Trip to Boston

Normally I would have written this each day as we did it, because there are often so many neat things on such trips, that writing it all up in a summary is just too much. I don't like writing such long posts, and I doubt many people like to read them, so I'll summarize but try to provide relevant details as well. I wish that Boston had not been such an internet deficient city. Oh sure, there was wireless everywhere, but no rentable kiosks of you didn't have a lap top.

We got an early start on Thursday morning, taking the train to the airport and then flying directly to Boston. Did you know that you have to pay an extra $15 dollars now for ONE non carry on baggage? There are no free ones any more. They do (to our pleasant suprise) still offer free peanuts and a single softdrink mid flight, but they're now doing what Aer Lingus did on trip to Ireland in terms of pushing snacks and better beverages to sell. Though they're still not yet hawking random merchandise. I imagine it is only a matter of time. We got a car at the dollar rental place, and while most of the staff was nice, the lady we rented from kept trying (about five or six times) to add more stuff on to the vehicle. We declined. We then went to the hotel, The Inn at Crystal Cove, which we liked quite a bit. We later decided to see a movie, but Angels and Demons wasn't out yet. We ended up seeing X-men Origins which was entirely forgettable and a waste of the $12 a peice we paid for it.

Let me take a moment to talk about Winthrop. It is entirely an accident that we ended up staying there, but the Wikipedia article really doesn't do it justice. It is in some ways reminiscent of Boulder near Denver but it is a bit more than that. The town is full of these majestic (though crumbling) turn of the century three story houses that are absolutely awesome, but the town itself is full of middle class working folk. It is a small town near a large one, and it is very noticiable by the complete lack of corporate logos all over the town. You don't realize how much your subconcious mind accepts these things until you're in a town that doesn't have them. There was a Duncan Donuts, but appearantly they had to fight to get in the town. Corporate america would hate Winthrop, but personally it is exactly the kind of place I'd love to go. The locals seem nice, though I can also tell you don't want to piss them off. Also an attitude I can greatly respect. As a side note, I would not recommend navigating the twisty maze of streets in the city without a handy GPS. We are quite pleased with our Tom Tom which performed much better than the brain dead Verizon Navigator.

Friday was our tourist day and after a bit of a late start (partly getting back late from the mediocre movie) we went to Fenway Park, which is one of the oldest parks in Baseball. Jennifer is a huge baseball fan, and while she is a brave's fan over the Red Sox, she is a massive fan of Ted Williams, whose book taught her a lot about the fundamentals of baseball. We took several pictures which we will post in short order (probably to Facebook). Jennifer bought a few knicknacks including a pennant for her father and two hat pins. Then we went to see the USS Constitution, which is the oldest commissioned active warship afloat. It was a US Naval Vessel in 1796, and is one of the six original frigates commissioned by George Washington. After that, we went to see Boston Park, and then Jennifer did a bit of shopping. We were going to do the "Duck Tour" but decided that since we were both exhuasted and that this was a vacation, we'd do it next time. This turned out to be a good idea since by now I had a small sore on my upper right foot. Nothing major but it hurts a bit.

On Saturday we did Graduation. We had a relaxing Saturday morning (mainly because we decided not to do the Duck Tour) and then went to Boston University. We got there early for the pre reception, but since I didn't know anyone there from Adam, we toured the campus instead. It is HUGE, lenthwise about twice that of BYU, but probably about equal to BYU in terms of total area. The graduation itself went well. Initially, when I showed up to register, they handed me a sign that said "Project Management" and I thought I was going to lead the procession for my group, but it turns out I was just the first guy to show up, and that it was actually carried by the alphabetically first person (probably Aaron Aaaaaace or something). The ceremony was two hours long and they handed me a diploma. I am quite pleased to have the degree, since it is both a life goal and hopefully a tool to help me change to a different career. We'll see how it works out.

Sunday we came home. I picked up Thunder from Mom and Skip. We watched a bit of Lost and then slept. It had been an exhausting trip.