A week in Massachusetts in the summertime.
Pre-4th of July weekend. A business trip with some touristing wedged in.
Sunday we flew up very early. The first part of our adventure was when Enterprise decided to upgrade us to a convertible. This was made even more fantastic by the spectacular weather that we had throughout our entire visit!
After renting our car we drove out to Wellesley to visit with the Airharts. We looked at wedding pictures (I’m still working on a DVD (probably will be three!) of all four weddings for everyone). We went to lunch with Amy – sadly Dick wasn’t feeling up to the outing. They pretended there was nothing that needed doing toward packing or moving or fixing – which is a shame because we could have done stuff. But they insisted on treating us like company! But that did make it a pleasant and relaxing visit.
After we left Wellesley we went downtown and walked around, followed the Freedom Trail for awhile. Hung out at Quincy Market where Tony of course got dragged into a street show (he always gets dragged into these things). We ate at a nicer seafood place with outdoor seating there at Quincy Market (the food shops inside were closing for the evening by the time we were ready to eat).
Then we drove down to Plymouth and checked in to the hotel.
Monday morning we drove out to Falmouth and took the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard for the day. We wandered around the village, ate the most fantastic apple fritter either of us have ever had, then rented a moped and cruised around the whole island. That was kind of fun but it’s not really a good place for a moped because it was a lot of highway driving with regular cars whipping by. The village itself is too small to need the moped and the island is too big to really get around with one. Still, I have never ridden a moped before so it was an adventure. And we saw lots of interesting sites and beautiful homes. At the end of the day we ate dinner at a restaurant out over the harbor – seafood, of course. Then took the ferry back and jumped in our convertible and drove back to Plymouth in the sunset.
Tuesday I went to work and Tony went over to the Plimouth Plantation and played tourist. We went out for dinner with the whole crew from my customers office. Seafood.
Wednesday I went to work and Tony drove down to where the USS Massachusetts is docked and toured around. We met for dinner with one of my work friends After dinner we decided to walk up the harborfront and visit the Plymouth Pebble – re Plymouth Rock. As we neared it we began to hear music and eventually a concert came into view. They were just getting started and we stopped to watch. Very small park, easy view – very nice. They were covering Chicago – or so we thought. At one point we said “Wow, they really sound like Chicago.” Then after the drum solo Tony said “I think they ARE Chicago!” And guess what? Sure enough - not all of the original band members but a collection of them with some musicians from other well known bands. We stayed for their two sets – it was completely free and entirely pleasant. Bonus!
Thursday I went to work and Tony hung around locally – did our laundry at the hotel and relaxed. Thursday night we went out for dinner with a small set of the work crew. Then Tony and I went “downtown” Plymouth to a bar that we learned had Hobgoblin beer on tap! It was yummy. Walked around the little town for a bit, then called it a night.
Friday I worked part of the day, then after lunch (seafood on the harborfront) we went back to Boston and checked into our hotel downtown where they upgraded us to a riverview room. We could see Fenway from the window, too. Tony had made reservations for us at a ghost tour, so we moseyed out and walked all the way up CommonWealth Avenue (supposed to be the most beautiful street in America, according to Winston Churchill – has to be in the top ten!) Wandered through the Gardens (wait for pictures of the swans). Our plan was to make it over to Quincy Market again … along the way we heard the strains of flute and the beat of a snare drum. A Fife and Drum band! Background: In 2007 we went to Scotland for the “Military Tattoo” at Edinburgh Castle. This is a huge annual event that elite bands and performing groups are invited to perform in for the entire month. While we were there we saw a Fife and Drum band from Mass perform. They were incredible – the drum line was perfectly in sync. Well, here we are walking down the street and Tony says “Do you think it’s the one we saw in Scotland?” and I said “I don’t know, maybe it’s really common in Massachusetts.” (What do I know?) Then we heard the drum line and they were so perfect that Tony says “That has to be the same band!” And it was. The Middlesex Volunteer Fife and Drum Corps And they were just getting started with their two-set performance at City Hall. Yep. Free. We stood in the back, then during the break we hustled in and got seats. Fortunate enough to sit with two former members of the band – one of whom had performed with them in Scotland. So we had some inside chatter and some of the band members came over to visit with our seat mates during the break. Then we watched the 2nd set from our great seats in that small courtyard. All FREE!
