The Last 5

Posted on February 24, 2017February 24, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

I thought I should finish what I started. Of the top 10 things to do in Boston, I only got to 5 yesterday. Now I’m sure everyone has different things on their top 10 list. This is just the one Trip Adviser suggests So here we go. Starting with number 6.

#6, North End

A pretty cool neighborhood especially in the summer when they have all the Italian Festivals like the Feast of St Anthony’s.

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#7 Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum

I haven’t been in to visit this attraction although I have walked past it. It’s my understanding that the tour guides are in period dress and walk you through the events of the Boston Tea Party.

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#8 John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum & Library

Ok everyone knows the Kennedy’s in Boston. They are like a Dynasty. John, Bobby, Teddy, Joe, Patrick. The Mom, Rose, has a stretch of “Greeenway” named after her. Yes they are a Dynasty. And Thanks to JFK we have a Presidential Library.

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#9 Boston Public Library

This is an amazing building and that’s just the outside. Inside there are statues, Marble work and Murals. They have a lovely courtyard where you can find a spot to just curl up and sit. (once again a summer activity) A nice break from the usual rush , rush , rush.

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#10 New England Holocaust Memorial

This is a pretty unique memorial. I’ve walked through it and around it many times. It’s not a large Memorial but a lot of thought went into it. It has 6 tall glass towers. Each tower has 1 million numbers etched into the glass, each number representing a person who died. By the time you have walked past all 6 towers you realize that they represent the 6M people that perished during that horrible genocide. It really makes you think.

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Maybe if it’s nice this weekend I’ll make a trip into town. Then I can tell all of you what I think of the list. Have you been to Boston? What do you think should be on the list? The Old North Church? The TD Garden? Old Ironsides (In dry dock right now)? Don’t forget the “Cheers” Bar!

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What to Do, What to Do?

Posted on February 23, 2017February 23, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Now that my globetrotting is temporarily on hold the age old question rears it’s ugly head. What am I going to talk about until my next trip (which isn’t until June by the way)?

If I were on a TV show you’d get to watch reruns for the next couple of months and I may dip into some of my older posts to share but I don’t plan to do that every day.

In hopes of finding topics I googled the Top 10 things to do in Boston. If the weather holds out maybe I can try to cover some of those.

According to Trip Adviser the number 1 thing to do is visit Fenway Park. That won’t work. The Sox are in Fort Myers Fl. for spring training.

#2. Is a visit to the Museum of Fine Art.

Well, I’ve been there and it is beautiful. I attended the special exhibit for the glass blowing artist, Dale Chihuly.

Chihuly

His work is amazing!

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I also love the statue out front. Appeal to the Great Spirit.

Appeal to the Great Spirit at the MFA

#3. The Freedom Trail.

Get out your walking shoes because if you want to walk the whole thing it will take you awhile. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) path through downtown Boston that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Of course while you are at the Bunker Hill Monument you’ll want to climb the 294 steps to the top for views of the Boston Harbor. Bunker Hill Monument is a National Historical Park.

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#4. Boston Public Garden

This is one of my favorite places in Boston but not in February. In the spring there are flowers everywhere.

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Swan boats cruise the little lagoon and there’s always the Make Way for Ducklings sculpture. Of course in the winter there’s skating on the Frog Pond but it’s been so warm I bet all of the ice has melted.

#5, Boston Common

I really don’t distinguish between the Boston Common and The Public Garden. They are all sort of one big park.

According to Wikipedia they are a pair of public parks in Boston. I’m sure my friend Joe would be quick to point out the differences to me. He is far more of a “Bostonian” than I am even though he’s lived in the south a number of years now.

Well that’s about all I have time for in this post. I guess we’ll have to finish off the last 5 another time.

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The 3 BD’s

Posted on February 22, 2017February 22, 2017 by Dusty Roads

It was tempting to just turn around and get back on the plane back to Hawaii when I landed in Providence Saturday night. It was dark and cold. Snow was piled everywhere. I had heard about the 14 – 18 inch snow storm while I was in Maui but I was a long way away from it.

I was wearing my Aloha shirt and digging through my pocket book for my claim ticket for my car when 2 airport police approached.

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They were wearing ski masks and bundled up big time. They stopped by to tease me about my shirt and we chatted about the snow and ice and COLD…brrr.

Eventually I was home greeted by my little fur baby. Sunday was just time to relax, unpack and get ready to return to the real world. I had a birthday on Wednesday. I haven’t paid much attention to birthdays in a long time so I was surprised when one of my co- workers brought me flowers, another left me a message wishing me a happy birthday and then sent more flowers! The office paid for lunch. They even bought a birthday cake!

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Nancy’s kids, Dawn and Alex both have birthdays in February too. For years, since they were just toddlers, we have made it a tradition to get together for a breakfast or brunch to celebrate out 3 birthdays. In the beginning we did it because how do you explain to little kids that one kid gets presents but the other one has to wait? It turned into a tradition to just celebrate them all together.

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This year Nancy & I were both watching our pennies so Nancy suggested we go to Braintree to a place called Kristin’s. Nancy said it had a great reputation.

