S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 5

Well, after that exciting 4^th of July night, after which we tumbled out of the subway and into bed well after midnight, we slept in. Until 9am, at which time Housekeeping knocked on our door. What?! We were too shocked to respond… I mean what hotel would send Housekeeping around at 9 in the morning ever, let alone the morning after a holiday?! Well, it was pretty much time to get up anyway. We had a full day of Freedom Trail ahead of us.

So the Freedom Trail in Boston is: Follow the Red Brick Road along the Boston streets to visit historic landmarks! I’m serious, it is a two-brick wide red line, if it’s not in bricks then it’s in red paint on the concrete. It is a very handy way to find your way around central Boston. We visited the Park Street Church and the graveyard and the King’s Chapel graveyard (oh I was so excited about 2 graveyards in a row, especially with their beautiful headstones which tended to be a skull-shaped face between wings) and King’s Chapel and the Old State House, where we got to have a nifty little tour that explains exactly what probably happened during the Boston Massacre. We did get a little distracted on the way… once we stopped at a used bookstore where I bought 3 or 4 books for under $10, and then by the time we got to Faneuil Hall, it was closed for the day and Quincy Market was just across, and in the paved courtyard between, there was a street show going on – basically a guy who could climb a ladder without propping it against anything. Pretty neat! Then I really wanted to see Quincy Market so we walked through the ground-level floor. It’s really neat. You have to go to one such to understand, but it’s a lot of little shops selling everything from seafood to chocolate to candles under a roof, but it feels kind of like an open-air market, with a roof. So when we saw the ice cream and frozen yogurt, we decided we should get some, since we didn’t feel like taking time out for supper yet. Oh my goodness, I could get bogged down in all these boring details, let me move on… So since the rest of the sites along the Freedom Trail were closed for the day, we walked back and walked around the parks and saw the Ducks and fed the ducks in the pond – I did that is, peanut butter crackers, I had 7 little ducklings trading water right next to the edge of the pond to get the crumbs. Such fun! :)

And then let’s see… we walked around for a while looking for supper, then we finally, at the end of our footlife, stumbled into Uburger and got ourselves burgers, and went home and plopped into bed- I mean went back to the hotel and plopped.

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 4

And it was MONDAY! A big day! Time to leave Connecticut, and visit Rhode Island, and arrive in Boston and see the fireworks!

We drove to Newport and only turned around once on the way... I think just once. Newport was of course quite busy as it was a beautiful sunny day, much like it was when I was there one year ago. We drove to Bellevue Avenue to visit one of the mansions - the Breakers. Oh my goodness. It's so magnificent in there. It's kind of hard to imagine living there (well for simple little me anyway) but especially hard to think of the difference in standard of living between the rich and the poor, which I realize still exists, I guess it just doesn't permeate society as visibly. Oh but excuse me, all those huge mansions weren't mansions really, they were just summer cottages for the folks who owned them. Anyway, the tour was very nifty because they gave us a little ipod-thingy and earphones, which we carried around with us and pressed Play every room or so to keep following the tour and hear the descriptions. Keeps down the ruckus of a building being toured, that is for sure. I think the most amazing thing to me was that the Vanderbilts built their tubs out of 1 piece of solid marble, which made the tubs so cold that they had to be filled and emptied with hot water several times before they were actually warm enough to get in. Excuse me but I think that's kind of a dumb luxury, but anyway.

We walked along part of the Cliff Walk which runs along the coastline right behind the mansions. Beautiful of course! The best part is where the sidewalk turns into a Rock Walk, huge rocks that are flat on top that you can step or hop along as you wish. There was a horrid smell in the air that we think was the stinky seaweed washed up on the beach. I mean that it wasn't stinky to begin with but it probably got left way up on the beach and started to get over-sunned or something... We did however brave the stench (ok, it was a stench to us but probably not that bad) to walk right down to the water and stand on rocks where the waves splashed over our feet - oh! such fun! :)

And then we were very hungry so we drove off to find Panera Bread, which was easy, and then we drove around for 30 minutes looking for free parking then for cheap parking then just for how to get into the public parking period... ! Revived with food, we set off in the car to drive around the southern bay coastline on the Ocean Drive. It's beautiful, you must do it if you go to Newport. We would've gone out on the rocks again except for the smell and also our allotted time was almost up, it was time to head out to Boston.

