23,300 Steps later… Day 1 in Boston 2015!

We’re in Boston!  We’re blogging!  I know it’s late and I’m behind already – but we’ve had the absolute worst luck with internet connectivity on this trip.  It popped in and out in Boston, and when it was in, it was still painfully slow, like the days of dial up.  I was having flashbacks, and now we’re actually in Martha’s Vineyard and we’ve had more problems than just the internet… but spoilers.. that’s jumping ahead.  The real question is, and the challenge becomes – will this year be the year that I actually finish a blog that we start?  Often what happens is that while others have gone to bed, I stay up and do my “dear blogger” routine, and by the end of the trip as we’re traveling back, my focus turns to other things and I convince myself that I’ll finish it up once I get home.  After all, I’ll actually have more time to work on it at home.  But I say all of this to really, that at some point this summer, the two unfinished blogs will be done to the best of my memory (and notes) – and this blog will be done (and it is heaven… ).  And I might even try to piece together the LA trip.  I wanted to warn those of you that get notifications, that again, they’re for our memory – I’m glad so many of you seem to enjoy them, but it’s so that when we’re old(er) and senile we can read about what we don’t remember anymore.

So this seems to be the summer of trips for the ya-yas – Dana and I have barely been home (or in her case, work) since the summer started – but she thinks after this she’s going to be ready to be home for a while and not living out of a suitcase.  This trip includes me (Susen), Patti, Dana, Amy, and Sandy.  We all meet up at the airport, and we’re flying Southwest.. the line for security is VERY long – like Disney line long – but we’re there plenty early so no worries.  Amy and Sandy get to the airport just after Patti and I (Dana is already at the gate), and Amy butts in front of other people to come stand by us.  But I’m a little confused because there’s no Sandy – Oh, Amy explains in her “you’ll never believe this” tone.. “SHE got pre-TSA, SHE is over in the short line. “.   So – I look at MY boarding pass.  I won the lottery too!  *I* have pre-TSA!  See ya steerage! I’m heading to first class, suckas!  So Sandy and I revel in our life of privilege – the land where no one has to take off their shoes to go through, no laptop has to be unpacked and repacked.. no full body scans – just be you, leave everything in your bags, and walk through the old timey metal detectors with your shoes on your feet like a human.  I give sympathetic looks in Patti and Amy’s direction on occasion – but they’re lost in the sea of the endlessly winding line.  We get through our line pretty quickly and meet Dana at the gate (after she flags Sandy and I down) – and then eventually Patti and Amy are allowed to join us.  We grab some breakfast, chat, and already Amy is fascinated by the people watching.  Patti notices someone who SHE says is Brittany in her old age… she’s just wearing her hair up in the way that Britt sometimes wears her hair… but we get a picture, and this is the first of many pics of random people through the day.  Amy and Sandy share a love of capturing unique people in time to share with others later. 

We board without any issues – Patti, Dana and I paid for the early bird deal so we boarded in the A group and sat together (we were warned that every seat would be filled) – and Sandy and Amy came in later and got seats together toward the back of the plane.  I had a great time on the flight – but Patti is looking for another seat companion for the flight back for some reason.  And Amy and Sandy sat by funky people – like stinky funk – Amy felt the need to name the flight the funky skunk flight because of the smells emanating from the posterior region of the passenger in front of her.  

