this time, so we're already planning on another trip and we'll hit all those things, I'll get to shop on Newbury and we'll probably head up to Cape Cod for a day. And we'll also do the harbor dinner/dancing cruise.
*We had the opportunity to go dancing on the pier of a hotel on the harbor (swing dancing, no less) but we missed that so we'll be doing that next time too.
*Boston fricking rocks!

Boston 2008 - Day 4 - August 7 - Big and DUUUUUUUUMB!

Dunkin Donuts coffee and pastry for breakfast. Long-ish walk to Boylston & St. Charles to catch the tour to Salem. We're across the street from Boston Common, so now we know how far it is to the start of the Freedom Trail.

On our way to Salem, via Marblehead. Stopped at Castle Rock to see the ocean (quite warm for this far north) and the Carcassone Castle. This whole area is beautiful and quaint, even if the crummiest house is priced at well over $1,000,000 - yowza! Professional dog walkers and rich socialites everywhere. The US Navy originated here, by the way.

Salem is nuts! Beautiful and you have to eat at Brother's Deli - hugest sandwiches ever! The witch museum is interesting and nice. Plenty of misc. crap to buy, especially for halloween. The Common is HUGE for the size of town this is. We got separated from the rest of the tour so our driver, Bob, took us over to see the statue of Samantha from Bewitched. She was given to Salem a few years ago. No one else on the tour got to see that...shhh! Bough the pups some collar charms at Pickering Wharf and tons of candy at Ye Olde Pepper Companie, the oldest candy company in America. They also make their own soda so we got cream soda and birch beer. It's the first time I've ever said "one of everything please" and MEANT IT! WOO HOO!

Got back to Boston and walked through some misting rain through Copley back to the hotel. Rested for a bit before getting dressed up to hit the town! Dinner at Legal Sea Foods - the had a dish with everything I wanted all at once! Crab cakes, shrimp and scallops - perfect! Todd had grilled tuna steak which was also very good. Took our time enjoying dinner until we stepped outside the Prudential Center to take a picture for the start of the Olympics. Then -- to the Top of the Hub for dessert and coffee! Lovely view, great live jazz and excellent dessert, but our server was NOT good and was kind of rude. Would have thought it would be better considering we dropped $45 on dessert.

But on the whole, a perfect day!

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Notes from after the trip:
* The title comes from a couple that was on the tour that could not, for the life of them, tell the bus driver where they needed to be at the end of the day. Critical information, given that Bob the Bus Driver was taking every single person on the bus back to their respective hotels. Sheesh. *If you go to Brother's Deli, definitely get a cheese steak sandwich...but split it with someone...it's freakin' HUGE! The place is set up quasi-cafeteria style so it's kind of fun and funky.
*I pretty much could have stayed in Marblehead all day and been okay with it.
*Our Olympics picture is part of a Facebook thing where you're supposed to take a picture at the exact time the Olympics started which, for us, was August 7 (yes 7, not 8...gotta love the int'l date line!) at 8:08pm...Boston is exactly 12 hours behind Beijing, in case you were terribly curious.

Boston 2008 - Day 3 - Aug 6 - The Holocaust Memorial

[This topic and portion of our trip, I felt, deserved it's own page in my journal]

We also went to the Boston Holocaust Memorial. I cried, like I usually do at these kinds of things.
There are six pillars, each with one million numbers, representing the tattooed #s on each victim of the Holocaust. It was beautiful and touching. Overwhelming, actually. 6 million people. There are some amazing quotes from survivors all through the park, many of which discuss the tragedy of inaction.

There was a family there who took photos of the smiling children in front of the entrance to the memorial. I found it disrespectful and cheap.

I've kind of had an onslaught of Holocaust information in the the last week or so and I'm a bit emotionally spent from it all. I suppose that's okay.

Memorials, stories and memories are how things like this do not melt away into nothing and become forgotten or glamorized.

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Notes from after the trip:
* The reason I'd had such an onslaught of Holocaust info is because I had just watched Freedom Writers and the whole movie sort of revolves around the idea of how a Holocaust comes to fruition. I have a huge spot in my heart for the Holocaust for many reasons...currently (and for the last few years) it has been because so many of the people that survived those atrocities are now starting to die and I do not want their stories to die with them. I wish I had endless time and resources and could hunt down every survivor in the US and document their stories.

* I made it VERY clear to Todd that we will NEVER cheapen these memorials by taking photos of ourselves or our children on, in, near or around them. That is not what this is for. And frankly when I saw that family, I was disgusted by their lack of respect. It was trashy, to say the very least.

Boston 2008 - Day 3 - Aug 6 - There are no pretty girls at Harvard...just smart ones.

Mr. Bartley's @ Harvard. Best burger - so sayeth Wall Street Journal and Pete Buchwald. Best/Only strawberry shake I've ever had.

Harvard is beautiful - amazing architecture & greenery.

MIT is funky and weird. Strange building - kind of look like Frank Lloyd Wright...or whoever did the Denver Art Museum. Haven't heard anyone say "Hahhvahd" yet, but saw a shirt that did.

The Harvard Co-op is waaay too expensive so if I get a Harvard shirt, I'll get it from a street vendor. Todd did get a cigar from a shop that could have been straight out of Roger Rabbit. Seriously.

It's very foggy tonight. so going to the Top of the Hub proved a bad idea so we changed our reservations for tomorrow night. Instead, we'll have wings at Whiskey's where we ate last night. YUM!