So a couple hours later we arrived in Boston and found our hotel and found that the door closest to our hotel room can only be gone out, not back in, which was slightly inconvenient but we survived. After getting unpacked and resting up just enough for my pain pill to start killing the headache, we took the hotel shuttle bus to the subway station--

--here let me just pause and say that Stacey was the brains behind our trip and planned everything from the hotels to how we would get around each city and what we'd see, we would have been sitting in our hotel room trying to figure things out on Monday night if it weren't for her, three cheers for Stacey!--

--and hopped on the subway to downtown Boston, then we just followed the crowds to find the Esplanade where the Boston Pops was playing and the fireworks would be shot off! We couldn't see the Pops playing but we could hear them, the sound was broadcast all over the Esplanade area (which is basically the area all along the riverbanks, I believe...), it was incredible music, and then we had to figure out where to stand so we could see the fireworks. THAT was a job! Like before, we played Sheep and just followed the crowds to where they were clustered, it was a spot where we could see pretty well between the leaves of the trees along the riverbank. We had to stand waiting a while and I was about ready to give up and die and sit down, when suddenly, ka-BOOM, there they were! They were fantastic fireworks! There was music playing at the same time and most of the fireworks matched well with the music, quite mesmerizing... and then the finale was all the fireworks you can imagine in the sky at one time, ka-POP, ka-POP, KA-BOOM! all over the place!

Afterward we followed the crowd to the subway and Stacey and I just managed to squish onto the first (I think) train back... one more person got on after us and oh my goodness, that was a little closer quarters than I've ever stood to anyone and I won't go into more detail but it was definitely some kind of experience!

And we got home, I mean back to the hotel, after riding in the back of the hotel shuttle on the floor (!) and tumbled into bed and slept so hard, it was just wonderful... and that's what I'm going to do now, good-night.

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 3

Sunday morning dawned. S & S slept late and had a relaxing morning (oh my goodness, skipping church - well to our credit, we had tried to find a church, but neither the Internet nor the phonebook had any hours listed, hence as we weren't sure when to show up...), then set off for Gillette Castle! A castle in Connecticut, how exciting. It was cloudy and looked like rain.

As usual with every time we've gotten in the car to go somewhere on this trip, we did take a wrong turn and had to turn around, but otherwise it was a lovely drive up windy Connecticut mountain roads past other roads with lovely names. One was called Petticoat Lane and I told Stacey I would be so happy if one of my brothers ended up living on a road like that.

Gillette Castle is not strictly a castle but rather the castle-like mansion of a gentleman named William Gillette. It has towers and practically almost has a moat (without any water though) and secret doors for dramatic entrances or quick get-aways - from guests. The castle itself was quite fascinating but more so was the man himself. He was an actor and a play writer. Upon being introduced to the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, he wrote the first adaptations for the stage, and acted the part of Holmes himself, and he gave Holmes those characteristic bits that we've come to expect in depictions of Sherlock Holes - the hunter's cap, the pipe, the violin, the "Elementary, my dear fellow" (which was replaced with "my dear Watson" later). Also I was very sad to find out that his wife died a few years after their marriage and he promised never to remarry. Sad on both counts, I feel so badly that he would make such a promise, though I'm sure it's very noble and splendid and all that.

After exploring the castle bottom to top (the required order) we ventured out to explore the grounds, and Stacey was in the process of getting us good and lost out on the trails, when the sprinkles of rain started to become more insistent and we started to walk at a more insistently rapid pace to our car, which we reached just before getting quite soaked... We finally decided that was enough outdoors exploring and headed out to see what other adventures we could find.

On the atlas Stacey had discovered the Mystic Aquarium listed near New London on the coast, so as I'd never been to an aquarium, we went! It was pretty fascinating. I touched a shark and a stingray. YIKES! About the hardest thing I have ever made myself do! I highly recommend it, it's an intense sort of adrenaline rush!

Same day I had also found out that we had friends after all in Connecticut, which I'd forgotten! So we got directions on the phone and headed over to New Haven. It was very enjoyable to see Jon and Christine Potter again and they took us out for famous New Haven pizza (incredibly good, similar to NYC pizza but apparently with a flatter more-burnt crust), and took us on a little walking tour of Yale University and New Haven. We walked past 3 of the 4 secret society buildings. They don't have many windows or really look welcoming at all. In fact they're quite spooky to walk by at night. YIKES!