We land in Boston and get our bags – and the only thing we want to do is get rid of them again so that we can start exploring!   Patti calls the people that we’re renting from – as you may know, we typically rent from airbnb properties and we’re doing that again.  Really recommend it to you – you get a kitchen, some local feel, a built in local contact, and no hotel taxes and crazy rates.   We’re in luck because even though check in isn’t until 4:00, and it’s now about 12:45.. he’s going to let us drop off our bags while they’re getting the place ready for us.  Patti had researched how to get to the place by subway, we’re going all public transportation in Boston – and why not start now?  NO.  Says Amy.  No, we need a cab.  And yah, we all agree, let’s not navigate the subway in a new town for the first time with all our bags.   Our cabbie inspires confidence right off the bat when he hears our destination and says that he’s never heard of that street – and almost in an accusatory tone, like we must be making it up if he’s never heard of it.  He seems to be entering something into the gps, and I expect to hear him say that he found it … but that isn’t happening so I ask if he’s finding it.  Oh no, he’s working on resetting something and it won’t pull up… so I ask Siri, and I play navigator to our cabbie.  I was in the front passenger seat, and the others were in the back seats (mini van) with the plastic divider between them and me – but Patti was like, is Susen giving HIM directions?  Yah..   I always like to chat up our drivers, get some local flavor – he’s not into baseball, but I ask about lobster rolls, and yes he loves those!  Ok, so where is the best one in town?  Oh, that’s easy – the Dark in the Crab…  huh?  His accent is difficult to understand… the Bark in the Cab…  One more time?  Bark in Crab…  ok cool.  Like I don’t want to ask a 4^th time, and I think I have enough information to try and figure out that name later.  Something about a Bark and a Crab - noted.

We get to our place – and it’s on the second floor.  No worries, we’ve carried large heavy bags up much worse than this.  But Sandy asks, where is the elevator (she’s joking) – Amy is quick with the reply – I think it’s wearing black sandals and looks a lot like YOU.  That’s the way to set the tone for the trip! A laugh and heavy labor!   We get the key figured out - well, Dana and Patti do - I actually do a lot of standing back and observing as they enter codes and turn the knob thing that way to get the key to fall out… seems a little like the codes in National Treasure and DaVinci code to the untrained eye.  But they take care of it and we get in – we know that the guys are still in the process of cleaning, so we expect to run into them, but we’re just dropping off bags and heading out.  But they’re not there – then just as we’re leaving, Sean comes in.  Nice boys, he gives us some local tips, suggests we get an unlimited pass for the metro (the T) and then asks if we’re headed to Fenway at all – we don’t think so, we’ve already been.. he says that’s a good thing, avoid the green line altogether, it’s a mess.  Got it.  

Figuring out the front door

It’s a cute apt, 3 bedrooms, one bath and a fair sized kitchen – but the best thing about it is that the metro stop is right across the street.  We’re planning on using all public transportation around the city, and then pick the rental car on Sunday to head down to the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard.  Renting a car on the island was going to be about $1200, and we need a car to get around, so renting one in Boston and driving it down was significantly cheaper.  SO!  Bags dropped off, to the metro!  We’re heading up the red line to Harvard – Dana and I toured it when we were here a few years ago and thought it was cool, and Patti is craving some Shake Shack and there’s one right off campus.  We start off by getting our passes, and we just ask the lady in the T booth – she doesn’t really seem to be answering our question, and seems to just want to give us Charlie cards (the permanent plastic cards that you load with money), and we don’t want that because we don’t want to just keep adding $10.  It’s about $2.50 per trip, and if we want to use the bus, we don’t want to be figuring things up, just want the unlimited pass. By the end of it, she was trying to answer our question – she says that we can feed the card in and then select the pass, and that will be put on our cards, and this is cheaper because she’s giving us the cards. We wanted to get the 3 days passes since we’ll be in Boston for 2.5 days and we head downstairs to the machines where we find a much more knowledgeable source.  He says we have to just buy a pass, the Charlie cards are only to add money to and he agrees, we don’t want to be adding money to it – but the 3 day passes don’t exist.  We have a choice between a $12 unlimited 1-day pass or a $19 unlimited 7-day pass.  We only need 2 days – but 2 1-day passes will be more than a 7-day pass, so that wins.  We get the passes and figure out the gate/ticket system (Amy takes a little longer than the rest of us – she tries to push through the gates, but she’s left her card behind.  I was confused by it at first too – other systems take your card and then spit it out at a different location so it’s easier for you to keep moving and pick up your card down the line a couple of steps.  But this system spits out the card in the same place.  So Amy put in her card, then tried to walk through the gates… but had to back track and get her card out before the gates would open.  Learning curve.. easily overcome.

