Note: I also just posted BLOG #55 for the week of 9/1-9/7 so check that out first!
Wednesday, September 8th., 2021…… We went downstairs early to the
free breakfast buffet and then headed off to catch the Blue Line train to
downtown (about 15 minutes) to meet up for the Freedom Trail Walking Tour in
downtown (the Commons). Turns out we screwed up and left the printed tickets in
the room! We had to go back on the train
to get them and so we missed the tour, but it turned out ok. We found the on/off
tram tour pickup stop and showed them our tickets at stop 5 (of 18) and got
seated. The guide was very good, and we enjoyed the trip from that stop all the
way around the route back to the seaside stop (1) where we got off to eat. Here
are some shots along the way up to that point…
So much history! Our driver told
us they were working on Harvard and Cambridge so we missed that, but we got to
see the group who received medals of honor at the state house so that was
cool! At the seaport stop, we had a lobster
roll and clam chowder soup at an outside table at a nice restaurant called
Provisions. The lobsta was great but the soup was too runny for our taste. Oh
well, there are plenty more places to try!
We went back to the bus kiosk and
found that our package included a harbor cruise, and she said one was boarding
about 200 yards away in 30 minutes! So,
we joined the line and got a seat in the front row on the top deck. We
discovered that neither of us brought sunscreen (and all the little shops in
and around the docks were closed) but we found we could use lip balm on our
necks and ears and feet. Hey, it’s still 30% spf! Now that’s Yankee ingenuity! The cruise was
excellent. The guide was very well spoken, and the weather was perfect! Here
are some shots from the ship….
We got back on the tram and continued
on. Here are pics up to stop 8….
Stop 8 was Cheers. The pics before were from the vehicle and we wanted to go in and get a t-shirt for one of her friends, so we got off and did that.
We know – the inside is not the same as the tv show. So, we only were in there a few minutes. While I was in the bathroom, Cathye got hit on by some firemen and it turns out they were from Lake Oswego, which is just south of Portland OR! They were on a job assignment of some sort and took time off after that to go to tour Boston. Really - they were nice guys and happened to mention Lake Oswego when Cathye walked by, so she mentioned we were from Oregon too. Small world! We got the next tram coming by and went around to stop no 1 again where we could easily go underground to catch the blue line train and head back to the hotel. Highlights of the tour were Bunker Hill, The North Church, Paul Revere House, Gravesites of Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams, the USS Constitution, Converse shoes, Boston Garden, Boston Commons, and many more I’m forgetting. Seriously, if you go there, take the city tram tour. Missing the walking tour was ok after that! We rested at the hotel for a while and then headed out again. We had a list of the restaurants within walking distance from our hotel and we chose the Reel House. It was about 1.5 miles one way and we thought we’d never get there! But it was worth it, and the food was excellent. She had the swordfish, and I had another lobster roll. This was reversed. I liked the other lobster roll better but this chowda’ was “wicked good”!
Along with a couple of mai tais, we found the slow walk back was not so bad! We turned in after a very long, but satisfying day!
Thursday, September 9th., 2021…... Today was ‘get outta town day’! It was 120
miles and took 3 hrs. to Walpole, NH, where her daughter, Terisa and her
husband Daniel and son Felix lived. Her son, Michael and his wife, Crystal, had
driven up from Missouri and were already there. He brought some stuff from Jim’s
collections that were given to Teri. Cathye visited with her daughter, and I
rode over with Michael and Crystal to where Daniel was working. He and his brother,
Ben, own a company that has equipment to move and crush rock. You’ve seen the
large rock in landscapes and the smaller crushed ¾ rock used for gravel
driveways and roads, and also the fine stone dust, which is used for base for
patio pavers and such. Michael wanted Crystal to drive the loader, which is a
massive piece of equipment and takes 3 cubic yard loads of large rock and deposits
it into a hopper where it is crushed and re-crushed to get the different sizes.
She had her turn and did an excellent job!
Then he asked me if I wanted to drive it. Duuhhh! It was super fun
and I brought home some of the rock from my scoopful.
After dinner, they took us up the road to Daniel’s parents’ old home, used now as a guesthouse and they showed us to our room. It was super old, with floor planks over 15” wide! Old dressers and modern conveniences, it was really great to be there!
We settled in for the night and
since we didn’t have any tv there, it was an early evening.
Friday, September 10th., 2021…… After a nice breakfast at Terisa’s, we took
three vehicles and caravanned to a place called The Montshire Museum. This is
just across the river in Vermont. Geared more for kids, this place was also fun
for adults! They had interactive displays which kept us busy for sure!