So then we rushed on to Quincy Market and grabbed some food at the food court – if you haven’t been I don’t think there is any type of food that you cannot get there. A huge long hallway of every type of food known to mankind, I think. We had to rush a bit but we made it over to the harbor for our ghost tour on time. We love ghost tours and ghost walks and we participate in them all over, everywhere we go. No, we don’t really go in for all the cheesey “look for the floating orbs” – we just love getting out in a new city with a local, getting some history and lore and being entertained by almost always exceptional story-tellers. I started doing this on my own when I would travel far and wide alone for business. I don’t like to sit in the hotel room all the time – but going out alone in a strange city can be a bit daunting. Finding these types of history walks or ghost walks provides a little walking exercise, a great evening out in a city, etc. I started dragging Tony along and now he is a big fan, too. The one in Boston was certainly no disappointment! The history is rich and the graveyards hold markers for a few folks you may have heard about – Paul Revere, John Hancock, Sam Adams (Tony’s favorite) and Ben Franklin’s parents (my favorite). Late by the time we headed back to our hotel, so we grabbed a taxi.
Saturday we were able to catch one of those hop-on/hop-off tour busses right outside our hotel. We took it around, got off at the harbor because our tickets included a harbor cruise. Had barely enough time to dash in to Quincy Market again for a quick lunch, then took the cruise out to where the USS Constitution is docked. Visited that and the museum. There is also a WWII era destroyer there. Tony is a big fan of ships and war info and particularly WWII so a warship from WWII is his idea of fascinating. I put up with it pretty well – as we were almost leaving I asked about a hatch in the deck. It seemed really small for people. A volunteer with a can of paint stopped to explain. This lead to more questions and then it turns out this guy is a retired engineer whose uncle served on the destroyer so he used to help with volunteer stuff with him and now does it in his retirement and he knew EVERYTHING about the ship, how it is powered etc. and he took u s and another couple who stumbled into our conversation all over the ship down in the bowels of the engine room and just everywhere and knew everything about everything. Tony thought he had died and gone to heaven. Even I had to admit that it was very interesting to learn and see so much that you don’t normally get to see. So once again we had a better than expected experience.
We caught the return of the harbor cruise, then grabbed a frozen lemonade and jumped back on our hop-on/hop-off bus for the rest of the tour. Early dinner at the hotel – including about a pitcher each of iced tea. Man it was a hot day! Then took the car back and caught our flight home. And we made it for 4th of July celebrating with Vincie so it all worked out.
Sunday we flew up very early. The first part of our adventure was when Enterprise decided to upgrade us to a convertible. This was made even more fantastic by the spectacular weather that we had throughout our entire visit!
After renting our car we drove out to Wellesley to visit with the Airharts. We looked at wedding pictures (I’m still working on a DVD (probably will be three!) of all four weddings for everyone). We went to lunch with Amy – sadly Dick wasn’t feeling up to the outing. They pretended there was nothing that needed doing toward packing or moving or fixing – which is a shame because we could have done stuff. But they insisted on treating us like company! But that did make it a pleasant and relaxing visit.
After we left Wellesley we went downtown and walked around, followed the Freedom Trail for awhile. Hung out at Quincy Market where Tony of course got dragged into a street show (he always gets dragged into these things). We ate at a nicer seafood place with outdoor seating there at Quincy Market (the food shops inside were closing for the evening by the time we were ready to eat).
Then we drove down to Plymouth and checked in to the hotel.
Monday morning we drove out to Falmouth and took the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard for the day. We wandered around the village, ate the most fantastic apple fritter either of us have ever had, then rented a moped and cruised around the whole island. That was kind of fun but it’s not really a good place for a moped because it was a lot of highway driving with regular cars whipping by. The village itself is too small to need the moped and the island is too big to really get around with one. Still, I have never ridden a moped before so it was an adventure. And we saw lots of interesting sites and beautiful homes. At the end of the day we ate dinner at a restaurant out over the harbor – seafood, of course. Then took the ferry back and jumped in our convertible and drove back to Plymouth in the sunset.
Tuesday I went to work and Tony went over to the Plimouth Plantation and played tourist. We went out for dinner with the whole crew from my customers office. Seafood.
Wednesday I went to work and Tony drove down to where the USS Massachusetts is docked and toured around. We met for dinner with one of my work friends After dinner we decided to walk up the harborfront and visit the Plymouth Pebble – re Plymouth Rock. As we neared it we began to hear music and eventually a concert came into view. They were just getting started and we stopped to watch. Very small park, easy view – very nice. They were covering Chicago – or so we thought. At one point we said “Wow, they really sound like Chicago.” Then after the drum solo Tony said “I think they ARE Chicago!” And guess what? Sure enough - not all of the original band members but a collection of them with some musicians from other well known bands. We stayed for their two sets – it was completely free and entirely pleasant. Bonus!
