May 19th – We took off for Portland around 10:00 a.m., just after Den arrived to housesit. Actually, she got there a little earlier than we anticipated so we had to juggle our cars to get out on the road. The trip to Portland was uneventful with a stop in Eugene at a Pizza Hut. We pulled into the airport around 3:00 for our 5:00 flight. We zipped through the checkpoints as we had some sort of TSA clearance – didn’t have to take our shoes off or get our computers out or anything – nice. The connection in San Francisco went smoothly with the wheelchair meeting us by the plane door. For Janet, that is really a great service. Getting from one gate to another when they are far apart is a real challenge when you are not in the best shape but those guys and gals know all the tricks to make it happen smoothly. The flight from San Francisco was smooth and we got into Boston slightly ahead of schedule where the wheel chair guy also met us, retrieved our luggage and took us to the shuttle area.
May 20th - Making the call for the shuttle was a challenge because I kept getting cut off. I guess my phone was dropping the signal – don’t know how many bars I had. But after a few tries we got through and about 20 minutes later the shuttle arrived and then took us quickly to our hotel, a Comfort Inn. We were on the outskirts of Boston on the South side. And, we were way early because the info we had said we couldn’t check in until 3:00 and it was around 8:30 a.m. The gal at the desk said we could help ourselves to breakfast and after an all night flight, that is just what we did. They had breakfast every day – scrambled eggs (powdered), sausage patties, make your own waffles, all kinds of breads, muffins and bagels and an assortment of cereal. There was also juice, fresh fruit, yogurt and of course coffee. It was a heck of a spread and included with the room – good deal.
We were sitting in the lobby, just hanging out when the gal at the desk said our room was ready at 9:30! We were so excited and grateful! Everyone was being so nice – and, as we would come to find out, that was true everywhere we went in Boston.
Our room was lovely – two comfy beds with 4 pillows each, a big flat screen TV and a refrigerator and small coffee maker. We were pooped so basically decided to call it a day right then and try out the beds and the free wi-fi. Later in the day we felt somewhat refreshed so went to check out the bowling alley we heard about. It included candlestick pins. It wasn’t busy and no one was using those. We took a photo, but never got around to trying it ourselves. We did have some pizza and soda there and called that dinner. There was a grocery store across the street so I made a trip over there for some provisions as the $2.00 a bottle water in the vending machines was eating up the supply of quarters I brought.
May 21st – The adventure begins. We got the shuttle to the JFK stop for the subway and the driver told us how to get tickets and what to be looking for as far as a subway stop went. We couldn’t qualify for senior tickets because you had to get an ID card at a central location and for us, that was silly. So, we loaded tickets with $5.00 each and made our way to the turnstiles. They were similar to what we had seen in London and Washington. I put my ticket in, retrieved it and went through the gate. Janet came through right on top of me before it closed. She didn’t see what I had done and didn’t know what to do, so technically, she cheated. But I figured we’d deal with that at the other end. In other locales, they knew you were in the system and charged you when you got off depending on the number of stops. I figured we’d have to get help when we exited, but that turned out to be wrong – it’s just $2.65 a ride no matter where you go and exiting is automatic. We confessed our error when we thought we needed help to get out, but it turned out not to be an issue – and they still had our money even if Janet didn’t use her ticket. Of course $2.65 each way is more than $5 so I had to get some help to add $.30 to my ticket on the way back. And that, as it turned out, was the last time we rode the subway anyway.
When we came up to street level we found ourselves on Boston Commons with the State House slightly up the hill. We were looking for the hop on hop off stop where we could begin our trolley tour and it seemed it was across from the State House. We saw our brand of trolley right as we got up there – taking off down the street. Oh well, another will be along so we went into the State House instead. We hooked up with a really knowledgeable tour guide who was telling us about various people and incidents surrounding the beginning of the Revolution. He was very interesting, but after about 20 minutes we broke off and headed back outside where it wasn’t so stuffy to wait for our trolley. When it came we showed the driver our Internet ticket and he had us get on. I believe we were at stop 8 and he ended up skipping 9 and going to 1 because there was some sort of bomb scare or fire and they had part of his route blocked off. Traffic was exceedingly congested and I am very glad I don’t have to drive there.
We got off at Stop 1 to find the Harbor Cruise. It took a few tries to find the right person to take my paperwork and give us the tickets we needed for the trolley and the harbor cruise, but eventually we were all set and stepping on to the boat. The cruise was very enjoyable – seeing the Boston skyline from the water and learning how much Boston has built out from where it originally ended by filling in along the docks, building walls and filling in some more.
