Adventures in Boston

And this was for yesterday....

This morning we woke up early, finished the laundry and packed an overnight bag. Since it was supposed to be rainy and yucky (and it was), we decided to drive up to Maine and get our magnets from there and New Hampshire and stay the night in Boston. On the way back to CT tomorrow, we plan to go to Plymouth, so Jim can see the pebble, and maybe have lunch in Newport on our way back.
Today was interesting. It started out fine. The rain came just as it was supposed to in the early afternoon. We were on the road , driving through Massachusetts, and of course, people drove like complete idiots. Drivers are jerks all over the country, I guess. We got to Kittery, ME, one of the southernmost parts of the state a little after one and had lobster rolls at a little restaurant on the water. We were on the hunt for a magnet too, and I found one in this little grocery store, but evidently it was a decoration and the lady wouldn’t sell it to me! So we ended up finding one in a candy store a bit down the road. Actually, there were more to choose from there than anywhere else we’d been! I didn’t get any candy, though. Jim wouldn’t even let me look!

The section of New Hampshire on the coast between Massachusetts and Maine is like ten miles long, which drastically limited our magnet searching options. On the way back from Maine, we stopped in Portsmouth, which is just across the state line. It had a really cute little downtown area and we parked the car and walked through the dreary drizzle until we found a “gift store” which ended up being code for “smoke shop.” Even Jim didn’t catch that one at first glance! The next store we walked into was small and mostly sold newspapers and candy bars, but in a case at the counter we found a small selection of magnets! The guy said “you guys must not be from around here,” and of course we weren’t! Who wants a magnet from their own state or city? Not me. Although we’ll have to get a California one if we want a complete collection.

"2vi" takes us to some weird places sometimes. This was part of her directions to the hotel we didn't stay at.

We made it into Boston after sitting in a bit of traffic coming into the city. This is where the day gets REAL interesting. I booked a room at a place called the College Club of Boston…it’s a club, but they have a bed and breakfast too, and you don’t have to be a member to stay there. Anyway, we get there to check in and the guy can’t find our reservation. Of. Freaking. Course. So he looks and looks and finds it…for YESTERDAY. I SWEAR I made it for the right date. I made two other reservations for the wrong dates already this trip. I’ve been TRIPLE checking that the dates are right.
So, of course, they have no vacancies and the guy pulls up expedia and finds us a couple of other options, gives us the phone number for expedia and sends us on our way. So we’re in Boston, it’s raining, we have our overnight bag and the laptop and the cameras and stuff, no place to stay for the night, the car was parked in a garage across the park (where their website told us to park) and no clue whatsoever what we were going to do.

The tulips are blooming in the Public Garden

We ended up finding a Starbucks on Boylston, two streets away on the other side of Newbury and used the internet there to book a room at the Omni Parker House. It was much more than we wanted to spend, but what else were we going to do? All of our options were about the same price and this one was close to where we parked the car. So we packed up the computer again and trekked across Boston Common again to the hotel.
Halfway there, Jim says “Well at least it’s not raining hard,” and guess what happened. Yea. It started raining hard! We made it to the hotel completely soaked. My arm was sore from carrying the heavy (pink) bag, and we were both starting to get a little cranky. Jim didn’t even want to leave the hotel again, but we got up to the room (which is MUCH smaller than the one we had here, Mom!) and put our stuff down and dried off a bit and decided to make the short walk to Faneuil Hall to have dinner at Cheers.
Cheers isn’t the best food in Boston, but they modeled it after the one in the show, so it was an “experience.” Jim had a burger and I had some pasta. Neither of us had beer, which I guess kind of defeats the purpose, but whatever. It was a neat trip though. We passed a lot of historically significant buildings on the way there, and the rain more or less stopped before we left the hotel, so it was worth the while. We also found our magnet and got some candy (Jim’s idea, imagine that) and walked through some of the stores and stuff. It was a nice evening.
When we got back to the hotel, we sat in the bar and had dessert. The Parker House is where Boston Cream Pie was created (although it’s NOTHING like what you get anywhere else…I actually like it better), as well as Parker House Rolls (we got some of them too), so we sat and talked and had a nice dessert.
We’ll be back in Connecticut tomorrow evening. We’re not sure what we’re doing Sunday. If the weather is nice we might go into New York, but more than likely we’ll do that on Monday. So we may take a drive up to Vermont, get some syrup and a magnet and head back to CT.