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Notes from after the trip:
*Canbridge is so beautiful, it's almost like being in a dream. It rained the whole time we were there and it couldn't have possibly been more lovely.
* The title of today's post comes from a girl whose phone conversation I was eavesdropping on. It's quite possibly the dumbest thing I've heard it quite a while.
*Definitely have AT LEAST dessert at the Top of the Hub...it's pricey, but totally worth the view and the live jazz.
*Karla, definitely check out the crazy MIT buildings!

Boston 2008 - Day 2 - August 5 - Do not ever EVER chug wine.

Got up around 8am, had some breakfast,then went to Copley Square to catch the Bean Town Trolley. That was an adventure. An hour later, we found the bus and we on our way!

This town rules! Everyone is really nice and there's too much history to keep up with!. Drove past concert halls, churches, MIT (woo hoo!), North End, Cheers, Boston Common, the duck park, theatre district and about a trillion other things!

Walked to North End to G'vannis for lunch - best Italian I've ever had, 2nd best for Todd. Cheese ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs and merlot - YUM!! Then to Mike's Pastry for dessert (cash only!) - got 2 canonlis, pizzelle, tiramisu, eclair, peanut butter cup, raspberry rugalache and some colory bit - woo hoo!

Harbor Cruise which allowed for gorgeous skyline pictures and some nice shots of the USS Constitution.

Walked back to the hotel for a break before heading to a pub on Boylston.

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Tidbits of Learning from Day 2:

* The new John Hancock Building has 10,000+ mirrored panes, each weighing 500lbs.
* Trinity Church is Episcopalian
* The top of the old Hancock building has a light that indicates weather, via a poem:
Steady blue, clear view
Flashing blue, fog is due
Steady red, rain ahead
Flashing read, snow instead (or Sox game is cancelled, in the spring/summer)
* Jacob Wirth Co - oldest German restaurant in the city (country?)....claims to sell 1million pounds of sauerkraut each year
* I-90 will take you all the way to Seattle with no stop lights and 5 tolls.
* Boston Financial District is 2nd only to Wall Street NYC
* The Big Dig was originally set to finish in 1999 at a cost of $3billion. It actually finished in 2008 at a cost of $22billion.
*Institute of Contemporary Art is located at Seaport & Boylston Wharf
* The No Name Restaurant is THE place to eat seafood...located between the two catch drop buildings in the Seaport District
* The Spirit of Boston is a yacht that offers nightly 3 hour dinner and dancing harbor cruises.
* St. Patricks Day is also called Evacuation Day in Boston (peace out to the Brits Day, basically)
* The Brinks Robbery was in 1950. They stole about $1mil. Only about $50K was recovered and the trial/investigation cost nearly $3mil.
* Quincy Market is 2nd only to Disney in # of visitors each year.
* Boston hosts 600,000 locals and 117,000 students.
* 1 of 3 people in Boston is between age 21 and 35....very similar to Seattle.
* New England School of Law (Portia School) was the 1st law school for women. Interestingly, women could practice law, but not vote.
* The Cheers Bar is located at S. Charles & Boylston (more or less).
* General Hooker frequently purchased "ladies of the night" for his soldiers....hence, "hookers".
* Charles St. & Beacon St. - private shopping district for the neighborhood in the 1800s.
* On Cambridge & New Chardon, you can find a combination Dunkin Donuts - sushi bar!
* Massachusetts General Hospital has 900+ patients.....and 23,000 docs and staff.
*The Liberty Hotel is a former prison that was designed so that each cell got as much daylight as possible. Even so, prisoners complained and complained about the living conditions and a few years ago, the prison was shut down. But because it was already on the historical landmark registry, it could not be torn down. So it was turned into a hotel, complete with bars on the windows, with the Presidential Suite running $4000/night.
* From the balcony of the old State House, the Constitution was read for the first time in 1776. In 1976, Queen Elizabeth greeted Bostonians from the balcony again, ending with the statement, "All is forgiven. You may come home." (She's a funny lady, isn't she?)

Boston 2008 - Day 1 - August 4 - Tubulence is a bitch.

7:40am flight...GAAA!!!
Slept most of the way - apparently too tired to function, even after a Dazbog green tea smoothie. Insane turbulence into Atlanta which I hated, but the XM satellite radio (for free!) and Todd made it a bit easier...but not much.

Made it to Boston. Uneventful flight for the most part. We flew over Manhattan, which was unreal. Other than "Friends", I've never seen NYC. Took some picture from the plane...AWESOME!!

Our hotel, Newbury Guest House, is amazing! Right on Newbury Street, which is apparntly the Rodeo Drive of Boston - HOT!. There's a Vera Wang Bridal Store here....WHAT?!?

Samantha, our evening concierge, sent us to Bangkok City for dinner. Best Thai food we've ever had. Mmm! Right across the street from Berklee, so that's rad!

Stopped into a fun cigar store for Todd before heading in for the night.

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Here are some "asides" from after the trip:

1. Yeah, those flights sucked big time. If I never see the inside of Atlanta's airport again, it'll be too soon. I hate routing through there.

2. Cab drivers in Boston are fricking insane. Very "east coast" feeling, I guess.

3. Pedestrians have absolutely zero regard for traffic. Just start walking. Cars will (hopefully) stop for you.

4. Not sure what all the people on Hotels.com had to bitch about regarding Newbury Guesthouse...it was everything we could have wanted...and more.

5. We think that Samantha is a student at Berklee College of Music, which is why she recommended Bangkok City...it's literally across the street from the school.

6. I haaaaaaaate Dazbog coffee. The tea isn't too bad though.

The Boston Blogs

So I've decided to start journaling about every trip that I take...mostly so that I can remember everything as it happens.

My first time with this was Boston...so the next few blogs will chronicle our trip through Bean Town...which was wicked awesome, by the way.