Boston, take 2.

We woke up to a very different looking Boston, instead of the bright blue skies, it was bright grey. A haunting fog lay like a blanket over the city. I was mesmerised. We virtually only ever get bright blue skies in Perth, so anything different for me is fascinating. It also gave a different look to the city for my photos. Photographers are ever the optomists !.

Because we had 2 day tickets, we needn’t walk to the city today, but just to the bus stop outside the hotel where we could catch our trolley bus. The bus took a detour this morning to the cruise port where three cruise ships had come in. One of them was the same ship that was in Montreal when we were there. They had followed us !.

Boston is a busy cruise port these days. The city has gone out of it’s way to encourage the huge Cruise liners from Europe on route to NYC to stop in Boston. The cruise port is also close to the city, and most cruisers would know that this is a big plus for any port.

The Bermuda bound “enchantment of the seas” was in the front spot at the pier, whilst the Aida ship, from Germany was parked behind.

As we came into the city, it was really breathtaking to see the taller towers hidden in the fog. I found it fascinating, and so different to the day before.

We jumped off the bus at Quincy market again for breakfast. There really is no better place to start your day than here. Of course, I headed straight for the chowder, as did the girls. The boys opted for bacon and egg muffin’s, they were determined the resist the lure of the chowder.

 

So we’d done the whole tour loop yesterday without getting off at the stops, so today we had worked out our must do list from what we saw the day before. The first stop we wanted to get off was the Naval docks where the U.S.S constitution was moored.

The U.S.S constitution is the oldest commissioned naval ship still afloat in the world. Launched in George Washington’s post Independence war era, she saw the most action in the war of 1812 against the British.

She is a wooden tall ship and she was magnificent.

After a significant security screen, we went on board where a commissioned naval officer gave us a guided tour.

Early in the tour, she stood in front of the crowd, which included two classes of third and fourth graders from suburban Boston. She asked, “and who was our first President ?”. Armed with the fastest and longest arms in The West, the Poor kids beat the Boston kids by whole seconds to be the first to call out “George Washington”. Strange, because they didn’t sound like George Washington’s people at all, the had funny accents. Where they British spies ?.

I laughed so hard and mumbled to them. “Darlings, We never had a president”. None of that mattered though, they were here, they knew their history, and they wanted to display that knowledge in all it’s glory. They were American, if only for a moment in time.

The kids loved being on the ship, it was a fabulous tour and a great history lesson.

After a quick stop in the constitution gift shop we got back on the bus headed for our duck boat tour.

When we arrived at the duck boat launch, we were greeted by a larger than life captain, called Gary. For this I need to give you some background.

In Portsmouth, the day before we came to Boston, the move “a perfect storm” was on TV. I was delighted ! I hadn’t seen the movie for years, but I knew it was based in New England. We often show the kids movies before we arrive in places as it gives them a little insight (albeit a Hollywood version) into the area.

Antonia and I watched the whole movie together, it was particularly moving, given it was a true story, and the origin of the crew was only 20 miles away from where we were.

Now back to Gary.

Gary was a big eyed gruff Bostonian. He had a broad Boston accent (emphasis on the vowels) and he had an equally broad Boston attitude.

While we waited for the boat, he teased the kids incessantly, pretending to steal their M&M’s and making jokes.

When we got on the duck boat (which was a land and sea vessel which drives into the harbour and then becomes a boat), he proudly announced that they usually throw someone overboard on every trip.

He scoured the boat and pointed at Antonia. “you ! you !, will be the one sacrificed today”. He didn’t know he’d picked the most steely character on the boat. Her eyeballs were as big as his and she opened them up in a glare that would freeze most people. He opened his up with a respondent cheeky glare and the battle was on.

Boston had expeienced that morning an unusually high King tide. The water of the harbour was lapping only millimetres from the top of the cement walls that contained Boston into the reclaimed land that it now lived on.

Boston of today lies on 70%+ reclaimed land, so there is a constant push pull between the city and the ocean.

