Park Street is the center of the world
Left home at 5am on Friday, both of us a bit exhausted. Got to the airport about 6:30. Checked bags, went through security, bought juice at the gate and sat and waited for our flight.
Waited on the runway for about 25 minutes because there was poor clearance in Philly? Eventually got off the ground and got to Philadelphia in plenty of time to reach our connecting flight. FTR, the Philadelphia airport Dunkin Donuts kind of sucks.
On the flight to Boston, a flight attendant tapped my dad's NC State cap on her way down the aisle and was like "Go Heels!" Random.
Got to Logan, disembarked, collected luggage, called the hotel and they sent the shuttle out for us. While we were waiting, we encountered a young woman on her way in who saw my dad's NC State cap and got into a conversation with him. Apparently she went to UNC. It was like a good twenty-minute conversation about NC State vs. UNC, where in NC we're from, what we were planning to do in Boston, and what she'd done in Boston during her visit. My dad has this absurd ability to make friends everywhere. I don't know how he does it.
The shuttle arrived and took us to the hotel. Which, DUDE. Downtown Boston. Fuckin' Southie. Right there. In the middle of everything. Short of spending ridiculous amounts of money to stay in central Boston, this was like the best-placed hotel we could possibly have chosen. Anyway we checked in. They told us about the complimentary continental breakfast and fresh-baked cookies at 6pm every day. We approved. Dropped off our stuff and walked to Applebee's for dinner -- which was good if fast-breaking -- and then walked back to the hotel.
By this time it was almost time to head out for the concert. I took a short nap because I was wiped, and got up and freshened up and off we went. Got T directions from the front desk 'cause we get lost easily, but once we had directions we had no problems and got there fine.
See concert report for more on that.
Got back to the hotel sometime after midnight. I pretty much crashed right away, I was exhausted.
Got up in time for the continental breakfast on Saturday. Afterwards we headed out to do tourist-y things my dad didn't do as a kid; we took the Red Line to Park Street and then wandered Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, checked out the State House and the various historical monuments, walked down Boylston St and took pictures of churches and hung out in Copley Square for a few minutes. And then when we were cold enough from the wind we ducked into a Borders and browsed books for a while. We checked out the demonstrators and protesters in the Commons again, then took the T back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with the fam.
One of my uncles picked us up a bit after 4 and off we went. All my dad's brothers showed up; it was the first time the five of them had been in the same room since their mother's funeral in '02. We took pictures of them. Also present were myself (obviously), my uncles' wives and girlfriends, and my cousins Andre (now a senior in high school) and Dylan (now in eighth grade), and Andre's girlfriend showed up for a while.
It was a good dinner. We hung out and talked and ate and it was good. <3
Got back to the hotel around 10 and just stayed put, watching TV and things.
We hit up the continental breakfast again Sunday morning then headed out about 11ish. Took the Red Line to Downtown Crossing, switched to the Orange Line, and got off at State. We found Faneuil Hall and watched a few buskers, then the 2008 yo-yo champion doing his act in front of Quincy Market. We wandered around Quincy Market for a bit, then headed to the North End. We did the history geek thing -- found Old North Church and looked around; toured Paul Revere's house; read all the plaques outside the various churches. We also hit up Mike's Pastry and got chocolate cannolis; omigod so good.
Then we headed back down towards Faneuil Hall and did some tourist-y shopping in the marketplace. We stopped at the Old State House Museum and did the full walk-through and stood on the spot of the Boston Massacre. (I have this incredible fascination with the Boston Massacre, what can I say?)
Then we caught the Orange Line to Park Street, switched to the Green Line, and headed back for Kenmore. My dad wanted to take a picture of the Green Monster and we hadn't had the camera on Friday night when we were out there. So we took pictures of Fenway Park and the House of Blues and a couple awesome billboards.
By this point we'd been on our feet for about seven hours straight, so we took the T back to the hotel.
I missed this city so much. I love it as much as I love any place on this earth. I love being able to get on the T and go anywhere. I love the crazy way the neighborhoods are laid out, like people just put a street wherever they felt like it and fuck it if it made sense or not. I love how people ignore the crosswalks and cross busy streets whenever and wherever the hell they feel like it. I love the history that's everywhere in town, how all you have to do is turn around and there's another historic marker. I love the architecture and the churches and the way old buildings are built on and expanded and kept intact.
I need to live in Boston and never leave, please. <3
Anyway this morning we headed out of the hotel by 7, got to the airport by 7:30 for a 9:30 flight. I got like four approving comments on my [hat] hat, it was random but awesome. Got to Philly, took time to eat an early lunch, caught our flight out, and were in Newport News before 2:30, ahead of schedule. And now we're home and unpacked and it's over.
I miss Massachusetts already.
The concert review is going to go up shortly, and I'm going to take some time replying to comments and going back through my flist and things like that. I might miss stuff so if there's something that happened this weekend that you think I should know about, drop a comment or a link or whatnot.