Harvard is hoppin!  We’re thinking about the official “Hahvahd” tour – but we want to get our Shake Shack on first!  On our way over we notice that someone walking in front of us actually has on a Shake Shack shirt, and of course we strike up a conversation.  Amy makes friends with Torrence who works there, he’s on break and heading back (we had asked if he was working today and he thought that was funny – he wouldn’t be wearing this shirt on his day off – good point).  As we’re walking we pass a Tasty Burger and we joke about getting that instead, and Torrence tells us that he used to work there, and that he wouldn’t go there.  We have a lot of fun with him on our walk over – he tells us to put in a good word for him on the customer feedback because he’s up for a promotion, and he politely holds the door for us when we get there.   

That's Torrence! 

MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm

The first thing we notice is that there is NO line – if you’ve ever been to a Shake Shack before, especially in NYC, it’s ALWAYS packed, usually a line out the door, and at least 30 people long. So this just feels wrong – plenty of seating too!  So nice not to have hover and scavenge for a seat!  They have a second story with most of the seating, so we head up.  Just as we’re finishing a girl who works there comes up to our table and says that she heard that we’re causing trouble – that we wanted to have Tasty Burger instead??  Ahhh… our friend Torrence has been talking about us!  She actually has 5 free French fry cards for us – you just have to give the cashier a high five and you get free fries with this card.  Unfortunately it’s only good in the Harvard Square Shake Shack – so if any of you are heading up there, let me know, I can hook you up with some free fries.  J

We walk back to campus and decide to go ahead and do the tour – it’s $10 each and lasts for about an hour.  The next one is in 30 minutes, so we have some time to people watch, Amy’s favorite, and oh my lord.  Amy actually tries to get evidence of some of the costumes that walk by – so barely clad, some.. who knows what they were thinking.  And then we have the group of stoners just hanging out listening to the street musicians.  Amy goes to get a better angle of them and Sandy and I pose for her so she can look like she’s taking our picture instead.  Silliness. 

Amy's stoners

People watching at Harvard Square

Our tour guide is Lev, and we learn that today is his birthday!  Every time he says his name he says that he’s “Lev, a RISING sophomore here at Harvard”… and he does this little hand motion with it, raising his hand up into the air like Yoda lifting the X-wing fighter out of the swamp on Dagobah. He’s full of fun facts about Harvard – the small guard shack was actually the most expensive building per square foot on the campus (because it was close to the gate that was a historical landmark it had to be built to historic specifications and that take money), and you're only supposed to pass through the gates twice - once as an incoming freshman and again as you leave as a graduate - any other time is bad luck.  The statue of John Harvard on campus is the statue of 3 lies.  It says “Founder” (he wasn’t, he just donated the land), has the wrong year, and it’s not a statue of Harvard.  By the time they made the statue he was dead and the library that housed images of him had burned, so they got someone else to model for it – and they’re not even sure who. Most likely a descendent of a former Harvard President (whose unfortunate name was Hoar and since they couldn’t name a house after him… Hoar House?.. they made it up to him by using the image of his grandson).   It’s supposed to be good luck to touch the left shoe of the statue, but Lev warned that we’re on a campus of pranksters and that statue is left out in the open 24/7 where anyone can do anything they want to that left shoe.  So if we want to touch it, he suggests hand sanitizer immediately after.  And a funny story about Conan O’Brien.  When he worked for the Lampoon on campus, the rival paper is actually the daily Harvard newspaper, the Harvard Crimson.  Once in their history, the Crimson stole the statue from the top of the Lampoon’s building’s weather vane and gave it to the Soviet Union’s ambassador to the United States – never to be seen again.  Since then the Lampoon has sought revenge.  Conan decided to steal the Crimson’s editor’s chair – a chair that has the initials of all the past editors carved into it – a treasured possession for sure!  Well the Crimson staff found out about the plot and told campus police to be on guard.  Conan heard they would be guarding the chair that night and called the local police and warned them that the chair was going to be stolen tonight, and that the thieves would cleverly be disguised as campus police!  So they all show up, the two police units try to arrest each other and as they’re occupied, Conan makes off with the chair!  He keeps it for TWO years, and then makes a big show out of returning it at his graduation ceremony.  Since then the chair has been bolted to the ground.   The tour ends at the souvenir shop, like any good tour – and actually very close to the Shake Shack. It’s only about 1:00 and we’ve already walked halfway around Cambridge, so we head back to Shake Shack for some free water, and then to sit for moment on the benches in the park just outside. 

