10Aug05 - Boston is cool!

We took a trip to Boston on the weekend. Loaded up the dogs and drove for a little less than 2 hours to get there. We had a slighlty ill fated adventure when we tried to find Fenway Park (home of the world champion Red Sox....as long as the Yankees lose I'm happy!). We ended up in an area called Charlsetown that was very nice and had a great park for the dogs. While we were there we met another Westie (rescue dog, can you believe that!) and asked how to get to town. The folks were very obliging and told us to simply cross the bridge (that was right in front of us), wish we had met them before spending $6.00 on a map....

The picture here is of Paul Revere's house. He was the fellow that said " The British are coming, the British are coming". Interesting the Bostonians hold him in such "reverence"......hmmmm "A feeling of profound awe and respect and often love; veneration".......

We followed red brick path called the "Freedom Trail" for hours, winding the streets of the North End of Boston. Luckily the temperature was only in the mid 80's so Brodie and Kyla were OK. Unfortunately, like so many other cities I have visited in the US, grass is at a premium so getting a spot for the dogs to "go" was key.

We stopped at Cheers for lunch but Norm wasn't there. They actually have 2 Cheers restaurant/bars now. We went to the fake one....but the pups could sit on the deck as we ate lunch. They were great and garnered more than their fair share of attention from the passing throngs as we chowed down on our pub fare.

I am still looking for a site to host a decent photo album (for free of course). Once I figure it out I will post a link on the blog so those of you who would rather look at pictures than read my drivel can enjoy the images!

Boston was a cross between New York and Vancouver. We walked down to the waterfront where there was a great indoor skating rink (no seats), a baseball diamond, a botchi (field/court....Italian Lawn bowling thing) and a swimming pool. It was right below a cemetery that had grave stones from the 16th century. Beautiful and starnge at the same time.

Of course in Boston there are inumerous old Irish Pubs. Now in the days past (when I could still drink beer), that would have been reason enough to visit Boston! Instead now I am content to look at great buildings and enjoy the history of a place without imbibing (but I must say as a hockey loving Canadian boy........I miss BEER!)

The one annoying thing that was prevalent in Boston were the pedestrians! Several times we were stopped at a crosswalk waiting for a signal when a whole group of people on the other side of the street would just walk across, regardless of oncoming traffic! They were like sheep. If one was crossing then others would follow. This happened all over the city. I was stunned at how disrespectful the pedestrians were to the plight of the drivers in a city where just driving was a chore.

That's it for now folks. We are hoping to make it to Springfield, MA (ssachusetts...or something like that) soon and visit the Basketball hall of fame. I bet most Americans (or Canadians for that matter) don't know that Dr. James Naismith was born in Canada (he invented basketball). Quite an intruiging fellow, apparently he invented the game because he was tasked to come up with "an indoor game that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter by artificial light." that could be used for training in between baseball and football seasons. Who knew...

Ciao All