And after 3 towns in 1 day thus ended our tour of Connecticut which was quite a bit more extensive than we'd planned but very enjoyable.

S&S's Great New England Adventure - Day 2

It was a long beautiful drive on Saturday, relatively uneventful. Our book-on-tape did quit working right at the most intriguing part in the story (where Darcy and Elizabeth are about to meet again), but, at that point we only had a couple more hours to go, no big deal.

But when we reached Berlin in Connecticut, the real fun began!

First, we got to our hotel and discovered that our room had just one bed, instead of the two beds clearly indicated on the reservation print-out. Oh well! They gave us a nice-sized cot to make amends (I'm sure I'll be sacked out on it shortly).

Next we got directions off the internet for a good place to eat, a Polish restaurant, and we had hopes of also finding a park in which to walk around after the long day of sitting. So we set off. We discovered very quickly that the roads here have long center rails which frequently block you from turning exactly where you need to, so you may need to drive a half-mile further and make a U-turn. You know these U-turns are legal once you get to a left turn lane that would take you straight into trees if you didn't use it for a U-turn. Also there are all kinds of street signs and only a few of them are the green ones up on the right-hand side or over the road. Some are white signs, some are white posts, and some are just plain non-existent. And the "No turn on red" signs are strategically placed down on the right where the driver can't possibly see them once he/she has pulled up to the light. But, I digress!! Back to the story.

So after looping around the same roads several times, we finally found our real road and headed happily down it. We went up and down it several times without discovering the Polish restaurant. Finally we found it - and discovered why no one had answered my phone call earlier to see if we needed a reservation - because it was closed tonight although neither the internet nor any signs on the restaurant indicated this at all. "But we're open tomorrow night" she assured us, so, we might try that tomorrow before leaving Connecticut.

Then we looped up and down the road looking for a park, but the only park was apparently a stadium park, not exactly what I'd envisioned, and a lot of the restaurant neighborhood felt inner-city anyway, so we didn't exactly feel like strolling around. I did realize later that we could have walked through the historic part of town. Note for next time!

Then we looped up and down the road looking for another restaurant, and finally Stacey saw a nice Italian one called P's (all names have been abbreviated to protect identity). It was very nice. They gave us a delightful green oil-based dipping sauce for the bread - I think it had garlic and green pepper seeds and green onions in it. Then we received our salads.

[intermission: Sharon visits the ladies' room and discovers that the toilet is not quite working, fixes it]

My salad had a little piece of plastic in it. I was momentarily shocked but got over it. Then we received our lovely plates of pasta. By this time we'd realized we weren't really hungry at all, but we managed to eat a little. It was definitely very yummy. Our waiter kindly offered to box up our food for us but we declined since we hadn't seen a fridge in our hotel room. I explained to him, "We don't have a refrigerator" but neglected to mention the hotel part. Hopefully he figured that out! He was a very good fellow. He even ran out after us with my sunglasses which I'd left on the seat. I suppose he never had such a pair of inexplicable blondes on his hands, poor guy!

We made it back to the hotel, to find a refrigerator.

I think that's all the failures I have to recount tonight - hotel failure, direction failure, park failure, 2 restaurant failures, appetite failure, etc. etc. ... but we did laugh LOTS! And we just can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Sharon's and Stacey's Great New England Adventure - Day 1

Friday morning dawned! It was the day to leave on the big trip East! Sharon and Stacey went to work that morning. They both pulled back into their drive at 12:30pm and loaded up the car and set out!

The first day's drive went well. Except for the fact that they missed one exit at Ft. Wayne and found themselves going back around the Loop headed West - that was clearly not right so they quickly corrected! At suppertime they arrived at their first destination, home of Hoyt family friends in Ohio. Had lots of yummy homemade food (including punch) and splendid company and laughter, especially when teaching their friends to play Dutch Blitz. Slept like logs and set out again the next day!

...to be continued...