I missed you!
Waited on the runway for about 25 minutes because there was poor clearance in Philly? Eventually got off the ground and got to Philadelphia in plenty of time to reach our connecting flight. FTR, the Philadelphia airport Dunkin Donuts kind of sucks.
On the flight to Boston, a flight attendant tapped my dad's NC State cap on her way down the aisle and was like "Go Heels!" Random.
Got to Logan, disembarked, collected luggage, called the hotel and they sent the shuttle out for us. While we were waiting, we encountered a young woman on her way in who saw my dad's NC State cap and got into a conversation with him. Apparently she went to UNC. It was like a good twenty-minute conversation about NC State vs. UNC, where in NC we're from, what we were planning to do in Boston, and what she'd done in Boston during her visit. My dad has this absurd ability to make friends everywhere. I don't know how he does it.
The shuttle arrived and took us to the hotel. Which, DUDE. Downtown Boston. Fuckin' Southie. Right there. In the middle of everything. Short of spending ridiculous amounts of money to stay in central Boston, this was like the best-placed hotel we could possibly have chosen. Anyway we checked in. They told us about the complimentary continental breakfast and fresh-baked cookies at 6pm every day. We approved. Dropped off our stuff and walked to Applebee's for dinner -- which was good if fast-breaking -- and then walked back to the hotel.
By this time it was almost time to head out for the concert. I took a short nap because I was wiped, and got up and freshened up and off we went. Got T directions from the front desk 'cause we get lost easily, but once we had directions we had no problems and got there fine.
See concert report for more on that.
Got back to the hotel sometime after midnight. I pretty much crashed right away, I was exhausted.
Got up in time for the continental breakfast on Saturday. Afterwards we headed out to do tourist-y things my dad didn't do as a kid; we took the Red Line to Park Street and then wandered Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, checked out the State House and the various historical monuments, walked down Boylston St and took pictures of churches and hung out in Copley Square for a few minutes. And then when we were cold enough from the wind we ducked into a Borders and browsed books for a while. We checked out the demonstrators and protesters in the Commons again, then took the T back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with the fam.
One of my uncles picked us up a bit after 4 and off we went. All my dad's brothers showed up; it was the first time the five of them had been in the same room since their mother's funeral in '02. We took pictures of them. Also present were myself (obviously), my uncles' wives and girlfriends, and my cousins Andre (now a senior in high school) and Dylan (now in eighth grade), and Andre's girlfriend showed up for a while.
It was a good dinner. We hung out and talked and ate and it was good. <3
Got back to the hotel around 10 and just stayed put, watching TV and things.
We hit up the continental breakfast again Sunday morning then headed out about 11ish. Took the Red Line to Downtown Crossing, switched to the Orange Line, and got off at State. We found Faneuil Hall and watched a few buskers, then the 2008 yo-yo champion doing his act in front of Quincy Market. We wandered around Quincy Market for a bit, then headed to the North End. We did the history geek thing -- found Old North Church and looked around; toured Paul Revere's house; read all the plaques outside the various churches. We also hit up Mike's Pastry and got chocolate cannolis; omigod so good.
Then we headed back down towards Faneuil Hall and did some tourist-y shopping in the marketplace. We stopped at the Old State House Museum and did the full walk-through and stood on the spot of the Boston Massacre. (I have this incredible fascination with the Boston Massacre, what can I say?)
Then we caught the Orange Line to Park Street, switched to the Green Line, and headed back for Kenmore. My dad wanted to take a picture of the Green Monster and we hadn't had the camera on Friday night when we were out there. So we took pictures of Fenway Park and the House of Blues and a couple awesome billboards.
By this point we'd been on our feet for about seven hours straight, so we took the T back to the hotel.
I missed this city so much. I love it as much as I love any place on this earth. I love being able to get on the T and go anywhere. I love the crazy way the neighborhoods are laid out, like people just put a street wherever they felt like it and fuck it if it made sense or not. I love how people ignore the crosswalks and cross busy streets whenever and wherever the hell they feel like it. I love the history that's everywhere in town, how all you have to do is turn around and there's another historic marker. I love the architecture and the churches and the way old buildings are built on and expanded and kept intact.
I need to live in Boston and never leave, please. <3
Anyway this morning we headed out of the hotel by 7, got to the airport by 7:30 for a 9:30 flight. I got like four approving comments on my [hat] hat, it was random but awesome. Got to Philly, took time to eat an early lunch, caught our flight out, and were in Newport News before 2:30, ahead of schedule. And now we're home and unpacked and it's over.
I miss Massachusetts already.
The concert review is going to go up shortly, and I'm going to take some time replying to comments and going back through my flist and things like that. I might miss stuff so if there's something that happened this weekend that you think I should know about, drop a comment or a link or whatnot.
I missed you!