Freedom Trail

We woke up to reasonably dry and warm (but not too hot!) weather.

After checking on our yacht...

Kirk and our array of boats. Yesss...we own all of these...

We decided to walk The Freedom Trail.

The Freedom Trail is marked with a red line. Here's where we started. You just follow the line and it takes you to a ton of the Revolutionary war historical sites and other historical places in Boston. (Cathy had "Follow the Yellow Brick Road...Follow the Yellow Brick Road...running through her head most of the day.)

But before we really got started, we were distracted by this park, and the art in it! There were a bunch of artists selling various types of art.

Plus this cool statue at the park.

We started at the USS Constitution Museum. (It was free!) Note Kirk in the lower left hand corner, following the red line. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Museum, but you can read all about it here. Cathy was most impressed with how long it was in service. It is still there, handing out outside the museum!

You were able to go aboard this boat- The USS Cassin Young it was in service during WWII and other wars. It was so small! A claustrophobic person would have a hard time being a sailor.

Kirk modeling one of the guns on board.

We also saw this- shout out to Jeremy- a New Holland product!

Next stop: the Bunker Hill Monument.

We climbed all 294 steps and were rewarded with this view.

We had walked past a lot of those houses- they were SO cute. We can't even imagine what they cost, but we inherit somebody's vast fortune, we are so there.

While we were walking, we saw this pretty church and neat street lamp...check out the street name! Shout out to Melanie and Ben!

Here Cathy is in front of a St. Francis stature at the famous Old North Church. ("One if by land, two if by sea...") Strangely, we forgot to take a picture of the church. We were starving at this point and had finally hit the North end, where all the Italian food is.

We headed to Maurizio's, which looked cute and reasonably priced. It was hard to choose- we were surrounded by Italian restaurants.

It was hard to choose.

Should we have wine?

Yes. Yes we should. This is the house white- we drank a lot of house wines in Italy. We shared one glass- only lunchtime, plus we did not want to get dehydrated. It was pretty good!
The we shared a bowl of lobster sweet potato corn chowder. YUM.

And the bread with pepper infused oil that came with our meal. The oil was great- spicy enough that it added a small kick, but not *too* spicy. Cathy's going to try to figure out how to make it when they get home.

Cathy's lunch- it was in a Parmesan sauce. Very simple, very good.

Kirk's was really good- it was pasta with a meat sauce and meat balls of lamb and beef.

We were seated right in the window.

Next Stop: Faneuil Hall.

Kirk models the hall for you!

It was pretty inside, and impressive to think of all the history that had happened there.

A view from the door.

Cool clock.

GOOD NEWS! This store gots lobstahs!

Not far away was the Old State House.

See that balcony? That's where the Declaration of Independence was read to Boston.
We decided to go in a nearby open to door, only to find...

A subway station! View American history, then catch a train!

Here's a very old graveyard. Cathy has a fascination with graveyards, particularly very old ones.

A gravestone.

We did not even scratch the surface of all that we could have done- we plan to go back and go in a few more places. For now, we had to go back to the hotel, because...

...we were meeting old friends! Nakita and I met when we were both shelvers at the UNC Michener Library.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”-St. Augestine

She now lives in Rhode Island and evaluates people's psychiatric needs in an emergency room. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and took a walk through Harvard square. We'll be seeing her again on Thursday...stay tuned to see what awesome thing we're going to do! In the meantime, we decided to....

Call it a day- the harbor near our hotel.

Just a super quick check in...more tonight!

We're just dropping in to say that we had a great time yesterday- check back tonight for the MILLIONS of pictures. Cathy is still writing the entry, and we have to leave the hotel to go on our Duck Tour now. You'll hear about all that later! :)

Check back!

Coffeemaker Breakfast in Nine Easy Steps!

Step One: Fill the glasses with hot water from the faucet- as hot as you can get it. This is a very important step! (Just like prepping a teapot.)

Step Two: While your glasses are preheating, use the coffeemaker to heat water.

Step Three: Pour out preheating water from the glasses.

Step Four: Add oatmeal. (We used seven plastic spoonfuls.)

Step Five: Add a bit of hot faucet water.

Step Six: Pour hot water from coffee maker over the oatmeal until it looks right.

Step Seven: Add packets of sugar from complementary coffee condiment packet.

Step Eight: Stir.

Step Nine: Eat. We also ate a spoonful of peanut butter each, just for an extra protein boost. Don't forget to wash out the glasses before the oatmeal remnants dry!