It’s a little hole in the wall at 349 Washington St, Braintree. Parking is a real problem but eventually we found a spot about a block away. It was a nice day, fairly mild and sunny so walking back wasn’t too bad.

We opened the door on chaos! It was loud and the place was packed. If busy-ness is any indication, this was going to be good. Eventually we were offered seats at the counter. The portion sizes were huge! Nancy, Dawn and Alex all had pancakes. One each was ample. Alex chose the most exotic. He had a Boston Cream Pancake.

This is 1 pancake. Can you actually imagine eating 3?

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Nancy was more traditional with a Blueberry pancake and Dawn had an M & M pancake.Sides of bacon and juice were added to round out the meals. I strayed from convention with a plate of Texas Toast French toast. It tasted a lot like the french toast I make with lots of cinnamon but I don’t have those lovely thick slices of bread.

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It was really good and the best part was the bill came to under $10.00 per person. Can’t beat that! We had a good time, exchanged gifts and the tradition continues!

Save the Whales

Posted on February 21, 2017February 21, 2017 by Dusty Roads

Back from Maui with only limited success I watched the Kia Superbowl ad that I missed on Superbowl Sunday because I was on plane over the Pacific. I laughed out loud as I watched Melissa McCarthy answer a call to “Save the Whales.

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She rushes out in a little pontoon boat only to have a huge whale breach right next to her! As the behemoth splashes down it lands on the end of her boat catapulting her into a larger whale watch boat. Its all an exaggeration but I suppose the whale landing on the boat is a real possibility…if you got that close. I sure would have been happy to take my chances with a close encounter.

So how would I rate my 4 experiences?

#1. For the best photo ops had to be the Pacific Whale Foundation’s Photo Safari. It was the only one that actually delivered a breaching whale, even if it was a baby.

Baby Whale Breach

#2. For shear fun and excitement, I’d have to vote for the Ocean Rafting. I had a great time when I was on a pontoon boat back in November and got the same thrill this time looking for whales. I love the smallness of the boat and being so close to the waves. Plus we saw plenty of whales. I would not recommend this one for small children. We had all adults on our trip.

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#3. Pride of Maui Whale watch and Snorkel. I hate to put this ahead of the Pacific Whale Foundation trip but the arrival of the spinner dolphins kind if pushed this over the top. Plus they did a great job with the barbecue lunch. Seeing a tiny octopus while snorkeling was another plus in their favor even though they can’t control what fish or animals we might see.

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#4. Pacific Whale Foundation. This is a great family trip. The boat is large and stable in the water. The naturalists are professional and friendly and a portion of the cost goes to support Whale Research. It may not have made the top spots in this particular lineup but we saw whales, it was educational and I would not hesitate to go again.

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Any of the 4 trips would be great. It kind of depends on what you are looking for and if you are a family with small children or a solo adventurer.

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I can’t wait until the whale season next year!

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My last Chance

Posted on February 20, 2017February 20, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 4 Comments

It was Friday. My last day on Maui. My last chance for that elusive photo. I’ve had a lot of fun on my whirlwind visit but I still don’t have that Breaching whale photo.

Photo By Anna Smith

I’ve got one more chance. My plane isn’t leaving until 6:30 pm so I have time for 1 more whale watch.

This time I switched my approach. The 3 previous whale watches were on good sized catamarans. Maybe the boats were intimidating the whales. We can’t chase or encroach on the animals. The boats can’t approach closer than 100 yards. Now that doesn’t prevent the huge mammals from coming close to the boats but that means we are leaving it up to the animals.

Whales Nose

On one of the previous whale watching trips I’d spotted a tiny little boat that seemed to be attracting lots of attention from the whales. They were blowing and flipper slapping all around it. It was a pontoon raft style boat.

Ocean Raft

I found a flyer for Ocean Rafting and made sure I tracked them down in Lahaina Harbor. I got a spot on the 10 am trip.

Lahaina Booths

I had a death grip on the captain as I stepped onto the pontoon to the boat. We had bench seats to start out. Once out of the harbor we could move to the pontoons if we so choose. Standing up was also ok.

All Aboard

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Right away we saw action and the whales did come closer to the boat. Mostly we were looking at the wide backs as they cruised along with us.

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It was a hazy day. Not the bright , sunny days we’d been having but the seas weren’t too rough. We did get splashed a few times as we flew over the water .

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At one point a whale dove right in front of us. The captain brought us up to a stop and killed the engine. We all held our breaths and listened. We could hear the whale song without any magnification! The captain said we were right above the whale that was doing the singing. They tossed in a hydrophone which brought in the whale song loud and clear. It was much cleaner than the one from yesterday, probably because we were so close we were just picking up the one whale.

Another Tail

As we passed the Queen Elizabeth, a cruise ship in Lahaina Harbor, we saw a mom and calf. The Mom dove giving us a nice shot of her flukes.

Cuise ship sighting

It was another successful whale search but still no breaches. The Captain said the whales breach every day but as I mentioned in the beginning, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Unlike trained whales at Sea World, they don’t jump on command.