One spot we went by still had snow from their terrible winter – a 75 foot pile of it. But it was so dirty and filled with trash that I didn’t realize that was what I was looking at. I cannot imagine how they ever got past the mess they had on their hands to begin to function again. Wow!
The cruise took us over to Old Ironsides – the U.S.S. Constitution. I had been there before – about 30 years ago – and remembered being able to board her, but I don’t’ remember the nice museum they have now. This year, and for some time to come, she is in dry dock and you cannot go on board. But we got to see the masts and cannons and other hardware all lined up on shore so it was a rather unique experience.
When the cruise ended, we hopped on the trolley and got off at the stop to take us up to the Old North Church. It was all uphill so we had to take our time. We were very lucky in that it wasn’t hot while we were there, but it was still on the warm side for what we are used to. This was another place I had been to before, but Janet hadn’t. It’s hard to imagine sitting in these boxes with rather high walls and listening to a Sunday Sermon, but the church is still an active Episcopal church with a beautiful pipe organ. Wish we could have heard that.
After viewing the church we started to walk towards Paul Revere’s house. Janet started feeling very weak and had to sit down before she fell down. By taking it slowly, we finally made it to an Italian Restaurant, Lucia. We hadn’t been eating that well and thought perhaps she just needed some food. We ordered lasagna with ground veal. There was some bread too, but no salad or anything else. Cost us $50. Restaurants are very expensive in Boston! After we ate, she still didn’t feel well so the restaurant staff very kindly helped us get a cab which we took back to the train station. Somehow we made it back to the hotel and then Janet really got sick.
May 22nd - I asked the hotel staff how we could get medical help and they arranged for the shuttle to take us to Boston Medical Center. We got there around 9:00 a.m. and the ER was empty! We got right in to registration and then right into the initial screening and then right into the area where the beds and doctors were. The fellow that did the initial screening told us it would start to fill up around 11:00 a.m. and by the time we left there – around 1:00 – they were lying on gurneys in the halls. Wow – so glad we were there early.
Janet saw three different female physicians – 2 residents and their attending. The diagnosis was an intestinal virus and after giving Janet an IV bag of fluids for her dehydration, they sent us on our way. They said not to take anything to stop the diarrhea (4 doses of Immodium plus Pepto the night before hadn’t touched it anyway!) as it was better to get the virus out of your system. Well, poor Janet. It ended up being about three more days until things subsided and that was only after my cousin, Susan, got Janet on bananas and rice. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
That night I went for more supplies at the store and got myself a cob salad with chicken and a hard boiled egg on it. Later that night I started to feel sick and then I started throwing up. I threw up about 6 or 7 times that night and the next day once more with just water and diet Pepsi in my stomach. So, between the two of us, we had both ends covered but luckily never needed to get in the bathroom at exactly the same time.
May 23rd - We were supposed to go back to the airport today to get the rental car and drive to my cousin’s in New Hampshire. Instead, we extended our stay another day and spent the day in bed watching multiple episodes of “The Sons of Liberty” on the History Channel. It was very good and seemed quite appropriate. We had some yogurt, Saltines and some real Coca Cola that Janet went and got for me to try to settle my poor stomach.
May 24th – We did get the car and headed first to see a friend from Albion, Pam Loch, and her husband Jim. Jim was originally from Penn Yan and his father taught at the high school when I was a student there. I was the Maid of Honor in their wedding but hadn’t seen them for probably 20 or more years once I moved to Watertown and they moved to Massachusetts. So we made our way to Hopkinton, Mass where they now live. This is, as it turns out, where the Boston Marathon starts. We saw the Blue line painted in the street that the runners line up on. I always thought it was some sort of a loop, but Jim said that was not the case for this race.
We went out to lunch at a restaurant called 99. It’s a chain but not one we have on the west coast. Jim and Pam both had lobster rolls. Hers was with mayo, his with butter. I really wanted to order one, but knew I couldn’t handle it yet – I got chicken noodle soup. Janet wasn’t going to have anything, but decided to try a virgin strawberry daiquiri which made it similar to a strawberry smoothie. The soup was good though a bit salty. Janet said the smoothie was good, but about an hour after we were on the road again it hit her and we had to get to a rest stop – fast! It seems fast is the only way they drive there though so we made it.
We got to my cousin’s place about 7:30 and they hadn’t eaten yet as they knew we were on our way. Well, Janet had no interest in food and I wasn’t ready either, but I did have some homemade chicken noodle soup which was very good.
May 25th – Janet is now on her second day of rice and bananas and starting to feel much better. She is still very weak and easily tired, but credits Susan with saving her life. We both are just really grateful that Susan is a mother and would be aware of “BART” standing for Bananas, Applesauce, Rice and Toast. It really helped Janet turn the tide and feel she conquered her illness.