Gary explained to us that this tide was not a lunar tide, but a planetary one. Very rare and very large. He was a former fisherman, and it was his job now to captain this little tour boat full of tourists, out into the harbour he knew like a best friend.

We had some trouble getting under the first bridge. There was literally only  millimetres of space to get under. Gary climbed out hanging our the window, and directed the driver so skilfully through.

It was time for Antonia to go overboard. She marched up to him like a soldier ready for a fight. A little banter from him was met with that steely stare I know so well. “just try me” it said. Then her brother piped up and said “don’t throw her, throw me !”. My heart melted, what a wonderful young man I had raised, still, Antonia needed no assistance, she wasn’t going, and she was going to win the battle of the stares.

Gary Laughed and gave in to his much tougher adversary, and the boat load of people laughed at the entertaining battle.

I then had a chance to talk to Gary. The Perfect storm still fresh in my memory, I was so excited to meet a real New England fisherman. I asked him why he gave up fishing. He lamented that the large spanish fishing compnaies had enveloped the market and forced the independent locals out of the game. Fishing was no longer a career option for many New Englanders, and a traditional lifestyle that New England is famous for will be lost forever.

I then mentioned that I had watched “the perfect storm” just two nights ago.

What had been a smiling and cheeky glare on a craggy and weathered face, now became ashen. He went visibly pale and he dropped his head. “I was out in that on the day”, “it was a very bad day, a very very bad day”. The pain was evident in every crease on his face. “I was up off Maine and struggled to get back in. I lost my rigging and navigation. I was lucky to get back to shore, so very lucky. It is a day I will never forget, and a very sad day.”

I was mesemerised. I had really met someone who had experienced something horrific, but historic. I was honoured to have met Gary, he was the essence of the true New Englander.

From the Duck tours we jumped back on the bus and headed to Cambridge, where we could swap buses and get the Harvard tour bus.

When we got on the bus the tour driver sounded like he’s over dosed on mogadon. He then went onto great detail about the lattirude and longitude of the city of Boston, how many times the earth rotates arounf the sun and it was immediately apparent we had super nerd tour driver. Complete with a heavy dose of allergies (he sneezed and wheezed around the whole trip) he was hilarious, even when he didn’t mean to be.

He warned us as we got off the bus, that heavy rain was predicted in around 34 minutes. Handy to know, but we got off anyway and headed straight into the crowded college village of Harvard square.

We went straight to Starbucks as it was coffee hour. It was people watching heaven. I looked at the fashionably casual students in the queue. I wondered how much thier parents had paid for them to be there. These were America’s finest. Would one of these be President one day ?. Harvard has the distinction of having turned out the most Presidents of any university in the U.S.

We emerged from the cafe to ominous looking skies but pressed on.

We entered into the University and stumbled onto an Archeological dig. The kids were fascinated, and we had not been standing watching long, when one of the students came to explain to them what they were doing.

She was amazing. She gave the kids a little lesson in Archeology, and my Paleontologist-to-be Antonia, was totally mesmerised.

I whispered to her “do you want to come here and study your craft ?” a big goal for an Aussie kid. She smiled with that “oh my god yes !” subtlety she possesses and I knew a little spark had been lit in side of her. She looked like she was home.

Suddenly, the heavens opened, and I mean opened. Like opened so wide the whole universe could fall in.

We bravely ran to the statue of John Harvard, you couldn’t come here without rubbing his toe ! We had no umbrella and no wet weather gear and so we were getting soaked trying. We braved the toe rubbing, and ran for cover, only there was none until we got out of the square and into the street where we ran down some steps into a subway. It was the most intense rain I had experienced, and there were rivers running down the street.

We got back on the bus looking like drowned rats, but happy with our Harvard experience. Really, we were so blessed to see those students doing what students do.

We took our wet bodies back to the hotel for the night, as usual greeted with high fives by the doormen. We spent the night by the pool and watched the mother of all storms roll in from our high rise window. The sure do ‘weather’ spectacularly in New England.

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