Making our way through New England

Again, I'm behind. We were in Boston last night and we didn't have wireless in our room, only in the lobby, so I wasn't able to post. Anyway, this is from two days ago now.

This morning we woke up in Connecticut. We’re staying with family friends of Jim’s for a few days while we trompse around New England. We were planning to go to New York tomorrow but it’s supposed be raining, so we’re working on a Plan B.


Yesterday we went to the County Pancake House in Ridgewood, NJ. It was featured on a couple of shows on the Travel Channel. I think Adam went there on Man vs. Food. The pancakes there are HUMONGOUS! We ordered the “4 Medium” option and they were as big as out plates! The other option (although not available on the varieties that we ordered) was the “2 large.” The girl at the table next to us ordered them and they sagged over the sides of her plate by about two inches on either side. They were insane!

The dinosaur tracks

Today we went to Dinosaur State Park and Gillette Castle, both in CT. Dinosaur Park was pretty interesting because this guy was excavating a site where a state building was going to be built and he happened to come across some fossilized dinosaur footprints. I guess there are close to 2,000 of them and the state built a museum over the site to display them for the public. Only like 500 of them are on display, the others are preserved elsewise in different parts of the building, I guess. But it was interesting to see evidence that such completely different creatures walked in the same spot so many millions of years ago.
Gillette Castle was built by William Gillette in 1919 as a retirement house. Evidently he played Sherlock Holmes (Mike said someone else played Sherlock Holmes, so I don’t know…). The whole castle is made of stone…or at least surrounded with stone. It’s really an amazing sight. I guess they run tours through it, but it was “closed for the season,” like so many other things we’ve wanted to see.

The view from the castle was amazing. I wouldn't mind retiring there!

We went back to the house and rested for a while. We’ve both been really tired lately for some reason. We’ve been sleeping ok, so I’m not sure what the deal is. We sat down before Mike and Linda got home from work and watched a show called “Deep Sea Salvagers” on Discovery Channel or something. It was about this team of guys who are hired to fix things like busted oil barges in the Mississippi River and beached tug boats and stuff like that. It was kind of intense! In the one episode the guys dove into the Mississippi to check out the status of the oil barge and each time they dove down (80 feet to where the problem was), there was a chance they could die and all sorts of stuff went wrong and…it certainly kept our attention. Anyway, we watched that…there were several episodes on…until they got home and then Mike made “Grandma’s Mac and Cheese” for dinner. It was delicious! It was like regular mac and cheese except he put mozzarella cheese and tomatoes in it. Mike can cook almost as good as Donnie! (ALMOST, Donnie. ALMOST)
We had to do laundry again and for some stupid reason we didn’t start it until after 9:00, so we were up until almost midnight and we still had to put the last load in the dryer in the morning. I was exhausted by the time I hit the air mattress and I was asleep almost instantly, despite Jim’s snoring next to me.

More Tidbits

1. My right knee is still bothering me. Walking up and down the steep stairs at the battleship today was starting to bug it quite a bit. I have no idea what I did to it.

2. I just learned that there's sucralose in Airborne and now I refuse to take it. Jim doesn't really want to either but he's been feeling like he's getting sick, so he's finishing the tube. I'm completely bummed about this. I swear by that stuff!

3. We've eaten pizza so many times this trip, I'm sick of it! It's just so much easier to have it delivered to the hotel than to actually go out and find something. Tonight, I actually had baked ziti and Jim had a Cheese Steak Pie (Pizza in NJ speak), and it came right to our room. :)

4. Today is the first day its rained since we've been gone. Word is the weather is awful at home. We've had nothing but warm and sunny. It was a nice change, but it was cold! And I packed my tennis shoes so I was walking around with wet feet in my flip flops.

5. "2vi" (the new Garmin for those of you who haven't been keeping up) is working out quite nicely. We think she's going to be a keeper.