In the afternoon Janet stayed home to rest while Susan, Mark and I headed south to meet Jennifer, their daughter, and her husband, Jay, for ice cream. Janet and I had been invited to the wedding, but couldn’t make it so this was my first chance to meet Jay. Earlier in the day I had asked Susan if she thought there would be any grandchildren in the offing and she got this slight smile and told me Jen had just finished her first trimester so now they could share the news – a baby is due in mid November and I will have a new cousin!
May 26th - The drive to Provincetown was a bit disappointing as we couldn’t see the water until we were just about there. The 4 lane (mostly) highway runs along the middle of Cape Cod with trees and brush on both sides. It reminded me of home since a lot of the drive along the coast on 101 is like that – you think you’ll see water but all you see are fir trees. As we hit the outskirts of town, we saw the sand dunes. They are not as high as ours, but they are pristine – no dune buggy or ATV tracks on them at all! We found our way into town, wandered for a while and then asked for directions to our hotel. It was at the east end of town and once we got headed in the right direction, quite easy to find.
Our room was on the back section of the hotel with absolutely no view, but we were basically OK with that. It also had a fridge and a single cup Keurig. We were tired and full of our omelets, so we called it a night and got snuggled down in our beds which had duvets. We were able to get online so we were happy.
May 27th – Our day to conquer Provincetown – maybe. Ok – a Keurig - great – we can make tea for Janet and coffee for me. Well, I could not get it to turn on. So we settled for Coke – still drinking that stuff to keep my tummy settled. Later that afternoon, when the housekeeper finally got to us, we found out you have to have the light switch by the door on. I told her they need a note on it to say that!
We headed out for town and found a place to park - $8 for the day. Some places were $10 for the day and others were by the hour - $3.50 an hour at one lot I saw. I cannot imagine what they do in the summer there – parking is so limited and at such a premium it must be a total madhouse. Anyway, we parked and headed for the sites. We saw the Pilgrim Tower through the trees, but didn’t feel up to the hike to get to the base of it or the museum. Did you know that the first place the Pilgrims landed was actually Provincetown, not Plymouth? That's what this tower commemorates. It was news to us too!
Then we saw the Town Hall. It is a beautiful building and I learned inside that it had burned down and been rebuilt. There are public bathrooms inside – good thing for us to know!
We checked out some of the tee shirt shops and found something we each liked. We also collect hat pins to put on a tapestry in our rig, but it seems I lost two of them on the way home – frustrating! We were beat after about 2 hours so headed back to the hotel to rest up. We did find a grocery store and decided to get some peanut butter and jelly for our saltines as well as some water and diet Pepsi. There was our lunch and it tasted pretty good.
That evening we decided to go forth once more and try to find a lobster roll. We asked at the parking lot which would be a good place and were directed to a restaurant called the Lobster Pot. Our waiter, James, was great fun and a very good server. We split a bowl of clam chowder and Janet got a fish taco and I finally had my lobster roll. It was quite reminiscent of a shrimp salad and I enjoyed every bite. That ended our day in Provincetown.
May 28th – Our plane didn’t leave until 7:38 p.m. so we figured we had time to stop in Plymouth on the way back. It took about 2 hours to get there from Provincetown. When we found where the Mayflower 2 was it was a fairly typical touristy area. We saw Plymouth Rock in its protected cell and we viewed the ship from the outside. Since we had recently been for a sail on a tall ship, The Lady Washington in Coos Bay, we didn’t feel the need to go on board and just admired her from the docks. It was getting pretty warm – time to get out of Dodge as they say. We stopped in a restaurant for some Clam Chowder and have to say, this was the first person who hadn’t been very friendly towards us on our whole trip. Then we ran into a grump in a tee shirt shop, but still, two out of how many people – not bad.
The flights home went pretty smoothly once we got our baggage checked. That is a story for another time. We worried a bit about making our connection since our flight was late leaving Boston, but when we got there and finally got off the plane, we found out the plane we were on was the one going on to Portland. We had even requested the same seats, not realizing it was the same plane - too funny.
The pilot on the last leg must have had a hot date because he got us into Portland 40 minutes early! Of course it took a while to get to our car and then get to our motel. It was almost 2:00 a.m. when we checked in, but we didn't have to vacate until noon - yeah!
May 29th - We actually woke up around 10:00 and were on our way home by 11:00. It's a long trip from Portland but we stopped at Fry's (and found out they no longer carry Apple software - bummer for Janet) and Denny's for breakfast.
We got home right around 5:00 p.m. The dogs and cat were all glad to see us and we them. We're unpacked now and settling back in. Let me tell you, they aren't just kidding when they say, "There's no place like home."