We don't buy instant oatmeal- the cardboard tube things works just as well and is a lot cheaper! :)

Cruising Caimbridge

Today we headed out to the MIT Museum, Harvard, and the MEME gallery!

We were going to eat a quick breakfast at a McDonald's or whatever fast food place we found on our way to the MIT Museum, but no dice! We did not see ANY place to eat. In desperation, we stopped at an ice cream store, which had a breakfast sandwich station for some bizarre reason.

Our had salmon, tomatoes, eggs, and green onions. Delicious!

Our next stop was the MIT Museum. It was A LOT of fun. It was like a kids museum- for grown ups!
Waiting, waiting, enjoying our coffee.

We met up with Brad Benedetti, Cathy's friend from Jr. High and High School. He lives nearby and recommended the MIT Museum to us.
They had neat hologram pictures.

And robots!

And cool shirts in the gift shop!


This bike shop was across the street from the museum.

Brad also took us to MIT- we walked through some of the buildings and pretended that we belonged there. :)

This mirror thing was outside one of the cooler MIT buildings. Note the umbrella- it rained almost all day. The hotel loaned us an umbrella.

Brad and Cathy, walking down the street.
"Those truly linked don't need correspondence. When they meet again after many years apart, Their friendship is as true as ever." -Deng Ming-Dao

Brad was in charge of lunch. He took us to The Friendly Toast.

After lunch, Brad and Cathy indulged in their mutual love of thrift stores. Brad whisked us to The Garment District.

They had a floor covered with clothes. Knee deep.
They cost $1.50 a POUND! (1.00/lb on Fridays!)

There were other more organized areas, equally as fabulous. Unfortunately I did not get a picture. I will go back later this week- they had DEALS at this store!
We stopped off at the gallery Brad co-owns with some friends- pretty neat!

Then we headed off to Harvard. I was too in awe to get many pictures. In fact, I only got pictures of one of the dining halls. Here it is:

A. Dining. Hall.

Where students EAT.

Did we mention that this is a DINING HALL? Brad took this contraband picture for me- I chickened out a the last second. (It said NO PICTURES everywhere, but Brad has awesome stealth skillz.)

We bid Brad adieu, then headed off to pick up supplies in our sweet new ponchos.

Our bounty of home food- the finest Walgreen's has to offer that does not need refrigeration and can be cooked with nothing but a coffee maker. Brad has stealth skillz, we have cheap skillz.

Tomorrow we're off to the Freedom Trail, the North End for Italian food, and dinner with another friend of Cathy's- we can't wait to see Nakita! :)

Good Morning Boston

The view from our hotel room this morning. It's a good thing that our hotel provided an umbrella for us to use while we're their guests.

Late Dinner in Boston

Mmmmm....decaf coffee

After having an exciting time with delayed flights in Memphis and a view of Connecticut as we circled and circled and circled it, waiting for clearance to land, we *finally* got to Boston! We took a taxi to our sweet hotel- another great Travelocity experience for us! I've heard that a lot of people have had bad experiences with them, but we've never had anything besides excellent service and amazing hotels.

By the time we got to the hotel, it was past 8 and we were starving. We were a bit unwilling to head out into an unknown town in the dark (and rain) and try to find food, so we decided to eat in the in house restaurant.

The Art Bar was pricey, but worth every penny.

Kirk had Swordfish.

Cathy had Lobster Mac 'n Cheese Ravioli with Truffle Mushrooms.

We decided that if we were going to be spending *that* much for a meal, we may as well spend, like, all our money, so we indulged in a Peach cheesecake for dessert.

Now we're watching the Discovery Channel on TV...when the show is over, we're going to sleep. Goodnight everybody!

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting

We're at the Wichita airport waiting for our flight- our genius plan of trying to get onto an earlier flight did not work out. :( The good news is that the Wichita Airport has free wireless access, so Cathy can get her online class work done while she waits! Go Go Work at Home job! Cathy's determined to get all online classes next semester so she can travel at will, even if they don't actually get to go anywhere.

Sarah was not pleased to see the suitcases, and spent the early morning hours curled around them, as if we may take her with us if she only waited with the bags. She accepted her bribe of a new toy, but gave us those sad puppy dog eyes as we walked out the door.

Our flight leaves at 11:30- we're flying Northwest to Memphis on flight #4245 for those who want to play at home. We'll be taking flight #5686 from Memphis to Boston. You can track our every move!

We will try to update again in Memphis if we have time and free wireless. If not, we'll check in again from Boston!