Boston Road Trip
This is my first post so don’t expect me to wow your socks off. I suppose I could talk about my trip to Boston. It was quite fun!
Day One – Saturday
I made the 250 mile road trip in over 5.5 hours. You wouldn’t believe the amount of traffic and construction in Connecticut. I ended up having to call up Joanne just so I wouldn’t go crazy all by myself while I was slowly inching my way across Interstate 95.
When I finally made it to Boston’s city limits, I started to get worried. For one thing, I had no idea where my hotel was. And another, I still haven’t heard from my friend Bill. When I eventually found my way to my hotel room, I was so freakin’ exhausted. But I didn’t have time for a long nap, I took a shower and rushed outside to meet with Bill and have dinner. We were on the hunt for a good restaurant that served chow-dah. I gotta say this about Bostonians, they make good chow-dah!
After dinner, we walked around a bit and found our way to the famous Cheers bar. You have to have a drink at Cheers, it’s like a rite of passage, you haven’t been to Boston till you’ve had a drink at Cheers. I, of course, bought shot glasses.
Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came!
Day Two – Sunday
We went to the waterfront to see about doing a whale watch tour. It was $30 for a 3-hour cruise, with a guaranteed whale sighting or they’ll give you a raincheck – not a bad deal, I said. So we go on board, and I immediately feel queasy. I am a true blue landlubber, so the rocking motion was making me nauseous. But when we got on our way and the captain brought the ship to full speed, Bill and I went out to the ship’s bow and it was incredible!! It was like being on a roller coaster, the rise and fall of the ship was making my stomach drop and the wind was so strong that it was pushing us back. If it wasn’t too corny, I would’ve shouted “Whoooo! I’m the king of the world!!”
That was the highlight of our trip that day. We ended up cruising for nearly 2 hours with no whale sightings. We were slighlty disappointed, and as Bill aptly put it, “Uhhh…you do intend to have whales on your whale tour, right?”
Later on that night, we decided to check out the piano bar located in our hotel lobby. Right off the bat I am impressed because the pianist started singing a Beatles song (I forget which one it is, but they’re all good, so who cares?). We’re sitting there just having a good time, when the pianist suddenly called up one of the bar’s “regulars.” Apparently they have open mic seven nights a week, and Arnold is one of their many regulars singing. Oiy, that was like bad karaoke – tone deaf lounge singing – a cat being skinned to death.
There was not enough alcohol in that bar to make those 2 songs bearable, though it was pretty funny to see who could hold their laughter longer. When Arnold finally sat down, we were more than ecstatic to see another performer, a much better one at that. It seems that the piano bar gets a lot of theater performers, being that our hotel is located in the theater district. It was great……the pianist was really good (despite a botched attempt at his rendition of “The Piano Man”……Bill was quite livid), the place was nice and comfy, and the performers were enjoying themselves…and I just love watching performers who enjoy themselves (and I mean that in a non-voyeur way).
Standing at the ship’s bow at full speed- good times. Untangling my hair – not good times.
Day Three – Monday
I decided to do a little sight seeing by myself. My first stop was Fenway Park. Now, being a Yankee fan, I’m supposed to hate the Red Sox. But in all honesty, I admire the Red Sox for their drive, and I am being totally sincere about that. Yankee fans get such a bad rep for being arrogant SOBs, and I hate that. But I wasn’t about to announce that I’m a Yankee fan while in Boston.
Anyway, I found the park easily enough (getting back was a different story). They didn’t have any home games while I was in town, so my only hope was to see if they had a park tour so I can get inside and see what it’s like. I walked all around the stadium to find no one around to help me or even find a hint that they gave tours. That sucked.
I went back to my hotel to do some studying (yes, people, I brought my textbooks with me and I actually got some studying done – so there!). Late in the afternoon, I decided to stretch my legs and wander the Boston Common and the Public Gardens. The gardens are not as impressive as Central park, but considering how the garden has been around since 1837, that’s pretty amazing. Central park’s only 100 years old.
After dinner, we went to our favorite piano bar again, and like the night before, Arnold was there. I don’t know what was weirder, that Arnold sings wholeheartedly seemingly oblivious to his tone deafness or that the pianist and the crowd all encourage and love him. I mean, he’s an old man who wears a shirt and trucker hat with his picture on them and maybe he’s senile and lonely, so what’s to love? I do have to give him credit for mustering up enough courage to sing in front of complete strangers – heck, Bill couldn’t do it! But in any case, I think I drank myself into a stupor that night.
I searched high and low, but it seems no one sells red socks in Boston. Weird, n’est pas?
Day Four – Tuesday
I managed to work up the nerve to go back to the waterfront and take the raincheck for the whale tour all by my lonesome. I was worried that I was going to get seasick and no one will be there to make sure I’m okay. But I knew I couldn’t let this opportunity pass and I did not want to waste $30 for nothing, so I sucked it up and got back on the boat.
I figure that if I stayed outside at the deck that I won’t get sick as much. I bought a Boston sweatshirt for myself so the cold wind won’t freeze my ass. And just like the first time, I had the time of my life being out on the deck. The further out to sea we got, the sunnier it became. And after nearly 2 hours of cruising, we slowed down to see several boats floating nearby and small fish jumping out of the water – good indication that there are whales nearby (so they say). And true enough, we spotted a minky whale and a fin whale! It was freakin’ amazing to see them come out for air. They didn’t look like they were bigger than dolphins, but the whale expert said that fin whales can grow as big as 60 to 70 feet! I wish I had a video camera, as it was, I had a tough time trying to get a good shot of the fin whale that was closest to our boat.
By the time I got back from the cruise, I was totally sunburned (I didn’t have any sunscreen on me, so my face is bright red!), I smelled of fish, my hair was a mess, my legs felt like jello, but I had the goofiest smile on my face….that was so much fun
I ran back to my room, showered and changed and got ready for dinner. We ended up back at the Cheers bar and wandering around the gardens and a very old and creepy graveyard. Buried in that graveyard were historical figures like John Hancock, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin’s parents and Sam Adams……it was so cool to be around that much history. And as this was our last night in Boston, we decided to hit a few pubs.
Thar she blows!
They finally caught the speedracer! Damn you Connecticut state troopers!
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