6. We went to a liquor store in some little podunk town in Maryland (we were looking for a magnet) because we had to pee (We'd stopped at three other stores so far and all of them had bathrooms that were "out of order"...yea, right), and he actually let us use his (we think he may have had more than slurpee in his cup...). But we decided we wanted to get a bottle of wine while we were there, so we went to the local section...there were a lot of wineries in northern Virginia, so we figured we'd find one to try...and we ended up buying one from California! The selection of locals was awful...only about half an aisle, while the California section was FOUR AISLES! I guess you can't beat the best. :)

7.  We've managed to watch all but one performance episode of American Idol since we've been gone (Can anyone actually believe I convinced Jim to watch this show?! And he's SOOO into it!)

8. I've taken (and kept) 1608 photos so far this trip (and deleted probably a few hundred)

9. We're just a few miles short of the 6,000 mile mark.

10. PEOPLE NEED TO COMMENT MORE!!!

We Don't Like Delaware

Tonight we're staying in Edison, NJ, and we're not terribly happy about it. For starters, New Jersey is not enjoyable. From what we've seen it's largely run down and kind of ucky. But we're like sixty miles from Camden, which has had the highest crime rate in the country for like three years (I'm not sure of the exact statistic, so don't hold me to that). Also, we're very close to an Indian restaurant and it STINKS!

But we're in New Jersey for a couple of reasons: a) we're heading east and it's on the way. b) I have no idea where else to stay around here, and c) mostly because we went and saw the Battleship New Jersey today, and we needed a place to stay a little ways away from there.

The battleship was really neat, though. It's the most decorated and largest in the country. We got there about half an hour before they closed, so we were the last through (they closed at 3, though, so it was pretty early), and we were all by ourselves going through the ship. It was a little eerie. But it was also nice not to be rushed or have people moving slow in front of us (and there are no other people in our pictures!!!...well, except the ones with fake people who mostly scared the crap out of us, like these guys).

We got to go into one of the gun turrets, which was kind of cool, except evidently they had to have thirty people to shoot that thing and the space was so small I can't see how that many people could fit in there!

This is the room where the gun was actually loaded and shot. It had a 12-24 inch recoil, so the men in this park of the turret had to brace themselves against walls and beams and stuff.

This was the upper section where they aimed and did some other stuff I'm not really sure about

The guns from the outside

The ship from the outside (obviously, right?)

Also today, we went to the National Clock and Watch Museum in Columbia, PA. We were the first ones to this one and also the only ones walking through. It's nice to have the whole place to yourself. We enjoyed it at both places.

This was in the center of the main hall of the museum. It was kind of cool, went up four stories. I thought it was pretty.

There were thousands of different clocks and watches and other methods for telling time used throughout history. It was kind of neat to learn a little about the evolution of timetelling. And there were so many beautiful pieces. My mom would have loved it. She has quite an appreciation for this kind of thing.

This one was enormous and so intricately designed. Something like eight different artisans worked to create it

This one made me think of my dad

The detail on this one was amazing. It was one of the earlier clocks, sometime before 1800, I think

On the way from the clock museum to the Battleship New Jersey, we drove through Intercourse, PA, one of the largest Amish communities in the country (we think...). It was funny to see their horse and buggies driving down the road amid the modern day vehicles. Its neat that they can thrive in their ways of life when the world has progressed so far around them. I envy them in some ways. They live their lives so simply, so modestly. We depend so much on things and technology. I can't really imagine life without electricity and Starbucks, but I respect and admire their ability to live without such luxuries.

This one was closer to where we stayed the night than Intercourse

We've been collecting magnets from every state we've been in, and it's been quite the challenge. We've spent up to an hour before searching for magnets in non-tourist areas, but Delaware was impossible! We only had a small section of state that we could look in, and it was absolutely nasty! Dilapidated houses and buildings lined the streets and creepy looking people were miling about idly. One car even stopped in the middle of the road, a handful of grimy looking people got out and just sort of huddled around the car for a while. We got totally creeped out. We didn't even want to get out of the car, so we didn't. We drove up the freeway a little further and just before the stateline, we got off the freeway to check out a museum advertised on a sign, and the dang museum was closed! Although the sign said "Open Tuesday through Saturday." What day is today? TUESDAY!!! But then the sign on the door said they were opened WEDNESDAY through Saturday. We were totally pissed. Got back on the freeway and didn't stop again. We're going to order the dang thing online!