The trip out East, Part 2

Let's see, where did we leave off? So I got to the hotel at 11:30pm. Took care of some business and made it to bed around 12:30am. Exhausted but could not sleep... I realized I had a long day of training the next day, and I would have to drive into downtown New York afterward, and here I was all very alone in a hotel room in New Jersey. But Calvin & Hobbes comics always save the day, I mean the night... I fell asleep reading them with the lamplight on full blast above me.

6:00am! Time to get up! Time to get ready! Time to eat breakfast and pack up all my stuff and - uh oh, I was supposed to be there in 15 minutes and I would still have to figure out the way and I just didn't think it was right to be late for something the company had paid me to attend, so I ran out the door without checking out of the hotel. It was gyp the hotel or gyp the trainers, what do you do? Hopefully it would be OK to come back and check out at 5pm.

Oops it was NOT as easy to get to the business destination as thought. Sure it was right down the street, but it was in a Center, which means you drive all over windy curvy roads past various Suites till you finally beyond all hope realize you're at your number. You get out and go in and go up the elevator in good faith, 'cause there aren't really any signs for the company you're looking for... <Bam> there it is on the glass door right in front of you. Yippee!

It wrapped up sooner than I expected. I left around 4pm. We were done at 3:30 and they had found out I was driving to New York that night so they said, "Go now and you'll be good!" But I don't like to be rushed. So I asked my questions and said good-bye and left, and found my way back to the hotel. And discovered my room key no longer worked. Surprise! I guess not, I told them 1 night. Two can play at this game, I thought, carrying my sack of casual clothes... I stopped in the hotel's public restroom to change and then checked out.

Well it was now around 4:30pm and they had said, "If you wait till 4:30, don't even bother trying to drive out until 6:30, you'll be on the road forever." I thought about the drive ahead. I was quite tired. I decided to be cool and stop off at a bookstore in the hotel neighborhood, spent some happy time browsing, finally at 5pm I couldn't take it any more, I just wanted to leave and didn't care about the traffic, so I bought myself a water bottle and some chocolate and headed out.

Oh my goodness, it was time for the great drive to New York! I turned on the GPS and typed in the address-- uhh--- OOPS! OH MY GOODNESS, it's time for the great drive to New York with Google directions because the GPS cannot locate Ben and Franci's perfectly legitimate NY address! Oh boy, this will be fun! And in heavy evening rush hour traffic! Of course I totally trusted my Google directions, more than the GPS by this time.

And off on Highway 1! Which is probably the first highway ever in the U.S., don't you think? How historic!

To be continued...

The trip out East, Part 1

It's time to tell the tale of the Great Trip Out East!

Actually it's not that epic, but it was quite fun and exciting in its own way.

Upon finding out that I would get to attend training for work in New Jersey on a Thursday, I immediately started planning to spend the weekend. Then I discovered it would be Memorial Day weekend! 6 days of adventure, counting the time to travel and even the training! I was very nearly besides myself, especially with having cousins out in New York and Pennsylvania that I would get to visit.

At 10:00am on a Wednesday morning, I happily drove away from work and off to the airport. It started pouring screaming rain. I almost stopped but then it got better. Then I almost stopped again, but then I thought, "Nah."

At the airport, the storm rolled in again and flights were canceled or delayed due to lightning strikes on the runway. Mine was one of them. So instead of hopping up to Detroit and over to Newark, New Jersey, I got onto a flight via Cincinnati. I was very excited about this because I already knew Detroit like the back of my hand from two previous business trips, but not Cincinnati (I'm talking about the airports of course... not the cities).

Unfortunately the flight changes meant I lost my two window seats, but life went on.

I also thought there was going to be a meal on the Cincinnati-Newark flight and there turned out to be nothing. So I was getting quite hungry.

Arrived in Newark around 8:30, just before dark. Too bad, I had planned to be there by 5:30 and have plenty of time to find places in the daylight. But no matter! I was armed with Google maps for every route I had to take, and imagine my ecstasy when the Avis guy told me that I could have a GPS with my rental car! Ecstasy mixed with trepidation that is. I was on a mission and collected my baggage and the car and drove off with a thirsty throat and an empty stomach. Humm.