The Statue of Three Lies (notice the shiny foot)

Lev, the RISING Sophomore

Harvard Gates you only pass through twice

Refreshed as we’re going to be – we decide that we have enough time to do Boston Common today and then we’ll do the Freedom Trail tomorrow.  So it’s back on the red line to the Park station.  There are quite a few things in the area and it’s a large area – in the interest of conserving steps, we plan a route.  We head up the hill to the Massachusetts State House (the big gold dome building) and right there across the street is the tribute to the “Glory” regiment of the Civil War. 

Just down the street (about 2 long blocks) is Cheers!  You can see the real exterior that was used in all the shows – with the sign outside and the steps leading down to the bar.  But inside it doesn’t really look like the show.  They have 3 bars, two downstairs (one in the back), and then the “set bar” upstairs that is bar from the show that they’ve relocated to this Cheers.  They have plaques on the bar indicating where the characters sat (Frasier, Cliff and Norm) – but the waitresses and staff actually behave more like Carla!  Everyone is just a little bit rude to us. It’s that feel that they hate tourists, but then they’re stuck with us and they’re not sure how to resolve this dilemma, so they just take it out on us. You’re not allowed to sit at a table if you’re not eating (we were ordering beers, just not food), and they were very vigilant about that and very annoyed with our existence.  We finally found a few seats around the bar (Dana, Amy and Sandy) and then Patti and I sat at a high top table off the bar.  You could keep your glasses for an additional $7 which we thought was a good deal (nice mugs!), and I think that 3 of us did.  Patti doesn’t need another glass.  When the guy that was sitting in Norm’s stool got up, Sandy took the opportunity and sat down with one of Norm’s famous lines… What’s going down Norm?  My butt on this stool.  

The famous view

Downstairs

The "set" bar

NORM!! 

Once we felt we sufficiently annoyed the staff there, we headed out and across the street to Boston Common.  The bar is just across the street from the far end of the park.  We walked the length of it by walking down to Cheers, but we figure now we can walk back through the park and end up back at the Park T stop and then just head back to the apt from there.  Easy peasy.   There are a few landmarks you want to hit in the Common – there is a replica of London Bridge, and the swan boats… we actually see a very large swan sitting on nest with a big warning sign to stay away from the nesting area.  I know how geese are around their nests, and this swan is freaking huge – so no one has to tell us to stay away.   The next thing we look for is the ducks.  There is a statue of a line of ducks based on the children’s book, “Make Way For the Ducks”.  The last time Dana and I were here, she wanted a picture of just the ducks and all of these KIDS wanted to play on the ducks.  Not sure who they thought they were..  so this time we walk up and again.  Kids.  Man.  And there is this especially cute kid that is walking up to each little duck and TALKING to them – he’s like leaning down into their ear and telling each of them a secret, and he has names for each of them!  We learn later that they actually have names, although we’re still not sure whether he was using their actual names or not.   We let the children have their fun, and then it’s time for the adult children to play.  Everyone tries to come up with unique poses with the ducks (not just us), and the ladies that are sitting on the benches facing the ducks (where I have also planted myself) have become a peanut gallery, commenting and offering feedback to everyone posing for their pictures.  They approve of Patti’s cute picture on the duck, and then Amy poses with the duck… but the real crowd pleaser is this guy that acts like the duck is chasing him and trying to bite him in the behind.  He really sells it with his face too!  Well done, sir!  But that’s a hard act to follow and a shy girl that comes up after really gets some flak from the gallery when she won’t do a “fun” pose with them – they finally goad her into at least sitting on the duck.  Poor girl.   

Amy recreates the duck biting pic! See?  It's cute!

You can see the little boy still talking to the ducks at the very end of the line!

Puff ball flowers... blow Sandy, BLOW!! 