But Delaware wasn't the only one we had problems with. The states we just bite corners out of are hard! We found Kansas, by luck, at a gas station. Maryland was at a zoo (which we did not see...we didn't go further than the gift shop) and it didn't even say MARYLAND on it...we're going to write it in.

Virgia was tough too. We found it at a Ben Franklin (Mom! I knew it would be there because of the one in Grass Valley). Missouri was tough too. We got off the freeway several times and finally found one at a truck stop just before the stateline. In Mississippi we went to three casinos, three gift shops, two restaurants with gift shops and finally found it at a place called SOUVENIR WORLD on the beach at the recommendation of a guy at a gift shop who "didn't do that kind of thing." He was a little weird, but his advise was good. And it only took us about ten miles out of our way.

Anyway, back to the present. Tomorrow we're going to a place that was on Chowdown Countdown on the Travel Channel because they have humongous pancakes and you can get almost any topping you want on them, including ham and mustard and stuff. Kind of nasty, but I want one with strawberries and chocolate chips and whipped cream like I saw on the show. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Catching Up

I haven't had internet or time or a combination of the two over the past few days, so here's what we've been up to.

As you can see from some of the pictures, we went to Washington, D.C. for a day. Evidently it's Cherry Blossom Festival time, so the roads were blocked and people were everywhere even more than normal, which made it difficult to manuever anywhere down there. It was also hard to take a picture without another person in it.

Exhibit A: Our picture with Abe Lincoln. Ours and that guy's anyway...

It wasn't the only place it was difficult to get pictures without people, so a lot of them just have other people in them. Whatever.

This one turned out pretty neat though. The sun was just in the right spot behind Washington Monument.

We stayed about half an hour from D.C. at a Staybridge Suites. We've been staying in Holiday Inn Expresses, as I believe I've mentioned before, but there were none in the area...at least none that were in our price range (ie. close to $100, preferably less), so we figured we'd give it a try. Were we ever impressed! The rooms were all suites, as stated in the name, so we had a large, but not quite full-sized fridge, microwave, two-range stovetop, dishwasher, toaster, it was amazing! Plus it was clean and comfortable and nicely decorated. They offered free laudry as long as you brought your own soap and the breakfast was incredible. Holiday Inn Express always offers breakfast but this was above and beyond that by far. They had two different kinds of eggs, bacon and sausage, breakfast potatoes, french toast, fresh waffles, biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit (not just bananas and apples) along with all of the cereal, bagels, coffee, etc that is offered with most breakfasts. Needless to say, we had plenty to eat at breakfast! And all of that, in a decent (not scary) area for $87. Can't beat that!

Yesterday we left the D.C area and took the long way to Gettysburg to avoid the nasty traffic the city creates. We ended up driving through some really pretty country areas of Virginia on a two lane highway. Everything was green and picturesque in every way. It was a much more enjoyable ride than sitting in traffic!

We got to Gettysburg later in the afternoon, and by the time we were done with the 24-mile long trail through the different battle sites and memorials and monuments, the sun was starting to set. But it was such an amazing place. Not only did it feel like an important place, it was beautiful. The fields were all green, trees everywhere, including some really pretty purple ones. Any buildings around were perfect. Red barns and stone houses. White fences everywhere there weren't rock walls built by the soldiers during the way. It's sad to think such horrible numbers of death occurred at such a beautiful place.

Looking through the door of the monument we were sitting on

This monument was erected in the spot where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. In a semi cricle all around him are the graves of soldiers who lost their lives in the battle at Gettysburg.

We stayed the night at a KOA just outside of town. It was nice, relatively quite and nowhere near train tracks, so we were able to sleep for the most part. We bought wood at the front office when we got there and it was nice and dry so we were able to have a fire (unlike in Independence our first night when we had wet wood that just wouldn't light). We ate sandwiches for dinner and roasted marshmallows and had s'mores with our Jacuzzi Barbera and cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing. There was only one other tent site occupied and it appeared to be a couple of men...who happened to be completely creepy and one of them sounded like he was going to hack up a lung every so often. It was pretty much the only bad thing about the night.