We spent a good deal of time there
and then we went across the highway for lunch to a place called King Arthur’s
Baking Company. This is now in a new timber-framed building held together with
the pegs that Daniel’s dad and third son makes on his property. After that, we kept
going north and went to Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury VT. It was a nice drive,
but I sure wish we would have done more homework because they are not doing
tours at this time. Bummer! But we got
our ice cream anyway and then toured the gravesite of dead flavors and had fun
reading about some of them…
Since we were out and about, we chose to find a place for dinner on the way home and chose Lui Lui’s which was Italian. We left and got back to the house so we could meet Teri’s other adult kids. Josh is 24 and Tatum is 22 (or maybe 25 and 23, I lose it sometimes!). Nice kids. After our long day, we called it early and went home to bed.
Saturday, September 11th., 2021……
A Birthday party for 5 of us! September birthdays, besides mine and Cathye’s, were
Daniel, Scott (Daniel’s father), and Crystal. Terisa and Daniel have friends who run an rv
park a few miles from them, and they arranged for us to have the group pavilion
for the evening. We left after breakfast and went to The Vermont Trading
Company and shopped in there. Yes, we bought a ton of stuff! We also stopped at
a well-known bakery in the area (Grandma Miller’s) and bought favorite cakes
for everyone’s birthday. Their friends had hauled over a bbq and Daniel cooked
steak bites and fish and we had potato salad and cake. Michael brought a bunch of firewood and we
sat around til after dark and enjoyed the evening. It was a nice day!
Sunday, September 12th., 2021……
Today, we were off to Maine! We
took three cars again and left about 7:30am and made the 140 mile, 2 ½ hour
drive with little traffic. We went to a little village called Ogunquit (just
like it reads oh-gun-quit) and had a nice walk around the rocky coastline. We
took some pics of the houses around there as well as the shore and harbor area
and beach hotels then walked to the boardwalk area and went to the Lobster
Shack for dinner. We split a “Twin” (2-lobster) meal. With the requisite bibs,
we dug in. It was delicious!
After that, we (our car was us and
Michael and Crystal) drove down the coast to Neddick Lighthouse but couldn’t
find parking so we headed back up to York Beach and walked around in the surf
and then went to the shops around town. On the way home, we found Sonny’s Main St. Pizza in Henniker, NH across the river from New England College, which we found out later is a private liberal arts college (Gina Davis is a graduate). We shared stuffed shells which were really good! We hit a lot of traffic – due to an accident on the highway resulting probably from folks watching the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds at an air show at Pease Air National Guard Base at Portsmouth International Airport NH. We managed to get a couple of pics as they drove over us, almost parked on the highway!
We got through all of the mess and got home around 7:00pm. It was a long day but so much fun!
Monday, September 13th., 2021…… We had bought two quiches at Grandma’s and Teri heated those up for breakfast. We walked across and up the road to our house and by then Scott and his son Chris and helper Brian, were taking a break from their peg shop work. We had coffee and Danishes with them, and I sat and talked with Scott about fishing for a bit, then they went back to work and gave us a vip tour. It’s really a small shop but they have a good corner on this market. They supply any tolerance peg, of any requested type of wood, ordered for timber-frame homes. They even have a shipping area and ups pickup and ship around the world! Pretty good business. Chris showed us the machine operation and then Scott showed us some ‘special work’ machines that will make other custom order items. I was especially interested in the handles he makes for a guy in Idaho for custom wood chisels. With a piece of metal on the end, they can be used for years and years. He said the guy charges upwards of $100.00 for each one. I have the name and we will look them up next time we are in Idaho!
We thanked them for their generous hospitality and said goodbyes to the rest of the family and then headed back south. We were headed to Boston but had one more stop to make. Cathye’s mom had been with a man, and he had a daughter that became Cathye’s “sister from another mister”. Her name is Roxanne, and she lives in Pittsfield, just a short distance from Concord NH, so we stopped in to say hi.
After a really fun visit, we left and made the drive back into Boston. We were headed back to the Embassy Suites again and decided to not park the car there. I took us to the hotel entrance, and we unloaded the luggage and cleaned out the car. Cathye checked us in, and I drove the short distance around the block and turned the car in and just walked out the employee gate across the street to the hotel. Easy peasy! We rested a bit then headed back for another nice crabcake meal before calling it a night.
Stay tuned for the next post for
the last day of the trip!
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