Friday, September 30, 2016

A Day of fun AND excitement




We started our day with a walk through the neighborhoods of Boston headed to the Freedom Trail, a brick marked path that takes you by all the historic places in Boston. We ended up at the USS Constitution which is in dry dock getting needed repairs. From there we caught the City View Hop On Hop Off bus and had a very entertaining driver with a wonderful Boston accent and sarcastic sense of humor. We rode with him until he kicked us all of his bus at stop #1 The Long Wharf.
We found a wonderful restaurant, Granary Tavern, just across the street. Sue had a craft beer, soup, and the most wonderful Bang Bang Cauliflower, a fried cauliflower with sweet and spicy chili sauce. I had seafood chowder and calamari with chorizo which was also very good.
Then the excitement of the afternoon began!

We got back on the tour bus with the intention of getting off at Chinatown to look around and for me to look for a set of Mahjong tiles. We had to walk some to go from the bus stop to actually get to Chinatown. I managed to get us lost twice while using the maps on the iPhone. I think it will be a while before Sue lets me be the leader. We did eventually find Chinatown, we could tell by the ducks and chickens hanging in the window and all the Chinese writing on the buildings. I went into the first gift shop I saw, again Sue was reluctant to follow me into as we had to go down a creepy spiral staircase to get there. Low and behold he had a set of tiles for $25,  half price from Amazon or any other place I looked. After the purchase I found out why they are so cheap, all the tiles are chinese symbols, no english anywhere.
Next we decided to treat ourselves and have an ice cream puff, a wonderful sugary dessert. We left there and decided we would start to walk home and try and beat the rain. We stopped in a wine shop to take some wine home to our hosts. When we went to pay, Sue discovered her wallet was missing!!! OMG, had she been pick pocketed? All her credit cards, drivers license and money were in her wallet. We took some time to breathe, Sue remembered the name of the ice cream shop we had just been at, called them, and yes they had her wallet, she had left it on the counter when we sat down to eat. We high tailed it back and was so relieved to get all her credit cards, drivers license and money in her hands again.
By this time it was raining full bore so we got an uber car to take us home



Thursday, September 29, 2016

Our First Day in Boston



Sue and I arrived in Boston this morning at 7am after flying all night from Fairbanks and Seattle. Even though we were lucky enough to fly first class it still did not provide a restful sleep. We are staying in an AirBnB in Charlestown. Roger, a very nice man who owns the townhouse, rents out an extra bedroom and says the money he makes doing that will be applied to his trip to Europe and AirBnB's he will rent over there. AirBnB's are a great way to go, you meet local people who can be very helpful in your travels and the parties on both sides are vetted very well so it seems very safe to do.
After a pretty sleepless night Sue and I took off walking to find a place for breakfast and to find Fenway Park baseball field. We found a great little place close by, The Grasshopper Cafe, for breakfast but it took us seven miles of walking to find Fenway Park. We got there 5 minutes before the 2pm park tour started so of course we did that. The tour lasted for an hour and took us to all the different seating possibilities in the park, we also went into the glass enclosed press area. The park is 102 years old and was saved from destruction by three gentlemen who bought the park and got it designated an historical park saving it from any future destruction as well.
We Ubered back to the AirBnB and then walked to a little restaurant called Prescott which is also close by.
We are back in our room now fighting to stay awake at least til 7:30pm