Jim at camp

Today we drove a couple hours north and went to Reptiland in Allenwood, PA. It was something Jim really wanted to do, and although I had little interest going into it, it was pretty cool. I got to touch a baby alligator! And a boa constrictor. After we watched a short video and touched the animals, the guy took us inside and fed a cobra a mouse. It was a little nasty. The mouse was dead already and he just dangled it in front of the snake and made it dance aruond a little before letting it go, but it wasn't as bloody or nasty as I would have thought.

There were also a lot of cool frogs and turtles and some other snakes...not my favorite, but since they were nicely enclosed, it was okay to look at them.

The female gator...those jaws pack about a thousand pounds of pressure if she were to bite you.

The black mamba. Creepy thing. The guy was trying to take him out to clean his cage and he was not interested in leaving it!

Tonight we're staying a little south of Allenwood, PA and we're heading north east tomorrow. Not exactly sure where we're staying or what we're doing, but we have to hit Delaware on our way out. I think we're going to see the Battleship New Jersey tomorrow too. It's in Camden...highest crime rate in the country for like three years or something. Eek. I think it's going to be a get in, get out and get going and hope the car doesn't get broken into while we're there!

Some More Random Pictures

So in no particular order, here are some more pictures.

Doesn't it look like it's poking Jim in the eye?

One of the only pictures I took of cherry blossoms. We got a little cranky in D.C.

Me and Ole Abe

An old sixteen pound rifled cannon used in the battle of Gettysburg

Sitting on top of one of the monuments at Gettysburg (Yes, it was ok. There were stairs)

Ready to do our laundry in Orlando, FL

One of the fourteen mini golf courses in an 11 mile stretch of road near Myrtle Beach, SC

Jim's really big propeller

A wood turtle hanging out under a bush at Reptiland in Allenwood, PA

Taking Steps Through History

Last night, as mentioned before, we stayed in New Bern, NC. When we drove into town, we were a little frightened. Old, dilapidated shacks huddled on the sides of the roads and long gone businesses leered with their dusty windows and broken signs. Was this really the fabulous New Bern Nicholas Sparks is always writing about?

It was and it wasn't. The outskirts of New Bern weren't so pretty, but as soon as we turned down Pollock Street, it was like a completely different city. Old houses still lined the streets, but they were old and beautiful, pieces of American history. The Stanly House down the street even hosted George Washington for a few days. We found a little downtown area for dinner and had local seafood from Captain Ratty's. They even let us put "The Rover" on a little flag to put on the wall with the other million from past customers ("The Rover" is my dad's boat in Alaska for those of you who don't know).

The front porch of the house where we stayed

New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola

Jim was really interested in all of the civil war history. One of the major battles was fought in New Bern and many of the confederate soldiers who lost their lives during the battle were burried in the cemetary at the top of town. It was kind of an erie place, more so than most cemetaries. I got the same feeling when my mom and I went to New England a few years back and visited a cemetary in Plymouth, MA. It was just old and filled with so many people who gave their lives for freedom...or in this case, the lack of it I guess. Plus, I've never actually seen that whispy stuff hanging from the trees in real life. I thought Disney made it up for the Haunted Mansion. It's really creepy!

We left New Bern after walking around for a while, soaking up the history and enjoying the cloudy cool morning (it didn't last long). Then we drove to the coast and visited Fort Macon State Park. It was another piece of civil war history, another confederate defeat. The fort itself only saw battle for 11 hours, but was used later in WW2 to keep an eye out for U-boats along the coast. It was an interesting thing, pentagonal in shape and filled with tiny rooms, almost all the same shape and size used for numerous different things. The whole exterior was green, too, completely covered with grass.

The hallway connecting the rooms in the fort. I thought it looked cool

Jim and the small cannon

We got to our hotel in Stafford, VA late last night and we're heading to the Smithsonian this morning. We stopped at Cracker Barrel to eat on our way to the hotel and were quite disappointed despite Tricia's rave reviews. Jim thought his meal very well could have come out of a Hungry Man box and he said my catfish tasted a lot like the fish they use in the sandwiches at Jack & The Box. I don't know that I've had the fish sandwich there, but my apples and mac and cheese sure could have come from a Hungry Man box! And the corn, well, I didn't even go there. I couldn't identify the oily ooze it was soaking in, so I figured I probably didn't want it in my body. I don't think I really wanted any of it in my body because my stomach is still kind of squirly this morning. Oh well, try everything once, right?