I arrived into Boston yesterday 17/9/14. I am staying in an area that is full of history so I took myself off for a walk on Boylston Street in Back Bay. I eventually decided I needed to take a break and sit for a while and have a snack. As it turned out I was sitting in the very place that the Boston Marathon bombs exploded 2 years earlier.
Anyway I escaped unharmed and have joined a tour group to explore this Eastern side of the States and Canada. We had a briefing yesterday evening and I met a couple of people.
I then took myself off for some dinner. The biggest problem we are finding with eating in the States is the size of every meal/snack/drink. They are always so HUGE. There is no such thing as small. They serve all of their coffee and teas in takeaway cups (even in the smartest hotels and usually Starbucks coffee) and their smallest cups equal the largest size in Australia. The large size here is just unbelievably big. The food portions are ridiculous. There is no such thing as a snack. In fact a main meal is equivalent to what two people would (or should) eat. They have great difficulty in accepting that we don’t want the food drowned in sauce or dressings or smothered in sweetners.
So today (Thursday) I spent time exploring Boston by bus, foot and by boat. We visited the Boston Common, the bar from the TV program “Cheers” for those old enough to remember Ted Danson and then onto the Freedom Trail. There is so much to take in it is almost overwhelming. The Trail was developed to tell the stories and events that sparked the American Revolution against England. So I heard stories of Paul Revere, the Boston Tea Party and the USS Constitution built in 1795. It is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel.
It seems as though anyone who is “anyone” has come from Boston. America’s first family the Kennedy’s resided here. We saw the house where Rose Kennedy was born, the church where her funeral was conducted 105 years later. We saw the restaurant, The Hurrah Bar in the Omni Parker Hotel where JFK proposed to Jacki. We visited the house where Louisa May Alcott lived. Other authors include Dr Seuss and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Musicians – Aerosmith, New Kids on the Block, James Taylor and Donna Summer and the list goes on.
So now I am worn out after having dined at Legal Sea Foods – yes “if it ain’t fresh, it ain’t legal”, that is their slogan. Although I did start the evening with amazing views of Boston from the top of the Prudential Tower – 52 stories up. Mojito’s taste so much better at the height.