The next stop is the frog pond – but we’re meandering a little and possibly lost…  but then spot it across the park!  Remember that we have walked a LOT by this point and every step needs to be meaningful, no backtracking.. no mistakes.  I always call the frog statue the Frog Prince – I swear it had a crown (it doesn’t), and that there was just one (there are two in the main area and then many more in the children’s playground).  Cute pics happen – and then we go into the children’s play area and get more pics with the other frogs – Dana scuba dives with one, and then we find another one that poses like Dana!!   I always give her a hard time because when she poses for pics, she POSES, like stand up straight, hands down to the side..  and when I see this frog!  It’s Dana’s pose!   

Dana and her "natural" pose.. 

We head back to metro stop – our dogs are barkin – this should be easy to find, there are 4 corners to this park, two corners at this end of the park..  we’re at one corner and there is no T stop, so it’s at the other corner, yes?  No.  Because the park lies – there are SIX corners to the park because they add in this little diagonal tangent piece.  So we are WAY off from the metro stop (my fault) and there is much back tracking that has to happen so that we can get on the train.  We are BEAT.  And hungry.  We had Shake Shack at noonish, a beer at Cheers, and it’s now about 8pm and we’re hangry. 

During some of our rest stops during the day I looked for the place that our cabbie had suggested, and there is a “Barking Crab” restaurant down near the Wharf – we’re fairly certain this has to be it, and I’m ready for some seafood!  We’re in the northeast – seafood is a must.  But sadly, Sandy has a recently developed shellfish allergy!  She LOVES shellfish and can’t have it anymore – her doctor said that our bodies change and allergies develop or shift about every 7 years, and that actually the people that eat the most shellfish are the most likely to form this allergy later in life.  WHAT?? I’m in trouble.  So we’re on a quest for seafood, and Sandy has accepted that she will be tortured by watching us enjoy what she can’t have. 

We find the Barking Crab – after more walking – lots of walking today.  It’s over the bridge and down near the water, and it’s packed.  They won’t really give us a wait time, but the place is so loud, and Sandy comes back from the restroom with a report that scares us a bit.   We start to seek out other options, but at about 8pm, we’re limited on a Friday night.   The place next door has a wait list 5 tables deep, and the place across the street won’t have anything available until 10 (!) unless we want to try and get into the patio area, but that’s a very limited menu.  Dude.   We even consider going back to this place we saw that was in the middle of the river - had cool boats around it.. (turns out it's the Boston Tea Party museum (we would have been mad if we walked over there)..  So, filthy bathroom, loud and crowded, long wait, or short wait and limited options…  they have oysters, they have chowder, and they have something that Sandy can eat.  Sold.   And it was actually the best choice – the food was great and the people were the nicest people that we’ve dealt with all day.  They seat us immediately and even help us find an extra chair from the dining area.   Oysters happen – and they’re market price across the city, so no matter where we go, how many stars the place might have, we’re paying $16 for 6 oysters.   But worth it.  

Boston Tea Party Museum (with replica boats)

Views at night on the Wharf

We are fat and happy…  another walk back to the metro, and by the time we get back to the apartment it’s about midnight, and Dana has logged 23,300 steps on her fitbit. Our feet feel every single one of those steps. 

We decide to make a quick stop at the local food store right across the street from the apartment to get breakfast stuff for the morning – but Sandy points out the Dunkin Donuts that is just right there and we all decide that’s the best breakfast option (mmmm, their coffee!).  There is also an Irish pub right there on the corner, and it’s not the tourist place – it’s a pub.  A local is standing outside of it smoking and has a little fun with us – he asks us if it’s Bingo night already… that’s right, we’re women of a certain age, and yes, some of us have been known to play Bingo.  So we’ve added another moniker to our group – we’re the ya-ya’s… aka the Bingo Bitches. 

Bed. It’s bed time.  There are 3 bedrooms, two with smaller beds and one queen.  Dana and Amy share the queen, I take the couch (very comfy), and Sandy and Patti each get their own bedroom.   And that’s it for a very long day one in Boston.  The plan for tmw was the Freedom Trail, but Amy really really really really really wants to do the Fenway Park tour (Dana, Patti and I had already done it) – so we’re going to do that first, and then head to the Freedom Trail.