Greetings friends! After a lengthy absence I'm back to tell you all about the vacation trip Vicki and I took to Boston. We left last Friday morning and just got back to Sugar Land this afternoon. Other than the fact that during our visit Boston experienced one of its worst heat waves in recent memory (the temperature hit 99 degrees), we had an absolutely fantastic time. Who knew that Boston was such a fun place?
For starters, we stayed at the Aisling Bed & Breakfast, which is a 135 year-old row house on Boston's South End. The South End is definitely not the most upscale neighborhood in Boston, but it gave us a flavor for the real Boston, which is one of the most diverse places we've ever been. Our B&B was very comfortable, the gourmet breakfasts were all great (more on this later) and we were only a block from the Silver Line of the bus/subway system (the "T"). For a $15 weekly pass we traveled all over the city with ease (once we figured out how to read the transit maps). If you ever go to Boston, DO NOT bother to rent a car to get around in the city. The streets are for the most part narrow, they aren't laid out in a logical grid, and the traffic there make Houston look like a Sunday drive in the country. The T works great, it's cheap, and with the exception of a few weirdos who made Vicki a little nervous, it seemed pretty safe.
Rather than bore you with a very long post detailing all of our exciting adventures I'll instead break our trip into several shorter posts, which will enable me to bore you on a continuing basis over the next four or five days. Let's start with last Friday . . .
Boston Common - Boston Common is the oldest public park in America, dating back to the early 1600's. It's sort of the Central Park of Boston, but a little smaller and lot older. During its history it has served as a common pasture for the town's sheep and cattle, as the site for public hangings, as the place where occupying British troops camped and trained, as a burying ground, as a place for the town's folk to protest against the British government, and now, where the city-dwellers go for some outdoor rest and recreation. As Vicki and I strolled through the Common we realized that there were very few people who looked like us. We heard multiple languages spoken by people who looked like they came from a multitude of countries. This included the locals and the tourists. We stopped for awhile at the Frog Pond, which is an acre-sized concrete pond that's about a foot deep, in which the local kids frolic under a couple of water-spewing fountains as their parents relax in the shade. In the winter months the Frog Pond becomes a giant ice-skating rink.
Adjacent to the Common is the Botanical Garden, which is a much more serene and much quieter place. Apparently the masses don't enjoy tranquility as much as chaos because there were far fewer people here than in the extremely congested Common. In addition to the multiple flowers that populate the place, there are also the Swan Boats that operate on one of the small lakes. These are boats that seat about twenty tourists (I can believe that too many locals do this) and are powered by young men who sit in the back and pedal. The distinguishing characteristic of the Swan Boats is the large fiberglass swan that is perched at the back of each boat. By large I mean about eight feet tall. It actually looks kind of weird.
There are also several statues and monuments throughout the garden, memorializing significant people and events. My personal favorite is the Ether Monument, which as the name suggests is a monument to ether. It seems that the first successful application of ether as an anesthetic was at nearby Boston General Hospital. In the center of the garden is a large statue of George Washington astride his horse. As we were admiring this statue I overheard a conversation next to us in which a woman told her friends that you can always tell if a person died in battle, in which case they are always depicted mounted on a horse. I guess George Washington was killed in battle after he served his time as President of the United States.
After our ramblings in the Common and the Gardens we found our way up to the North End, which is home to the Old North Church and Paul Revere's House. These are both worthwhile attractions in their own right, but they pale is comparison to the North End's real attraction - about a hundred Italian restaurants packed into the area of a few city blocks. If you want some really good Italian food, go to the North End. We actually went twice while we were in town. As an added ambiance bonus I noticed that in front of many of the restaurants there were small tables at which sat old Italian guys who looked like they just stepped off the set of The Godfather. They all looked just about the same - slightly overweight, white shirt, slicked back hair, smoking a cigarette, drinking something alcoholic, and typically gesturing to each other while they spoke. They reminded me of my Mom's side of the family.
After our North End dinner we headed back to the South End. This being our first day on the T it took us a little while to figure out the difference between the Orange, Red, Blue, Green and Silver lines and which direction to take on each (a key consideration), but we managed to make it home without too much trouble. All day long we had commented to each other how nice the weather was - not too hot and not really humid at all! Little did we know the steaming evil that lurked in the weather forecast.
Tomorrow: The Freedom Trail, Lobsters, and soooo much more!
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