Thursday I went to work and Tony hung around locally – did our laundry at the hotel and relaxed. Thursday night we went out for dinner with a small set of the work crew. Then Tony and I went “downtown” Plymouth to a bar that we learned had Hobgoblin beer on tap! It was yummy. Walked around the little town for a bit, then called it a night.
Friday I worked part of the day, then after lunch (seafood on the harborfront) we went back to Boston and checked into our hotel downtown where they upgraded us to a riverview room. We could see Fenway from the window, too. Tony had made reservations for us at a ghost tour, so we moseyed out and walked all the way up CommonWealth Avenue (supposed to be the most beautiful street in America, according to Winston Churchill – has to be in the top ten!) Wandered through the Gardens (wait for pictures of the swans). Our plan was to make it over to Quincy Market again … along the way we heard the strains of flute and the beat of a snare drum. A Fife and Drum band! Background: In 2007 we went to Scotland for the “Military Tattoo” at Edinburgh Castle. This is a huge annual event that elite bands and performing groups are invited to perform in for the entire month. While we were there we saw a Fife and Drum band from Mass perform. They were incredible – the drum line was perfectly in sync. Well, here we are walking down the street and Tony says “Do you think it’s the one we saw in Scotland?” and I said “I don’t know, maybe it’s really common in Massachusetts.” (What do I know?) Then we heard the drum line and they were so perfect that Tony says “That has to be the same band!” And it was. The Middlesex Volunteer Fife and Drum Corps And they were just getting started with their two-set performance at City Hall. Yep. Free. We stood in the back, then during the break we hustled in and got seats. Fortunate enough to sit with two former members of the band – one of whom had performed with them in Scotland. So we had some inside chatter and some of the band members came over to visit with our seat mates during the break. Then we watched the 2nd set from our great seats in that small courtyard. All FREE!
So then we rushed on to Quincy Market and grabbed some food at the food court – if you haven’t been I don’t think there is any type of food that you cannot get there. A huge long hallway of every type of food known to mankind, I think. We had to rush a bit but we made it over to the harbor for our ghost tour on time. We love ghost tours and ghost walks and we participate in them all over, everywhere we go. No, we don’t really go in for all the cheesey “look for the floating orbs” – we just love getting out in a new city with a local, getting some history and lore and being entertained by almost always exceptional story-tellers. I started doing this on my own when I would travel far and wide alone for business. I don’t like to sit in the hotel room all the time – but going out alone in a strange city can be a bit daunting. Finding these types of history walks or ghost walks provides a little walking exercise, a great evening out in a city, etc. I started dragging Tony along and now he is a big fan, too. The one in Boston was certainly no disappointment! The history is rich and the graveyards hold markers for a few folks you may have heard about – Paul Revere, John Hancock, Sam Adams (Tony’s favorite) and Ben Franklin’s parents (my favorite). Late by the time we headed back to our hotel, so we grabbed a taxi.
Saturday we were able to catch one of those hop-on/hop-off tour busses right outside our hotel. We took it around, got off at the harbor because our tickets included a harbor cruise. Had barely enough time to dash in to Quincy Market again for a quick lunch, then took the cruise out to where the USS Constitution is docked. Visited that and the museum. There is also a WWII era destroyer there. Tony is a big fan of ships and war info and particularly WWII so a warship from WWII is his idea of fascinating. I put up with it pretty well – as we were almost leaving I asked about a hatch in the deck. It seemed really small for people. A volunteer with a can of paint stopped to explain. This lead to more questions and then it turns out this guy is a retired engineer whose uncle served on the destroyer so he used to help with volunteer stuff with him and now does it in his retirement and he knew EVERYTHING about the ship, how it is powered etc. and he took u s and another couple who stumbled into our conversation all over the ship down in the bowels of the engine room and just everywhere and knew everything about everything. Tony thought he had died and gone to heaven. Even I had to admit that it was very interesting to learn and see so much that you don’t normally get to see. So once again we had a better than expected experience.
We caught the return of the harbor cruise, then grabbed a frozen lemonade and jumped back on our hop-on/hop-off bus for the rest of the tour. Early dinner at the hotel – including about a pitcher each of iced tea. Man it was a hot day! Then took the car back and caught our flight home. And we made it for 4th of July celebrating with Vincie so it all worked out.
