Boston Whale Watch

I'm not a roller coaster person. I'm not the person who says, "Yea! That was fun!" when you ride in your car over those little hills on a country road that make your stomach do a little flip. I have a weak stomach. But, I HAVE been on a whale watch before in Ocean City and remember it being fun and relaxing. Too bad our whale watching experience in Boston was not fun or relaxing.

Gene had been waiting to go on a whale watch ever since we decided to go to Boston for our anniversary trip. It's all he talked about. So, when our big boat was getting ready to leave the harbor and venture into the open seas in search of whales, we were both excited.

Everything was great at first. We slowly made our way out of the harbor. The wind was blowing slightly and we both hung onto the side of the boat looking out at the beautiful water. It was a gorgeous day.

Then it happened. The boat picked up speed and the wind began to blow so hard you had to hold onto something or you'd fall over. Little "country road hills" began to happen with the boat, and I immediately sat down and held on for dear life. After about 50 little "roller coaster bumps," I told Gene I was going inside the boat to sit on the more comfortable seats. A few minutes later, my breakfast was no longer in my stomach. :( I found out that I was not alone, though. About 20 other people were also inside the boat losing their breakfasts, too. It was a grand site!

Well, I did manage to walk back outside to see Music, the one whale that we saw on our trip. They have a name for most of the whales that they see on these trips. Music flipped around for a long time and even jumped completely out of the water for the spectators to see (they said that this only happens on about 10% of the whale watching trips!). I unfortunately missed the jump, but Gene got to see it. Here are a few pics Gene took...

Getting ready to leave the Harbor...



Holding on for dear life...


Introducing...MUSIC!

Boston pics

high in the skies

the gorgeous harbor
(the airport is located right along the water, so the runway is literally feet away from water)

this is "Codzilla," a boat ride...we took this picture in honor of Callan who loves his "Godzilla" figurine

they keep these old street lamps lit all the time

relaxing with a book on the pier by the water
(oh, the things you can do when you are without child) :)

The Boston Subway

Our first adventure on our trip to Boston came as soon as we got off the airplane. We were told that we could take the subway to our hotel. We immediately started looking for signs to take us underground to the "Silver Line." Thanks to the nice older couple who we ran into outside the airport who were also there from Maryland for a long weekend trip, we finally figured out that the "Silver Line" was actually an above ground bus. We waited with the nice couple by the curb for this mysterious silver line subway bus to come get us.

After getting on the bus, we looked at the subway map and saw that the subway "Green Line" had a stop on Washington Street. Perfect! Our hotel was located on that street. So, we made our way from the Silver Line to the Red Line (which was actually underground) to the Green Line (which drove above ground sometimes but was unlike the metro system here in DC because this subway "car" actually had to stop at all red lights, etc.). We got off at "Washington Street" and began to look around for our hotel.

Needless to say, after calling my dad and having him mapquest our location, we found that we were about 6 miles from our hotel. Apparently there are TWO Washington Streets in Boston.

So, we took the Green Line back to the Red Line and was supposed to get on the Orange Line which took us to the Silver Line which would take us to our hotel. Well, after getting off of the Red Line (which brought us above ground again) we were so confused. We weren't sure if we were to take the Inbound Orange Line or the Outbound Orange Line and we were scared to get on the Silver Line again since that's the bus that screwed us up in the first place. So, we just started walking a few blocks and found our hotel...literally right next to an Orange Line stop.

On our trek back to the airport after our stay, we had no idea how long it would take us to get there since we had such an awful experience the first time. We left extra early just in case....and found that it only took 20 minutes! That was a lot quicker than the 3 hours it took us earlier.

For those of you who are familiar with the DC Metro, the route we took the first time trying to get to our hotel would be similar to getting on the Red Line at Shady Grove and riding all the way to the Green Line at Univ of MD College Park...when all we really needed to do was take Shady Grove to White Flint. :)

Back from Boston

Just got back last night from Boston. Gene and I were there for a few days for our 5th Anniversary trip. Callan got some extra Nana and Grandpa time while we were gone. We have a few stories to tell, but all in all everything went well and we had a fun time. Who wouldn't love sleeping in until 10am in a king sized bed?! Won't have that luxury again for a while.

Pictures and stories to come...