The Avis guy had set the first destination for me, so I followed it... at first I was bad at following a GPS. New cities are always a bit tricky to navigate, too many turns to fast, and I just didn't believe the GPS in time to make the turn. After a few "recalculatings" in which I was trying to stay alive in non-interstate traffic, I got safely onto the great 95 N-S. I think it's 95... right? I'm not bothering looking it up just for this story, I prefer to rely on my nimble memory!

Once on the interstate I breathed a huge sigh of relief, found a radio station I liked, stopped at the first travel plaza I came across in order to get a nice bottle of water and a cheeseburger and emergency snacks. I was not willing to sit around and eat, so hopped back on the road and attempted to tear my cheeseburger into bite-size pieces with my right hand while driving, and eat it of course (can't really bite off sandwiches due to my braces). It worked pretty well, I don't think I got any ketchup on the seat, but then it was dark. They could really make cheeseburgers less slippery!

That drive went fine except I passed highway 1 which I'd thought my Google map would send me off on. Eventually the GPS took me off the highway on all kinds of weird roads, I nearly panicked until I saw signs for Princeton, finally! (which was my destination) .... until I ended up a neighborhood and the GPS said I was at my destination. Phooey! I don't think so! Stupid GPS! So I set off to find highway 1 myself, and did it with no problem. Unfortunately I probably turned east onto the highway just east of my hotel, 'cause after going 10 miles east, I stopped at a gas station and gave the GPS another shot, as it was now 10:30 and I was extremely exhausted... This time it worked. I arrived at the hotel and a very nice man checked me in and I found my room and was promptly awed by its plushness... I decided I'd better get a Super 8 next time to recalibrate my hotel meter!

High time to pause the story, all this talk of hotels is making me sleepy.

(I apologize in advance, I'm not proofreading anything)

To be continued...

The Chicken and the Duck

The chicken and the duck stood by the road.

"What is that?" asked the chicken.

"It's a road," said the duck.

"Let's cross it!" exclaimed the chicken.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said the duck.

"Why not?" asked the chicken.

"Because you might die!" said the duck.

"How do you know?" asked the chicken.

"Because, haven't you heard the jokes?" replied the duck.

"No, what jokes?" asked the chicken.

"The ones that go, 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' " answered the duck.

"Really? There are jokes about me? Cool!" said the chicken.

"Yeah, they're usually pretty funny," remarked the duck.

"So what's the answer to the joke?" asked the chicken.

"It depends, there are a lot of variations," explained the duck.

"So what's one variation?" asked the chicken.

"Ok, here's the original: 'To get to the other side.' " answered the duck.

The chicken and the duck looked at the road.

"That's funny!" laughed the chicken.

"Yeah I know!" agreed the duck.

"So how is that going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

"What?" asked the duck.

"How is crossing the road to get to the other side going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

The duck looked at the road.

"Well, the joke is asking why the chicken crossed the road, in the past," answered the duck.

"So it's a historical joke, how is that fatal?" asked the chicken.

"Because it's in the past, and it never says the chicken got to the other side," explained the duck.

The chicken looked at the road.

"But that's not the point of the joke," said the chicken.

"What's the point?" asked the duck.

"The point is the reason why the chicken crossed the road," said the chicken.

"I know," said the duck.

"So how is that going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

"What?" asked the duck.

"How is my reason for crossing the road going to kill me?" asked the chicken.

The duck looked at the road.

"Because the reason goes in the obituary," said the duck.

"Whose obituary?" asked the chicken.

"The chicken's," answered the duck.

"The chicken died?" gasped the chicken.

"Yes," said the duck.

"How did the chicken die again?" asked the chicken.

The duck looked at the road.

"I don't know, probably a car hit it," said the duck.

The chicken looked at the duck.

"Well, that's easy. I'll just look both ways," said the chicken.

"Are you going to cross the road?" asked the duck.

"Yes!" replied the chicken.

"Wait!" said the duck.

"What?" asked the chicken.

"Why?" asked the duck.

"Why what?" asked the chicken.

"Why are you going to cross the road?" asked the duck.

The chicken looked at the road.

"Well if I don't tell you, maybe I won't die," said the chicken.

The duck looked at the chicken.

The chicken looked at the road.

The chicken looked both ways.

The chicken stepped into the road.

......

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So: if I resurrect this blog, do you think anyone will read it?

The answer is: Ha! Who cares? It's enough just having a green place to write!