We did more, saw more, and learned more on this trip than any other trip before. So it's very difficult to sit down and write about it: how much detail do I go into? This could take hours....
I'll start with some observations I made about New England:
1) Most people talk (in MA and RI mainly) with a Bostonian sounding accent (not refined as I had imagined)
2) It is socially acceptable for women to cuss- loudly- in public. One of my first experiences of this was in a Wendy's in Boston the FIRST day we were there. A lady in line behind me is on her cell talking about "this f-ing thing and that f-ing thing". Woa. Then, a few days later in a Boston subway restaurant, a lady who is not even that angry can't find her cell and says, "I forgot my cell phone, God- damnit!" Wow. (I prefer to cuss in the privacy of my own home or with friends.. so I guess it's cultural since I live in the Bible belt!)
3) Bostonians do drive recklessly while in motion. When they are stuck in traffic, they ALL honk... one person honking is not enough apparently... they all have to chime in as if that rectifies the problem.
4) At a Red Sox/Yankees game, the fans ARE as drunk as you can imagine and are rude (when A-Rod came up they chanted "A-Roid: You do steroids!!" However, they make up for this behavior by belting out "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond in the 8th inning and swaying and really getting into it! So cute.
Okay, now prepare yourself for a 10 day report of our trip. I may do a few days at a time and stretch this out!
Day One: We fly into D.C. where it decides to storm and they ground ALL planes. So we're stuck in D.C. for the night when we should have been in Hartford, CT staying with Daniel's Uncle Ian. We get a sweet deal b/c we only have to pay $65 for a $300 room at a Sheraton in VA.
Day Two: We get up at 5 the morning. Oy. We fly to Hartford successfully. Our bags arrive with us (praise the Lord!) We rent our car. About that time we discover we've had a rather major miscommunication.
Daniel: So we're going to the Red Sox game tonight!
Me: What? No we're not, we're going tomorrow night (looks at the schedule I've been planning for 6 months
Daniel: No, look at the tickets; it's tonight
Me: "You've effed our trip!"
Daniel: No I didn't f*** the trip. I told you about this months ago!
Me: But you didn't stop and verify that I had changed it on the schedule
We huff and puff and get in the car. I then call Beth who's from Worcester, MA to ask for her help in re-arranging our schedule b/c what I had planned would not have fit in the time we had before the game. She's amazing and we decide to go downtown Boston and hit the historic Freedom Trail and that way we'd be in town already for the game. First we go to our hotel and get subway tickets for our 3 days in Boston. Then we take the subway and start touring the Freedom Trail (you follow a red line of paint of red bricks throughout a 3 mile stretch of the city):
We saw the state capitol building
Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams' grave
the site of the Boston Massacre (a small section of sidewalk in a busy intersection!)
the meeting house where so much was planned
a whole bunch of churches
skyline
Paul Revere's house and one of the bells he made;
the USS Constitution, a boat from Revolutionary times, I believe:
Charlestown where Bunker Hill (the first major battle of the Revolution) is;
Then we ate at a great pizza joint near Fenway called Uno's. They had a yummy chunky tomato sauce on their thick crust pizza. mmmm. And then off to the game:
We won 6-5! And we headed home on the subways with thousands of others and were stuffed on the train like a true Bostonian, like a sardine. We finally got to bed about 12:30 so that was our 19 1/2 hour day! What a way to start a vacation!!
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