Boston!

Oh, my, what adventures we have had! Yesterday we arrived in Boston a little early to meet my friend Matt for dinner. So, we went to the motel and checked in.  Now, the directions we had to the restaurant were based on driving south on 93 - we were now driving north. Our first order of business was to find the way to 93 North.  We got some directions and we thought we followed them...after wandering and looking and not seeing any sign for 93 North, we wound up back where we began.  I decided to go a little further, thinking I had seen a sign for 93 North when we were heading for the motel.  Now, this was all guess work and gut feeling, my friends, but we actually made a left turn and there was the sign (YEA!) for 93 North! Off we went, transcribing the directions we had received to coming from the opposite direction...at least we thought so.  After we had wondered around (seeing a lot of wonderful looking Italian restaurants) I called my friend Matt and listened to my sister, Sandi (who was saying "I think we're too far north." How she knew, I don't know!) and finally we got to the right place (after almost tearing the undercarriage out of the car!) and got together with Matt Iarussi.  We had a good seafood meal and a lot of fun conversation.  To those who know Matt, he sent his best.  Today, we decided we wanted to take the "Duck Tour" of Boston.  This is an amphibious vehicle which takes us around the bay and some of the "land"marks.  Now, to back up, last night we were wandering around and took liberty with the Limlelighters song about Charlie, who rode around beneath the streets of Boston on the MTA.  We were "driving around on the streets of Boston, we're the women who never returned."  Today, however, we were actually on the MTA.  Sandi, being used to the absurdities of a subway system, did the organizing and we wound up actually getting to the Museum of Natural History where there is a "Duck" landing.  The weather was less than wonderful;  for the first time in many years I actually used an umbrella.  We found a sign on the Museum door that stated "Museum closed 9/4".  There was an unlocked door, so we went in and talked to the guard who let us know that the Museum was closed as an employee appreciation measure, which meant that there was no "Duck" tour.  However, there were two other places we could go to to take the tour.  So, Sandi dusted off her MTA map and we got back to the subway, turned ourselves around and got to the Prudential stop - after making 2 transfers.  We got to the Duck desk and found out that the last tour had left at 1:00PM because they, too, were doing an employee appreciation move, and closing early.  We got there at 1:30PM.  There are always silver linings, and across from the desk was Barnes and Noble.  Sandi and I both being bookhounds were appeased.  We got some lunch and decided to go to Faneuil Hall and do some shopping.  I have to tell you that this was a wonderful day.  What a lot I learned about the subway system of Boston (it's really wonderful), as well as the history of our country.  We decided to stay one more night in Boston (what's our hurry, anyway!) so we can do the tour tomorrow and hopefully see the Kennedy Library and Museum.  We're really pooped right now...to the point that we are actually watching the Democratic Convention (Yea, Michelle!) and will go to sleep early.  I took some picture with my cell phone today and tomorrow I will have the camera and the moving camera so you should have some pictures in tomorrows blog.  Good night all!