Heidster and Brando's Excellent Adventures in Beantown

Wireless is not easy to come by, when you have a limited hotel budget. Finally, tonight, we splurged...and purchased a t-mobile card...so time to write, now, is also limited! Without further delay, our chronicle of adventures...

After a lovely Sunday at my mom's home, where family and friends rejoiced in my sister's wedding to Martin, Brandon and I headed east at the earliest sunrise. Our first stop? McDonald's on 401. And then, East Greenbush, New York - a suburb of Albany. Aside from the rolling farmland, um...not much to write about. Although, the Finger Lakes were passed, with memories of hockey and wine-tasting fresh in my head, that’s another story for a later blog.

Yesterday morning (Tuesday), we ventured down some of the most beautiful "back-roads" I have ever seen, ending up at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in the Northwest corner of Massachusetts (Google it). I've never seen Brandon walk so fast to a ticket booth, thrilled by being first in line, only to discover that the park didn't open for another 90 minutes. Think: National Lampoon's Vacation. Bummer. But, Brandon didn't miss a beat. He suggested checking out the Gift Shop for souvenirs (like we need more of those) and coffee for the next...90 min.

While enjoying our coffee and the early morning chirping of chickadees, our serenity was punctuated by a domestic verbal assault between a guest of the resort and his wife...reminding us of what really matters in marriage...rational communication. ARGH!

Jiminy Peak is a winter ski resort, featuring summer activities. The Wiegand Mountain Coaster was both scenic and exhilarating. Search YouTube using “Jiminy Peak Mountain Coaster” as a tag for a virtual tour. Very cool. I actually enjoyed this one. Brandon was the first person on the ride for the day…surprised? This ride allows you to control your speed. I was right behind Brandon for a few minutes…before eating his dust. While munching on dirt, I could feel the presence of very impatient children behind me...that part, I did not enjoy. We also rode a very long Alpine Slide in smilar fashion (similar to the one that used to be at Blue Mountain in Collingwood). This ride is rather dangerous in that you could potentially flip the sled if corners were taken too quickly. We are both safe.

Our goal was to eventually see Fenway Park (an historic and fun baseball park) upon arriving at Boston. Ugly future weather reports, however, persuaded us to go a day earlier than expected. After finding inexpensive (a theme for this trip) lodging at the Framingham suburb of Boston, we set off, on the Boston “Green-line” subway system, for the Kenmore terminal. Games are always sold out at Fenway, making it necessary for us to buy from a scalper. The pain of being ripped-off by a seedy scalper was eased, however, by eating a polish kielbasa sausage (aka ‘streetmeat’) that was about the size of my arm. I’ve never seen anything like it…honestly. :)

The Red Sox ended up losing 6-2 against Anaheim Angels. Being there was more about learning the long history than about cheering for a win. Thank goodness, we are Tigers fans!

We woke up early, and found Wellesley College, where Hilary Rodham Clinton was Valedictorian of her graduating class…impressive. Even more impressive were the pristine acres upon which the school was set. I wanted to explore the exclusive Wellesley boutiques awhile longer, but knew that Boston awaited me, and time ticked on.

Harvard, our next stop on the College Tour. The highlight here for us was not really the campus, although it was lovely, and we witnessed a treed squirrel antagonizing two gigantic hawks (you had to be there), but rather, the famous Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage. I ordered the “John Kerry” and Brandon had the “Rudy Guiliani”…burgers, that is. They were the best by our standards, and were critically acclaimed by many national sources. Come here hungry, and be willing to sit at the bar...otherwise you'll spend much of your day waiting for your seat and table in the long lines outside. Also, be sure to visit the washroom prior to coming here...they do not offer access to such luxuries.

Now, to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)…where Noam Chomsky is a sitting Faculty member in the Linguistics and Philosophy Dept. With my super-sleuthing skills, or rather super-stalking skills, combined with Brandon’s persistence, we managed to find his office! Not only did we find his office, we went into his office, talked to his secretary, looked at his books, read his messages, took pictures, examined his pictures... It was definitely a highlight for us!

After “storming” MIT, over the Charles River we went. Interestingly, we found out that we walked approximately 350 Smoots…named after the man who literally used his own body to measure the length of the bridge. Why? Who cares. It’s cool.

Another cool area of Boston, was the quaint and really long Newbury Street we walked on our way to the Freedom Trail. We were barely on the trail 5 minutes, however, when Normy called my BlackBerry from Cheers...it was time for a couple of over-priced drinks. We figured that perhaps part of the cost was because everyone seemed to know our names. 

Back on the trail, we toured BeaconHill, a trendy and historic neighbourhood. I was more interested, however, in finding “Bennifer” (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner) than Beacon. We later passed Sam Adams’s Gravesite and enjoyed 6 oysters (certainly no more, and no less) at the Union House, America’s oldest restaurant. It was here that I ran into someone I recognized from Canada. I thought I knew her. But, upon confronting her, I found out that, yes, she was indeed from Canada, but I did not know her… directly. She was an anchor for CTV News…not the long lost friend I thought she may have been. ARGH! Embarrassing.

We then headed into the North End of the city on beautiful cobble-stoned streets, to see Paul Revere’s House. This is also known as the Italian District…it was quite noisy (ha ha) with the windows opening directly onto the streets, echoing the constant, non-stop conversation inside (sound familiar, Blogger Bon and T??). Although the Revere house was closed, the smell of garlic was rampant…reminding me of home, so we did not try any of these pricey restaurants. I can cook pasta. What I wanted was seafood…specifically, LOBSTER! Or rather...Lobstah!

Lobster will have to wait until tomorrow…when we head to Gloucester, Mass. (site of the famous Perfect Storm tragedy and movie with Hollywood hunk George Clooney and Boston native bad-boy Mark Walburg…for “enquiring minds only”). Until tomorrow...

In the meantime, scroll to the end of the blog to check out the photos I've added...not sure how to get them closer to this related blog. I look forward to your posts!